The league announced Thursday that its proposed realignment plan is a go for next season after getting approval from the Board of Governors.

It was the final step in the process after the NHL Players’ Association gave its consent to the plan last week. The NHLPA has agreed to this framework through the 2015-16 season with the expectation that both sides will begin reviewing how realignment has fared after the 2014-15 season.

The plan, details of which ESPN.com reported on Feb. 26 after obtaining a league memo sent to its 30 teams, will see the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets move to the Eastern Conference from the West, a move that both franchises had been pushing for.

Now all 16 NHL clubs in the Eastern time zone are in the same conference, leaving 14 teams in the Western Conference. It will also see the NHL move from six divisions to four.

“The new alignment will place several clubs in more geographically appropriate groupings, and will intensify already-fierce rivalries throughout the league,” the NHL said.

The Dallas Stars have complained for years about being in the Pacific Division with clubs two time zones away. They were pushing to find a new group and they got their wish, now in a division next season with Chicago, Colorado, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis and Winnipeg.

Stars president and CEO Jim Lites told ESPN.com that the move has “been a long time coming,” saying that when the Stars went to the Pacific in 1998, it “was supposed to be a temporary move.”
“When you have 30 to 40 percent of your road games started two time zones west of you it makes it hard for your fans to watch on TV. It just make it very difficult and it impacted our TV ratings,” he said. “With this change, it brings some rationality in terms of our schedule and our divisional opponents. I mean, people don’t realize this but Winnipeg is closer to Dallas than Phoenix geographically. So our travel schedule has certainly improved overall with this realignment. The Dallas Stars are very happy.”

The playoffs have also been changed, going to a division-based system. The top three teams in each division qualify for the playoffs with the remaining top two clubs in each conference qualifying as wild-cards. So in theory, for example, you could have five teams from one division make the playoffs and only three from another.

Teams will play other clubs from the other conference at least twice each season in a home and away.

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“After discussions with the Executive Board, the NHLPA has given consent to realignment, to be re-evaluated following the 2014-15 season,” NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr said in a statement Thursday night.

Both sides confirmed to ESPN.com that the NHLPA gave its consent to play in the proposed four-division system for three seasons — through the 2015-16 season — but the union will begin to re-evaluate the system after two seasons. Therefore, no changes would be made to the system before the 2016-17 season.

All that remains now is for the NHL’s 30 owners to vote on the plan in order for it to go into effect for the 2013-14 season. A source told ESPN.com on Thursday evening that the NHL hopes to hold the board of governors vote within the next week.

“The NHL Players’ Association confirmed to us today that it has consented to a revised plan for realignment, effective for the 2013-14 season,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement. “Our next step will be to bring the proposed Plan for Realignment to the NHL Board of Governors for its consideration. We will update the status of the process as future developments warrant.”

The NHL sent details of its realignment plan to owners Feb. 26 after discussing it for more than three weeks with the NHLPA.

The league had hoped to get consent last week, but had to wait because the NHLPA needed more time to get feedback from its membership. All 30 team player reps held calls or had face-to-face meetings with union officials to discuss the realignment plan, and some players had reservations about unbalanced conferences, a source told ESPN.com.

The NHL’s realignment plan calls for 16 teams in the Eastern Conference next season. Columbus and Detroit would move there from the Western Conference, which would be left with 14 teams. The plan also calls for the league to go from its current six-division format to four.

The realignment plan also introduces wild-card playoff spots within the conferences.

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The plan was detailed in an NHL memo sent to all 30 clubs Tuesday, which a team source leaked to ESPN.com.

The new plan calls for divisional playoffs, not conference playoffs as the NHL currently has. The division winner with the most regular-season points will play the lowest-seeded wild-card team in the first round, with the other division winner playing the other wild-card team.

The plan still needs approval from the NHL Players’ Association plus the NHL’s Board of Governors. The NHLPA and NHL have been working on these changes for the past three weeks.

If approved by all parties, the plan would go into effect for next season.

The Eastern Conference would feature the Atlantic and Central divisions while the Western Conference would have the Mid-West and Pacific divisions.

The Pacific Division would feature Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose and Vancouver.

The Mid-West: Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis and Winnipeg.

The Central: Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Toronto.

The Atlantic: Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington.

Elliotte Friedman of CBC’s “Hockey Night In Canada” was first to report about these four new groupings over the weekend.

The playoff format as detailed in the league memo Tuesday calls for the top three teams in each division to earn postseason berths. The remaining four spots would go to wild cards, the top two records in each conference. That means there’s a possibility five teams make it from one division and only three from another.

The schedule matrix would see each team play teams in the other conference both home and away.

The NHL’s 30 owners voted yes to a new realignment plan in December 2011 that was based on a four-conference format but also saw Detroit and Columbus still in the West.

The change from the December 2011 configurations sees Detroit and Columbus go to the East plus Colorado join the Mid-West teams.

The NHLPA blocked the December 2011 plan, citing travel concerns for its players plus playoff inequity of having the top four teams in each conference make the playoffs under that format, unfair for the two eight-team conferences.

The changes proposed by the NHL in this realignment format come as a result of those concerns from the NHLPA, the two sides negotiating for the past three weeks on finding a better solution for realignment.

The NHLPA wants to further address it with its players before consenting to it.

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The plan, which was put in place years ago by Buss, calls for his daughter, Jeanie, to become the Lakers’ governor and represent the team at the NBA board of governors meetings. She will also handle the business operations of the team.

Buss’ son, Jim, will handle basketball operations of the team.

“The future of the organization will remain unchanged,” Lakers spokesman John Black said Monday. “Dr. Buss set it up years in advance — he planned for the team to remain with the family.

“For the past several years, Jim Buss has been running the basketball operations and working in conjunction with our general manager, Mitch Kupchak, and that will continue. Jeanie Buss has been running the business operations for 15 years, and that will continue. As far as the operation and running of the team, that will be unchanged.”

Black and Buss family spokesman Bob Steiner also said Monday that the Buss family and the six children that now own the team have no plans on selling the Lakers.

“The family has no interest in ever selling the team,” Black said. “The six of them agreed unanimously to keep the team in the family for generations to come.”

Buss’ controlling ownership of the team is now owned by a trust for the benefit of the six children, Black said, and the trust will be managed by Jeanie, Johnny and Jim Buss.

“The entity can’t be split,” Steiner said. “The heirs do not own the team individually. It is a collective.”

Buss had not attended a Lakers game over the last two seasons as he had been in and out of the hospital for the past 18 months. The last game he attended was the Lakers’ second-round series loss to the Dallas Mavericks in 2011.

“He was more and more giving responsibility to Jeanie and Jimmy in preparation for a complete passing of the torch, but major decisions were still his,” Steiner said. “They are their father’s children, and they knew and believed in the path that he had set and how he wanted things run and they were very well-trained in that. Jerry would not have ceded responsibility unless he was confident.”

Steiner said the family appreciated the media not reporting on Buss’ cancer and condition until it finally broke online last week.

“The family appreciates the media not going public with Jerry’s medical condition and respecting his privacy,” Steiner said. “When the story finally broke, Jerry was not cognizant of it.”

There are plans to honor Buss before Wednesday’s game against the Boston Celtics. The team also is planning a separate memorial service, possibly held at the Nokia Theatre across the street from Staples Center, this week or next week.

Buss continued to watch every Lakers game prior to his death. Steiner said Buss would often watch games with Jim, Jeanie, Joey and Jessie at his bedside.

Buss also was visited in the hospital by Pau Gasol, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard among the Lakers’ current players and former players such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar last year. Buss, however, spent his final days with family members and loved ones.

“The family is doing fine,” Steiner said. “It’s a testament to his determination and will that he lasted this long. The family certainly knew for a while that his passing was imminent, so they’ve had a lot of time to get as used to it as you possibly can.”

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NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and International Ice Hockey Federation President Rene Fasel met for about 2½ hours after a 90-minute get-together Thursday night. No new talks were scheduled, but the sides are expected to meet again.

NHL players have participated in the past four Winter Games, and the league is weighing whether it gets enough return on its overall investment, which requires North American hockey to shut down its season for more than two weeks to take part.

“I think it is fair to say that if this can be worked out to everybody’s satisfaction, we’d all like to have NHL players at the Olympics,” Bettman said. “To go through chronicling issue by issue isn’t going to serve anybody’s purpose and probably isn’t all that interesting.

“I think, most importantly, hockey fans that like and love the Olympics would like to see us get this done, and that’s what we’re going to be focused on. … Ultimately, the IOC, the NHL players and the board of governors are going to have to approve what we get done, but we’re working on it.”

Players’ association executive director Don Fehr joined the discussions by phone from Toronto. The union and the NHL appear aligned in their position on the Olympics now that their labor dispute is behind them.

“There are many issues that are of common interest,” Bettman said of all the parties involved. “I believe we have been supportive of issues the players’ association has raised, and the players’ association has been supportive of issues that we have raised. The IIHF has been supportive to the IOC on issues that both the players’ association and the league have raised.”

No decision on whether NHL players would head to Russia next February was expected this week, but one will have to be made soon.

“We put ourselves on a timetable,” Bettman said. “We each have some work to do internally before we get back together, but we’re going to get back together again and stay in communication.”

It is believed hockey federations will need to know by May what players will be available for their teams. The NHL would like an even quicker resolution.

“I think timing is more of an issue from our standpoint,” Bettman said. “We have to do the schedule for next season. I don’t want to prognosticate. We’re all trying to get to the same place.”

While the NHL and the players are interested in participating in the Olympics again, they have to figure out if it makes sense for them to interrupt another season to make it possible.

The league is just coming off a long shutdown caused by the lockout that produced a shortened regular season this year.

“For sure we have to know as early as possible,” said Fasel, an IOC member. “As Gary said, we do not have a deadline, but what we know is next week we’re going to start to work (with) a lot of people to prepare as soon as possible an agreement.

“It is not easy, but that makes it very interesting.”

The time difference will force the Games to be played at off hours in North America, and the NHL would like to receive concessions from the IOC that haven’t been made before.

In return for sending its players to the Sochi Olympics, the NHL is trying to acquire video, photograph and website rights for the games. The IIHF and the IOC retain those exclusive rights now.

The NHL began sending its players to the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan, and continued through the 2010 Vancouver Games. Even though the NHL received great exposure by having its players take part in an Olympics in North America, disrupting the season does come with a cost.

The stopping of the season, the potential injury risk to players, and no tangible upside for the NHL are all factors that create doubt about whether the investment is good for the league.

“I hope they vote yes,” said New York Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro, a U.S. Olympian in 2006. “It’s as simple as that. It’s great for the sport.”

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After a 36-hour vote that ended Saturday morning, the players’ association announced that its members approved the deal reached with the league last week.

It would be an understatement to say lot has happened since we last saw the NHL in action, when the Los Angeles Kings raised their first franchise Stanley Cup, writes Scott Burnside. Blog

However, the sides continued to work to complete a difficult memorandum of understanding that must be signed before camps can open and the new schedule to be released.

The NHL and NHLPA still “hope” to finish the memorandum Saturday night and keep training camps on schedule for a Sunday opening, but there is no guarantee.

Until then, hockey can’t get back to regular business.

The league’s board of governors unanimously ratified the contract on Wednesday. The plan was for training camps to open on Sunday, assuming the memorandum of understanding was finished. Voluntary physicals and medical exams were permitted to begin on Friday.

The players’ vote wasn’t unanimous, as a source told ESPN that 667 players voted “yes,” while 12 voted “no.” The players saw an 89 percent turnout in voting.

The remaining transition rules, such as when players can go on the ice and for how long, were still being finalized.

“While the players’ vote ratifies the new CBA with the NHL owners, a written memorandum of understanding consistent with what the players voted on, must be completed before the agreement becomes final,” a union statement said Saturday.

Less than a week after the league and the union worked all night to secure an agreement to save the season, players followed team owners and approved the tentative deal that was reached last Sunday — the 113th day of the lockout.

Unofficial team workouts have been taking place around the league all week. A 48-game season is expected to begin Jan. 19 without any preseason games in advance, assuming there are no more glitches in negotiations.

A total of 510 games, the Winter Classic and the All-Star Game were all casualties of the four-month lockout that began Sept. 16. The regular season was supposed to open on Oct. 11.

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While driving to the airport Wednesday morning, his thoughts centered around the end of the NHL lockout and what he might be able to do to bolster the team before the shortened season began.

Then his dream job of Maple Leafs general manager was taken away with one phone call and a quick meeting with boss Tom Anselmi.

“There’s sometimes when you get fired and you see the vultures circling and you understand it’s coming,” Burke said Saturday at a farewell news conference. “You’re not sure when you’re going to drop dead in the desert, but it’s coming and you can see the vultures.

“This one here was like a two-by-four upside the head to me.”

Burke was gracious in describing his exit as team president and general manager, showing few signs of bitterness while fielding some tough questions.

However, he acknowledged that reality had yet to truly set in. That won’t come until the colorful 57-year-old Burke has more time to think back on a roller-coaster, four-year tenure that included just as many playoff games at Air Canada Centre — none — as had been played during the four years before he was hired.

“We didn’t win,” Burke said. “Obviously, your job as the GM is to bring in players that win. We didn’t win.”

Beyond that, it still isn’t clear why the decision to replace Burke with Dave Nonis was made just 10 days before the new season is expected to begin. Burke said he hadn’t received a “satisfactory” answer to that question.

Rumors have swirled since the firing that Burke failed to impress the team’s new ownership group, in which Bell and Rogers control four of six seats with the organization’s board of governors. Burke came exactly as advertised when he was hired by the Leafs in November 2008 — brash, confident, passionate and occasionally confrontational.

One of the first lessons he learned on the job was not to wear his expensive cuff-links on game nights. More than a few pairs met an untimely ending when he responded to a boneheaded play on the ice by smashing his fists against a table in the press box.

That image might not have fit in well with a board that got more corporate and buttoned-down with the addition of Bell and Rogers executives in August.

“I can stand here and say it’s my personality, they didn’t like my personality, but those all become pretexts and excuses later,” Burke said. “If you’ve won enough games, you can be as obnoxious as you want to be.”

The Leafs went 128-135-42 during his reign and finished a disappointing 13th in the Eastern Conference last season. Despite it being a constant talking point around the team, his biggest failings were an inability to stabilize the goaltending situation or acquire a true No. 1 center.

Toronto last qualified for the playoffs in 2004 — the longest current drought in the NHL.

Burke will remain with the Leafs in the role of senior adviser to the board for the time being. But he made it clear he wasn’t comfortable simply riding out the final 22 months of his contract, and that he would relish the opportunity to run another NHL team.

“Tomorrow, if I can,” Burke said. “I don’t think I’m done from a hockey perspective. I am definitely in the job market, no question.”

If a general manager job doesn’t materialize, he could be a good candidate to end up with a role in the league office.

Despite the fact the Leafs failed to qualify for the playoffs with Burke at the helm, there have been some encouraging signs that better days might be ahead for the organization. The Toronto Marlies are fresh off an appearance in the Calder Cup final and currently have the best record in the American Hockey League’s Western Conference.

Burke also expressed pride in being able to use his position to help out with so many charitable initiatives — something that he was honored for Saturday evening for his support of Canadian troops.

But his dream of winning another Stanley Cup title never came close to materializing in Toronto.

“I did not accomplish what I set out to accomplish here,” Burke said. “That’s clear. Absolutely clear.”

On the day he said goodbye to the Maple Leafs — at least as the team’s public face — he had no interest in looking back on what might have been. The team has lived by the motto “no excuses, no complaints” and Burke made it clear he didn’t have any of either.

Truth be told, he probably wouldn’t change a thing.

“The people that hired me hired Brian Burke,” he said. “Maybe the new guys don’t like that brand, maybe they want someone who is a little more conventional. They’re entitled to that, that’s fine.

“I’m not changing. I’m not going to change how I do things. That’s not possible.”

Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press

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The 30 governors on hand for the league’s board of governors meeting voted unanimously to pass, completing one half of ratification.

All that is needed for the deal to become official is for the players to vote. The vote, which will be held electronically for the 700-plus membership, is expected to be finished by Friday or Saturday, a source told ESPNNewYork.com. Training camps are tentatively set to open Sunday, the source said, with a 48-game regular season scheduled to start Jan. 19.

Assuming the players ratify as well, the lockout officially will come to a close after almost four months.

In a statement following Wednesday’s meeting in midtown Manhattan, Bettman offered an apology to the fans for the lockout, the third work stoppage during his tenure as commissioner.

“We know no words of apology or explanation will soften the disappointment. I read the letters, I followed the tweets, I read the blogs. We have a lot of work to do,” Bettman said. “The National Hockey League has a responsibility to earn back your trust and support, whether you watch one game or every game. And that effort begins today.”

Bettman said there would be initiatives and campaigns to win back the fans, but said they would be announced at the “appropriate time.”

Despite the resounding support Bettman received in the vote, there was speculation his future could be in jeopardy as a result of the long, bitter battle that cost the league hundreds of millions of dollars.

“It’s nothing more than speculation and it’s nothing more than unfounded speculation,” Bettman said. “I’m looking forward to continuing to grow this game, both on and off the ice as we have over the last 20 years. I think the opportunities are great and I’m glad to be a part of them.”

Bettman said realignment and Olympic participation, neither of which were included in the new (tentative) CBA, will be dealt with separately, and soon.

When asked whether any violation of the league’s agreement with Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League could threaten Olympic participation, Bettman declined to place any blame.

“I don’t want to get into ‘what ifs,’ ” he said. “We’ll see what happens and deal with it in an appropriate fashion.”

New Jersey forward Ilya Kovalchuk’s return to the NHL from Russia has yet to be verified, but Bettman did not issue any threats when questioned about the matter.

“The NHL represents the highest level of hockey in the world,” he said. “We expect that the best players will want to play here.”

Bettman said he hopes to build a relationship with what he called a “stable union with strong leadership” and one that provided the opportunity to create a partnership. He admitted that the 113 days it took to reach a deal with the union was a “long and extremely difficult” negotiation in which “everyone lost in the short term.”

He said he hoped the 10-year deal, pending ratification, would provide stability to the game moving forward.

The memorandum of understanding, the document the players will be voting on, was still being finalized by lawyers on both sides Wednesday afternoon, a source confirmed.

Bettman declined to provide details about the schedule, other than that one won’t be released until after the CBA is signed.

He did acknowledge that, for hockey fans, that day cannot come soon enough.

“The players are ready to play their hearts out for you, the teams are prepared to welcome you back with welcome arms, the wait is just about over,” he said. “Like all of you, we can’t wait to drop the puck.”

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