Even though hockey is growing in Europe one thing I dislike is the numerous disorganization of leagues in Europe. In here I think it would be fun to create some super groups to make hockey in Europe more organized.
Fictional lets say hockey is Europe's 2nd most popular sport except in Spain, England, Western France, and Portugal. Let's also say countries, Netherlands, Poland, and Italy have the same number of teams, but the popularity is high like it's in Switzerland/Germany.
Finland
I think its perfect too. No changes here.
Main: SM-liiga
AAA: Mestis
AA: Suomi-sarja
Germany
Perfect. No Changes.
Main: DEL
AAA: 2. Bundesliga
AA: Oberliga
Sweden
I think its perfect. No changes here.
Main: Elitserien
AAA: Allsvenskan
Switzerland, Italy, and Eastern France
[Leagues: National A/B, Serie A, A2, and Ligue Magnus]
What I would do here is take all the teams from Switzerland, E. France, and Italy and combine them to make two leagues and two conferences. During the season each conference would play against other conference, but during the playoffs it would be Swiss/French vs Italy in the final. With NHL type of settings.
Conference A: Swiss/French
Eastern French division
Western Switzerland division
Eastern Switzerland division
All divisions would have 5 teams and normal relegation rules would apply.
Main: National A
AAA: National B
Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland
[Leagues: Cze/Slo Extraliga, 1. liga, Liga Hokejowa 1/2]
What I would do here is have 1 conference and 3 divisions. Each division would have 10 teams from each individual country and the winner would go to the a Memorial Cup style of championship between all 3 countries.
Playoffs: Winner of Czech, Winner of Poland Liga, Winner of Slovakia, and Host city.
Normal relegation rules would apply in each conference (country).
Main: International Extraliga
AAA: International Extraliga 1
Austria, Hungry, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia
[Leagues: MOL Liga, Erste Bank Eishockey Liga, Campionatul Naţional, and Hokejaška Liga Srbije].
What I would do here is already take the good Erste Bank Eishockey Liga and expand it into conferences and divisions.
Western Conference
Austrian Division (6 teams)
Slovenia, Croatia, and Western Hungry (6 teams)
Eastern Conference
Eastern Hungry and Northern Romania (6 teams)
Serbia and Southern Romania (6 teams)
For playoffs it will be top 8 of the 12 teams and just like NHL settings. Like before normal relegation rules would apply in each conference.
Main: Erste Bank Eishockey Liga
AAA: Eishockey Liga 2
KHL
Is imo the most organized in Eastern Europe, but I would expanded into the near by countries and lose Poprad (Slovakian team) back to the International Conference with POL and CZE. Expanded Divisions and conferences.
Eastern Conference (18 teams)
(Central) Kharlamov: 6 Russia
(East) Chernyshev: 6 Russia
Southeast Division: 4 Russia, 2 Kazakhstan
Normal KHL playoff rules apply and relegation.
Main: KHL
AAA: VHL
Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, and Denmark
[Leagues: AL-Bank Ligaen, 1. Division, Eredivisie, 1. Divisjon, and GET-ligaen]
I would combine the Norwegian league with the Denmark, and Netherlands to make another super league. 1 Conference with each country league as divisions.
For playoffs the teams would need to win each leagues division and then the final team would be chosen by the most points it had in each conference.
Main: North Sea Elite
AAA: North Sea Elite B
So we would have now is
DEL [Germany]
Elitserien [Sweden]
Erste Bank Eishockey Liga [Austria, Hungry, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia]
International Extraliga [Czech, Slovakia, Poland]
KHL [Russia, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine]
National A [Switzerland, Italy, Eastern France]
North Sea Elite [Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark]
SM-liiga [Finland]
Fisrst of all SEL, KHL, SM Liiga, NL A are all perfectly organized. There's just no way Swiss NL A would consider joining with Italy or France, the compete level in those countries is below leagues like EBEL not to mention NL A and the interest in hockey is very low in both France and Italy, so it really makes no sense.
As for your EBEL comment, EBEL is good the way it is, one more team could be added so that there would be a pair number of teams. They are starting a lower league for farm teams, and teams from Slovenia and Croatia already have Slohokej league where their kids and players of lower quality play. Adding more teams would water down the competition and it would hurt the league in the long run IMHO, since teams are limited with points that are given to a certain player (all forgein players are worth 4 points) that play for a team and the max amount of points that a team can carry is 60.
Czech elite league(Tipsport extraliga) has 14 teams now and wealthy clubs (Chomutov etc) from 2nd league want elite league to be expanded, but elite league clubs dont want to allow it.
Slovak elite league has 10 teams plus Slovakia U20, level of play is below czech elite league for sure.
There was idea to create czech-slovak league in past but Czechs did not want to reduce number of their clubs and slovaks also. And have a league with 20 or more clubs is not good for both sides. IMO Czechs will never agree with such league you suggested.
Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, and Denmark
[Leagues: AL-Bank Ligaen, 1. Division, Eredivisie, 1. Divisjon, and GET-ligaen]
I would combine the Norwegian league with the Denmark, and Netherlands to make another super league. 1 Conference with each country league as divisions.
For playoffs the teams would need to win each leagues division and then the final team would be chosen by the most points it had in each conference.
Main: North Sea Elite
AAA: North Sea Elite B
What would the economic catch be?
In the current state of Danish hockey money is everything, so unless I can think of some form of economic upside, i'm not on board nor do I think it's realistic.
In Europe the difference in quality of the teams are pretty wide. In Denmark - which is the only case I can speak seriously about - hockey has taken an huge hit with the international financial crisis. We on our way back up, but we have only this season got our ninth team back in the league. I don't think you can mix Europe just like that.
