With reports from player agent Allan Walsh that the NHL will look to expand into Houston, TX and Atlanta, GA (with no confirmation or specified timeline), the league is quickly moving towards being the biggest one in North American sports – at least in terms of the number of competing clubs, with a total of 34. What exactly does that look like – for the Ottawa Senators and the rest of the league?

For starters, we need to consider options for divisional re-alignment. The simplest approach would be to place Houston in the Central Division (with the Dallas Stars), and Atlanta in the – well, the Atlantic Division. This would ensure the same number of teams in each conference, but with a divisional imbalance within. The only way to avoid this issue in a 34-team league is to abolish the divisional format altogether, merging into two 17-team conferences.

However, from the perspective of a league that clearly wants to keep expanding further, perhaps to a 36-team league, the option that makes the most sense would be to return to six divisions, with five to six teams each.

The 2012-13 season was the last time the NHL had six divisions. Since then, the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets moved from the West to the East, with the Winnipeg Jets heading the other way, the Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken joining the West, and the Phoenix Coyotes being relocated to Utah. With Houston and Atlanta joining the fray, here’s what the old format would give us today:

Northwest Division: Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, SeattlePacific Division: San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Vegas, Utah, ColoradoCentral Division: Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Minnesota, St. Louis, NashvilleNortheast Division: Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Buffalo, DetroitAtlantic Division: NY Rangers, NY Islanders, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, ColumbusSoutheast Division: Tampa Bay, Carolina, Florida, Atlanta, Washington

Back then, division leaders were seeded 1, 2, 3 with the remaining teams in each conference being seeded 4-8 based on points regardless of division. While I agree that winning your division should guarantee a playoff spot, this old system caused certain clubs, such as the 2012 Panthers, to have home ice advantage against opponents with more points. In order to balance out first-round matchups, you can keep the regular-season format while re-seeding in the playoffs based on standings points.

An 84-game season as we’re about to see this year works well here. You’ve got 2 games each against 17 out-of-conference opponents, plus 3 each against 16 in-conference opponents, plus an extra game against 2 of your division rivals for a total of 84 games.

An expansion draft featuring two new clubs hasn’t occurred since 2000, with Columbus and Minnesota being introduced into the league. Existing teams were allowed to protect 9 forwards, 5 defencemen, and 1 goaltender, and since that seems overly forgiving, it’s more likely the league will simply retain the 7-3-1/4-4-1 format from the Vegas and Seattle drafts.

Since we don’t know exactly when the NHL is expanding, please put close to zero stock into this next bit, but under this format, we can project the following protection list for the Senators:

Tim Stützle, William Eklund, Dylan Cozens, Shane Pinto, Drake Batherson*, Ridly Greig, Stephen Halliday*Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot*, Jordan SpenceLinus Ullmark* denotes players with contracts with two remaining years or less that would likely be extended prior to any expansion draft

With Carter Yakemchuk exempt, Ottawa likely loses Tyler Kleven to one expansion franchise, as well as an unspecified third-line forward under contract to another.

As actual reports begin trickling in regarding expansion details, all of this is merely a hypothetical. But it’s something that Steve Staios and other GMs should keep in the back of their minds, as they’re competing in a league that’s hungry to tap into additional television markets in the U.S.A. for the sake of financial growth.