Seattle Expansion Bid Impact On The Toronto Maple Leafs
The Impact On The Toronto Maple Leafs
The biggest impact for the Toronto Maple Leafs would a re-alignment.
If you look at the current Western Conference, there are eight teams in the Pacific Division and seven teams in the Central Division.
Yes, you could technically just add the Seattle team to the Pacific. But it would be challenging to move one team from the Pacific to the Central Division due to geographical reasons.
With the addition of a new team, bringing the league to 32, I think it would be a great time to consider a realignment. I would like to replace the Eastern and Western Conferences with Northern and Southern Conferences.
The Maple Leafs are no strangers to realignment, having switched from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference in 1998. It never really made any sense to have the Leafs in the West and it’s crazy to think they played there for so long.
Though the current make up is better than it was, the Leafs still have to play in Florida a lot, which is a pretty long road trip. A change to a North South setup would vastly improve the Leafs travel schedule.
Northern Conference
In the Northern Conference, my idea is to build four different divisions. These divisions include Northwest, Midwest, Northeast and North Central.
The Northwest Division would be comprised of the Vancouver Canucks, the Edmonton Oilers, the Calgary Flames and the Seattle Expansion team. I think it makes the most sense to pair Seattle with Vancouver as they are in close proximity to each other. Also, I wouldn’t be able to separate the Canucks from the Oilers or the Flames due to their strong rivalries.
The Minnesota Wild, the Winnipeg Jets, the Colorado Avalanche and the Vegas Golden Knights would make up the Midwest Division. Based on geography, the Avalanche, the Jets and the Wild are the most northern teams in the West. So, it made the most sense to put them in the same division.
You might be pondering why the Vegas Golden Knights are in the division.
That was a tough call for me. I thought that Vegas made the most sense even though the San Jose Sharks are more northern than Las Vegas because Vegas doesn’t have many rivalries to date while the Sharks do. The Sharks have a strong rivalry with the Los Angeles Kings and it’d be extremely difficult to separate the two clubs.
North Central and Northeast
The North Central Division would be comprised of the Buffalo Sabres, the Detroit Red Wings, the Chicago Blackhawks and the Columbus Blue Jackets. This division would be great for the Chicago and Detroit rivalry, which has quieted down in the last few seasons since Detroit moved to the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately the North Central Division at the same time harms another rivalry between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres. But, I had difficulty finding another “central team” to add to the division based on geography. However, the good news is that the Toronto Maple Leafs and Sabres will definitely see each other a few times throughout the regular season. The Blue Jackets are the last team in the division and it made the most sense for the Blue Jackets to join Chicago’s division as the two teams have been involved in major blockbuster trades in the past years.
I saved the best for last. The Northeast Division.
I couldn’t separate the Toronto Maple Leafs from current division foes, the Montreal Canadiens, the Ottawa Senators and the Boston Bruins. How could I? There is so much history between the Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Canadiens and the Bruins, the Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs and I could go on and on. If you separate some or all of these teams, then you end up ruining the sport itself.
Southern Conference
Let’s move to the Southern Conference. Just like the Northern Conference, the Southern would also have four divisions. The divisions would include the Southwest, Mid-Atlantic, Chesapeake and South.
The Southwest Division is made up of the San Jose Sharks, the Los Angeles Kings, the Anaheim Ducks and the Arizona Coyotes.
It was very challenging to break up any of these teams and isolate them. The Kings have developed rivalries with the Coyotes, Sharks and Ducks over the years.
Also, how could you split up the California teams into different divisions?
This isn’t baseball where you have teams in California that play in different leagues or divisions like the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics.
Mid-Atlantic
Next is the Mid-Atlantic. I decided to keep most of the core Mid-Atlantic teams together. The new Mid-Atlantic would include the New York Rangers, the New York Islanders, the New Jersey Devils and the Philadelphia Flyers.
I could never split up the Flyers and the Rangers. There have been so many great games over the years involving the Broad Street Bullies and the Broadway Blue-shirts. Plus, hockey isn’t the only rivalry that these cities have with each other. Look at baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets have a colossal rivalry as well as the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants. You just can’t split up these two cities without committing a major felony.
In addition, you also can’t divide the New Jersey and New York teams. From a geographical perspective, it wouldn’t make much sense. Also, there has been so much bad blood between some of these New York/New Jersey teams. Just look at the playoff series in 1994 and 1995 where the Devils and the Rangers matched up against each other. I can’t imagine these New York/New Jersey teams in different divisions.
Chesapeake
If you are living in Toronto or across Canada, you might never heard of the Chesapeake Bay. But, the Chesapeake Bay Watershed spans across many states on east coast including Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. So, I chose Chesapeake as the name for the division as some of the teams in the division are in the heart of the watershed.
To be honest, I ran out of potential names for the division. So, I just ran with Chesapeake. But, I’m sure Gary Bettman will come up with something more creative.
I assigned the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Washington Capitals, the Carolina Hurricanes and the Nashville Predators to the Chesapeake.
I know some fans might call me crazy for separating the Penguins from the Flyers, but I didn’t really have much of a choice. Otherwise, the Chesapeake would only have three teams and I’d have to come up with another city on the east coast worthy of an expansion team.
However, the Penguins and Capitals have really created a strong rivalry over the past couple of years with stars including Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby trying to push each other out of the way to grab the Stanley.
Additionally it was challenging to split up the two Florida teams, so I had to go with the Hurricanes and the Predators to round out the division.
South
The South Division would be comprised of the Florida Panthers, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Dallas Stars and the St. Louis Blues.
Honestly, it wouldn’t make sense to isolate the two Florida teams as mentioned above.
Also if you are wondering why I chose to add the Stars and the Blues to the South, I’ll explain my rational.
I simply ran out of teams and both the Stars and Blues are technically in Southern states.
New Division For The Leafs
Unlike a lot of other teams based on my re-alignment concept, the Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn’t be starting any new rivalries. In fact, they would be reducing their in-division travel significantly.
No longer will the Toronto Maple Leafs have to fly three hours a few times a season to play the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Florida Panthers. Instead they would see their former division foes just twice a season, once at home and once on the road.
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In terms of in-division travel, the Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn’t have to fly more than an hour and a half to face-off against their rivals. The flight from Pearson or City Centre down to Logan Airport would be the longest travel time.
The major difference for the Toronto Maple Leafs would be a change in Conference. They would see a bit more travel out west to battle against fellow Canadian and/or Original Six teams including the Canucks, the Edmonton Oilers, the Calgary Flames, the Winnipeg Jets and the Chicago Blackhawks.
Yes, more games against teams like the Oilers, Flames and Blackhawks might lead to some sleepless nights in Toronto for the Toronto Maple Leafs. But, the viewership ratings for Leaf games will rise. No longer will the Toronto Maple Leafs have to play a ton of games against teams like the Carolina Hurricanes, who fail to draw an adequate attendance at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Imagine more Hockey Night In Canada games with the Toronto Maple Leafs battling against Conor McDavid, Johnny Gaudreau, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. I can visualize more juicy Monday mornings conversations at water-coolers or coffee-makers rather than talking about how you fell asleep out of boredom.
Expansion Draft Impact On The Leafs
Fortunately, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a few years before they need to worry about an Expansion Draft. But if the bid is accepted, there will a Draft.
Let’s pretend that its 2020, the bid for a Seattle expansion has been accepted and the expansion draft protection rules haven’t changed.
Who would the Toronto Maple Leafs keep and who would they leave up on the board for Seattle to select?
If I were Lamoriello or a future Leaf general manager, I would opt to keep:
- Morgan Rielly
- Eemeli Rasanen
- Nazem Kadri
- Zach Hyman
- Auston Matthews
- William Nylander
- Mitch Marner
- Timothy Liljegren
- Frederik Andersen
This is dependent on Liljegren and Rasanen making the Toronto Maple Leafs squad and the next couple of seasons.
Who I’d Cut Loose
You might be shocked to see that I decided not to keep Jake Gardiner, Nikita Zaitsev, Connor Brown or Josh Leivo.
But to be honest, Gardiner and Zaitsev have truly been awful this season.
So far this season, Gardiner has posted the worst corsi-for percentage since his 2013-2014 campaign. He’ll also be due for a new contract and won’t be ready to take a discount.
Zaitsev has also been rather painful to watch this season. Like Gardiner, his corsi-for percentage has been terrible too. Also if you need a reason to tear your hair out, take a look at Zaitsev’s contract. It’s very cumbersome of the terrible contract that David Clarkson signed a few years back.
In 2020, it’ll be time to cut them loose and hopefully they’ll be someone else’s problem.
Next: Where the Wild Things Are
If you are worried about the Toronto Maple Leafs being able to replace them, don’t be. There will be plenty of talented defenseman up for grabs on July 1, 2020 including Alex Pietrangelo, Sami Vatanen, Torey Krug, Zach Bogosian and more.