Are the Toronto Maple Leafs Now in the Western Conference?

The Toronto Maple Leafs will likely be playing this season in an all-Canadian division.

We’ve discussed this a lot, because it’s been rumoured for a while.  We have determined that the Toronto Maple Leafs will be the class of a Canadian division and face some competition from the Oilers, but that the other teams are fairly weak overall, especially Montreal and Ottawa. 

But while the Canadian Division has been discussed a lot, there hasn’t been a lot of discussion about what the other divisions could look like – until now.

Yesterday, Pierre Lebrun tweeted out a possible re-alignment scenario.  Considering the source, I think we can take this as nearly a done deal – Lebrun is about the best NHL reporter working and unlike some other rumour sources I could mention, when he says it, you know it is at the very least, a strong possibility.

New NHL Divisions

Here is the tweet were Pierre tells us what to expect:

This is all very interesting and there is obviously a lot to unpack here (and we will preview each of these divisions in the coming days) but I have only one question: Are the Toronto Maple Leafs now in the Western Conference?

Four of the Canadian teams (Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton) are in the West, and both the Boston and Anaheim divisions mentioned above feature teams that are all already in the same conference.

The division with Carolina now has Chicago, Minnesota and Nashville, which have basically traded places with Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.  Therefore it seems that the Canadian division is quite logically in the Western Conference.

Now, to my mind, this is the perfect opportunity for the NHL to do away with the concept of conferences altogether and seed their playoffs so that #1  plays #16 and so on.  The fact that the two best teams in the NHL can only ever face off for the Stanley Cup is if they happen to be playing in different conferences is just stupid.

Why put in place a rule that has no real reward, when the cost of doing it is that you usually won’t get to see the two best teams play? In the NHL’s normal way of doing things, if three Cup Contenders happen to be in the same division, one of them is guaranteed to be eliminated after the first round.

It’s an extremely stupid set-up, and its based on an arcane concept of alignment that was invented when travel was much harder.

But will the NHL do anything creative? Or will we just see the same old playoff format? The one that almost every NHL fan hates. If so, the Leafs will be in the Pacific Division, and will probably open the playoffs next spring against the #8 seeded Calgary Flames.