from Larry Brooks of the NY Post,

“We are working on a realignment plan for next season,” Daly wrote, “but it has not been finalized or approved [by the Board of Governors] yet.”

PA Executive Director Don Fehr said by phone on Friday the union’s objections a year ago were based on the prospect of increased travel that would go into effect with the proposed realignment and the inequity of proposed playoff qualification.

“We expect to talk with the league on the subject this week,” Fehr told Slap Shots. “A year ago, when we raised the issue of increased travel for teams, the league did not have mock schedules for us to review that might have alleviated our concern.

“And we had an issue with the fact that teams would either have a mathematical advantage or disadvantage of qualifying for the playoffs depending upon whether they’d be in a seven-team or eight-team conference.”

Major League Baseball’s radical realignment that goes into effect this season — under which the Astros move from the NL Central to the AL West, thus creating two 15-team leagues (and three five-team divisions in each) and the need for inter-league play every day — was created largely because of the MLBPA’s concern over the imbalance of having a six teams in the NL Central and four in the AL West.

“We’re certainly prepared to work with the league on realignment,” Fehr said. “If they present the same type of four-conference structure but have the information for us to review regarding scheduling and travel, and have a different playoff format that can ameliorate our concerns in that area, we’ll take it from there.”

more plus a look at the Tim Thomas trade from the Islanders side...