The Detroit Red Wings have called the Eastern Conference home since the 2013-14 season, and let’s just say they haven’t enjoyed the best luck since then. Detroit has missed the playoffs in each of the last eight seasons, and they’ve had it rough since flip-flopping conferences.
The Wings made the postseason in each of the first three years they joined the East, but haven’t won a playoff series. They lost in the first round twice to the Tampa Bay Lightning, and once to the Boston Bruins. Their last series win came during the 2012-13 season, the last time the Wings played in the West to date, edging out the Anaheim Ducks four games to three.
But, with talk of expansion once again in the news, the Wings could find themselves heading West once more. New Orleans seems to be the tentative front-runner, meaning the Wings would stay put in the East, even if a city like Atlanta also got a team back during the next round of expansion. But there is one way they’d shift back to the West.
A few cities east of Detroit are vying to lure an NHL franchise to town
Houston, Texas, and Quebec City, Quebec have also been mentioned, so if we saw the Quebec Nordiques (presumably) return alongside the Atlanta Thrashers, there’s no doubt that the Red Wings would return to the Western Conference at some point in the late 2020s.
However, if New Orleans and Houston were awarded clubs, expect the Red Wings to stay in the East as it would make zero geographic sense to push them westward. If New Orleans and Houston gained a franchise, expect a team from the West to head East, most likely the Nashville Predators, the St. Louis Blues, or the Chicago Blackhawks.
For Red Wings fans, either of the latter two would be welcoming, as it would reignite geographic rivalries and raise the stakes between the clubs. I’d personally rather see the Blackhawks, as it’d put the entire Original 6 into the Eastern Conference and that would be a lot of fun to watch.
Still, given the success the Red Wings enjoyed while in the Western Conference, fans would most likely wish to see Quebec City and Atlanta hear their names called, and watch the Nordiques and Thrashers take the ice once again.
Returning to the Western Conference would be welcoming for the Wings
Returning to the West, before anything else, would get the Wings out of the Atlantic Division, which I always felt they were just thrown into. This gives them rivalries with three Original Six teams, which is good, but it made little sense geographically, considering how much farther west they play than the rest of the division.
Another reason is that, as I mentioned earlier, if the Red Wings returned to the Western Conference, they’d reignite both rivalries with the Blues and Blackhawks. Plus, Detroit isn’t geographically far from Nashville, so even a rivalry with the Predators would make sense.
If the Red Wings continue to improve their game on the ice, they may welcome a return to the West, but the rest of the conference would probably wind up in panic mode. Still, this is a conference the Red Wings dynasty once ruled, and could rule again if every piece of the puzzle falls into place.