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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That’s up from the 10 percent rate both sides had agreed upon in late January shortly after the season began.

The change comes as a result of lower than originally projected NHL revenues for the lockout-shortened season.

That means players, as of this week, will fork over 20 percent of every paycheck into an escrow fund until both the league and NHLPA figure out the final numbers next summer or next fall in terms of hockey-related revenue.

If players’ compensation does not go higher than their 50 percent HRR allotment for the season, they will be refunded the escrow payments with interest.

However, if the players’ compensation exceeds the 50 percent share, the owners will be paid the escrow money.

The NHLPA has another option if its executive board wishes to dip into the $300 million “make whole” fund, which owners are paying out to players as per the new CBA over the next three years.

The players negotiated the make whole fund as a protection against high escrow eroding their salaries.

Normally in an 82-game season, the two sides review the escrow rate each quarter. But with the shortened, 48-game season, both sides agreed before the season to review revenues and revenue projections throughout the season to determine whether the escrow percentage coming off player checks needs to be changed.

Most years, the players get some of the escrow money back, and sometimes all of it. Here’s how the escrow worked out once the final HRR numbers were finalized each season:

2005-06: The net result was that each player earned 104.64 percent of his 2005-06 contract (includes the shortfall and interest). Players’ share was 54 percent of HRR.

2006-07: The net result was that each player earned 97.51 percent of his 2006-07 contract. Players’ share was 55.6 percent of HRR.

2007-08: The net result was that each player earned 100.66 percent of his 2007-08 contract. Players’ share was 56.7 percent of HRR.

2008-09: The net result was that each player earned 87.12 percent of his 2008-09 contract. Players’ share was 56.73 percent of HRR.

2009-10: The net result was that each player earned 90.59 percent of his 2009-10 contract. Players’ share was 57 percent of HRR.

2010-11: The net result was that each player earned 97.7 percent of his 2010-11 contract. Players’ share was 57 percent of HRR.

2011-12: The net result was that each player earned 99.48 percent of his 2011-12 contract. They got back just under 8 percent of the 8.5 percent they paid in escrow during the year. Players’ share was 57 percent of HRR.

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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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Discussions were scheduled for Thursday and Friday between the NHL, the NHL players’ association, and officials from the International Ice Hockey Federation and the International Olympic Committee to see if it makes sense for North American professional hockey players to go to the Olympics for a fifth straight time.

“I don’t expect any resolution or decisions this week,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press in an email on Thursday.

The Sochi Games are one year away. While a final decision isn’t required this week, one will have to be reached in the near future.

The current discussions are being held between NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, IIHL President Rene Fasel and officials from the IOC.

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The league and union met separately with federal mediator Scot Beckenbaugh during a series of meetings that spanned the whole day Friday and late into the evening. They will continue that process Saturday morning.

It isn’t yet known if the league and union will meet face-to-face Saturday, the 112th day of the lockout. The sides have less than a week to reach a new collective bargaining agreement to save what would likely be a 48-game hockey season.

Few details emerged about the scope or subject matter of those meetings and whether progress was forged, although a source told ESPN that both sides expressed signs of flexibility to the mediator.

With exactly one week left until the league’s self-imposed deadline of Jan. 11 to reach a deal, the NHL and NHLPA have resorted to “shuttle mediation” since the fallout from the last time they met in person Wednesday night.

That negotiating session was marked by the NHLPA’s decision not to file a disclaimer of interest by the midnight deadline, although the hope that a new deal could be close abated Thursday morning after reports of tension between the sides.

The NHLPA was angered by the league’s attempt to change language in one area of the CBA, that which pertains to the penalization of teams that are found guilty of hiding hockey-related revenue.

That issue has since been resolved, a source informed ESPNNewYork.com, although the lack of trust between the sides seemed to resurface.

The NHLPA initiated a vote Thursday evening to provide again the union’s executive board with the authority to file a disclaimer of interest. The 48-hour voting window expires Saturday at 6 p.m. ET.

With no formal negotiations between the sides since midweek, nerves continue to fray with the season hanging in the balance.

All regular-season games already have been canceled through Jan. 14, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has set Jan. 11 as the deadline to reach a new CBA and avoid the entire season being scrapped.

The sides have traded four proposals in the past week — two by each side — but none has gained enough traction. Getting an agreement on a pension plan likely would go a long way toward an agreement that would put hockey back on the ice.

NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr believed a plan for players-funded pension was established before talks blew up in early December. That apparently wasn’t the case, or the NHL has changed its offer regarding the pension in exchange for agreeing to other things the union wanted.

The salary-cap number for the second year of the deal — the 2013-14 season — hasn’t been agreed to, and it is another major point of contention. The league is pushing for a $60 million cap, while the union wants it to be $65 million with a floor of $44 million.

In return for the higher cap number players would be willing to forgo a cap on escrow.

Both sides seem content on the deal lasting for 10 years, but they have different opinions on whether an opt-out should be allowed to be exercised after seven years or eight.

The NHL proposed last Thursday that pension contributions come out of the players’ share of revenues, and $50 million of the league’s make-whole payment of $300 million will be allocated and set aside to fund potential underfunded liabilities of the plan at the end of the collective bargaining agreement.

Last month, the NHL agreed to raise its make-whole offer of deferred payments from $211 million to $300 million as part of a proposed package that required the union to agree on three nonnegotiable points. Instead, the union accepted the raise in funds, but then made counterproposals on the issues the league stated had no wiggle room.

“As you might expect, the differences between us relate to the core economic issues which don’t involve the share,” Fehr said of hockey-related revenue, which likely will be split 50-50.

The NHL is the only North American professional sports league to cancel a season because of a labor dispute, losing the 2004-05 campaign to a lockout. A 48-game season was played in 1995 after a lockout stretched into January.

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