Toronto Maple Leafs: How Does the NHL Realignment Affect the Franchise?

Late last night, word came out that the NHL board of governors have approved a new realignment for the NHL’s divisions and conferences. The new format is due to be in effect next year, which means a whole new opportunity for the Maple Leafs and their fans just opened up. First, here’s how the new conferences will be set up. It seems as if the BOG went with time zones as the basis for their reasoning for the logical adjustments:

Conference A: Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose, Vancouver

Conference B: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Winnipeg

Conference C: Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Toronto

Conference D: Carolina, New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington

When it comes to the schedule, it will now be more balanced as the NHL has said they would have every team in the league face each other at least twice with a home and home series. Then the seven-team conference will play six times against each other, while in the eight-team conference teams would play on a rotating schedule every year either five of six times against a single opponent. 

In the playoffs, the top four of each division would make the inaugural rounds of the playoffs, with the seeding based on overall record like in the old format. Once you win you’re conference you play a team from another conference in the semi-finals, and then the Stanley Cup finals. It’s still to be decided which conference will square off against each other in the latter stages, but based on geography it would probably be winner of A vs. winner of B and winner of C vs. winner of D.

Now what this means for the Maple Leafs.

The Leafs only have to be better than three other teams.

They lucked out with being in a seven team conference which means their odds of qualifying for the playoffs are better than a team who is in an eight team conference. If you look at the standings to this point right now, the Maple Leafs would still be in a playoff position. Essentially, they could have a worse record than four other teams, but if those teams happen to be in a different conference, it won’t matter.

With the new format, the Leafs will not have to worry about 5-7 teams that would be in the hunt for one of the final four spots at season’s end. Sure this cut’s down on some of the fun races to make the playoffs, but if the division is tough, then it will still be a year-long battle to make those top four spots. This makes division games even bigger and will lead to lot of points on the line on almost any given night. But there is a slight downside to this.

The loss of Eastern Conference rivals. The Maple Leafs over the years have built up some pretty good rivalries with teams like: the Rangers, the Islanders, the Hurricanes and Devils.

Now, under the new format, they will play everyone in their division six times. They will only see the other teams twice each. They are losing out on an original six rivalry with the Rangers, but are gaining back an extra game against other original six teams in the Red Wings and Blackhawks. There are ups and downs to this particular issue, but as the NHL sees it, this way every team will get to see every player at least once during the year. Unlike the years before where someone like Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin might never visit San Jose, the sharks will get to see both at least once guaranteed every year.

But again the Maple Leafs will lose out on those Eastern conference rivalries, and if their division turns out to be strong, it will be a grind all year with those 36 division games.

Overall this should make for some very exciting hockey throughout the year and into the playoffs. Sure the Leafs will have to face Boston six times, a team whom which they have struggled against. However, anything can happen in the playoffs as I’m sure Ottawa Senators fans can tell you when they used to beat up the Leafs in the regular season, only to lose to them in the playoffs.

It makes every playoff series even more interesting as you are trying to win out of your conference to get to the latter stages. It allows the Leafs to adjust to a particular team several times throughout the year before they take them on in a seven game showdown. Of course other teams will be making adjustments too, but with the number of times the teams will see each other, the energy and emotions should run high every night they hook up.  

Through this the Leafs get to keep their rivalries with their fellow Canadian teams in Montreal and Ottawa, and they will get to see two teams from the sunshine state more often, which will benefit them in the long run in not having to travel as much and deal with time zone changes.

Despite this new format, the Maple Leafs would have only made the playoffs in 2006-07, since the lock out season.  But again they are now no longer battling 5-7 teams for four spots. They are essentially fighting three teams for one spot. This conference will be no push over as it features every team that has made the playoffs at least once since the lockout, and at this point are all close in the standings in the Eastern conference.

The positives and negatives are there, and at the end of the day the Leafs will just need to play good hockey. They have started out well so far this year, but can they carry that over into the new year, and a new NHL?