(Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports)

The Vancouver Canucks will be part of a seven team conference in the latest National Hockey League realignment proposal.

The NHL needed to realign after the Atlanta Thrashers relocated to Manitoba to become the Winnipeg Jets at the conclusion of the 2011-12 season. A plan to move to a four-conference alignment was approved by the Board of Governors in December 2011, but was quickly quashed by the NHL Players’ Association.

Original Proposal

Following the conclusion of the lockout, the NHL and NHLPA have been working towards realignment for the 2013-14 season. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly indicated earlier this month that the original 2011 realignment plan has been “tweaked.”

Daly says NHL has tweaked realignment plan approved by board last season, but it has same four-conference structure. Won’t give details.

— Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) February 13, 2013

But what those tweaks were have not been leaked—until now. According to CBC’s Elliotte Friedman, the revised proposal sees the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings move into the two Eastern-based conferences. The Colorado Avalanche, who were originally in the same conference as the Canucks, will move over the other Western-based conference.

The Canucks and the other Western-based conference will now have seven teams in their conference in the latest plan as opposed to eight originally. This will make qualification for the playoffs easier for the Western-based teams since the top-four teams in each conference will qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. However, according Friedman, there is talk of a wild card in the two eight-team Eastern-based conferences to even up the odds.

Revised Proposal