Are the Toronto Maple Leafs In the Weakest Division?
Are the Toronto Maple Leafs in the easiest division? Is their record somehow tainted by easy competition? No, and definitely not. The Leafs do not play in the weakest division, and the parity of the NHL is such that it probably wouldn’t make that much of a difference if they did anyways.
Still, in order to find out for sure, we went through each division and looked at the strength of their makeup.
West Division
The West Division is perhaps the most lopsided division of the four NHL divisions.
The top of the division has three legitimate Cup threats with Vegas Golden Knights, St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche as three clear playoff teams. There is a massive drop off from there, with all due respect to the Minnesota Wild, who have taken a large step forward this year. The Wild seem to be right up there with the big boys, however, upon closer inspection you see that 10 of Minnesota’s 12 wins have come against the three lowly California teams. ( stats via NHL.com )
Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings are three of the worst teams in the NHL. Last season these three California teams were the only three teams in the Western Conference that were left out of the play-in rounds. They continue to be consistent in that regard, although the Kings have managed more points than San Jose and Anaheim. Arizona Coyotes find themselves just below the Kings, which is more of an indication of how bad the Coyotes have been this year than it is about Los Angeles being much improved.
As far as quality of competition goes this division is far behind the other three. Nathan MacKinnon is clearly a superstar, and players like Mark Stone, Ryan O’Reilly and Anze Kopitar will again be in Selke Trophy conversations this season.
The presence of a Drew Doughty or Cale Makar would obviously make any team better, and Marc-Andre Fleury may still be a top ten goalie in the NHL. Overall, the individual talent is few and far in between for this West Division and they must be seen as the “weakest” of the four divisions.
Central Division
It may seem crazy to think that the Central division would not be the strongest considering they have the current Stanley Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the team they beat in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Dallas Stars. However, I think it is becoming clear this season that Dallas over achieved in the bubble, as they sit near the bottom of this division with a losing record. Tampa Bay are clearly the top team in this division and while the other teams may be close in points at the moment, they are not close in any other regard.
The Carolina Hurricanes are a well -coached team with suspect goaltending, and the same could be said about the Florida Panthers. Don’t get me wrong, they have a few very good players with Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau scoring at will for Florida. Sebastian Aho, Vincent Trochek and Andrei Svechnikov are also highly talented scorers and Carolina Hurricanes will give Tampa Bay all they can handle come playoff time. Tampa Bay is still miles ahead of these teams though, and they will feast on the bottom of this division.
The Central division currently has three teams in the bottom 10 of the league standings, and the Detroit Red Wings, who are easily the worst team in the league for the last three seasons.
Nashville Predators and Columbus Blue Jackets are not nearly as tough to play against as they were last year, with a goal differential of -17 and -12 respectively, to show for it. The fact that the Chicago Blackhawks are looking like a playoff team is a testament to early Hart contender Patrick Kane, but also shows how lacking in competition this division is.
North Division
It may be a tough pill to swallow for some, but the Toronto Maple Leafs are a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.
Much like the Lightning in the Central division the Toronto Maple Leafs are head and shoulders ahead of the rest of their division. Their recent domination of the Edmonton Oilers is evidence of how far ahead the Maple Leafs are compared to the rest of the division. But that doesn’t mean that the rest of the division is full of weak teams, in fact the Ottawa Senators are the only team in the division that has no chance at a playoff spot.
The Vancouver Canucks have been spiraling lately, and their team defense has been exposed by the elite offense in this Canadian division. Vancouver still has elite offense themselves with Brock Boeser in the top 5 in the league for goals and Quinn Hughes top 5 in assists and Elias Pettersson picking up his offense after a slow start. Without elite defense though it is easy to get exposed by the superstars of the North Division.
Five of the top six scorers in the entire NHL are from the Canadian teams, and Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews are four of the top scorers in the league over the last few seasons.
In the last three seasons only Alex Ovechkin has more goals that Draisaitl and Matthews and McDavid, Draisaitl and Marner are top three in assists over that same span. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Oilers are the top two offenses in the league, even after Toronto kept Edmonton to one goal in three games this past week. Joining them in the top five league offenses though is Vancouver and the Winnipeg Jets.
The Jets, along with the Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens will be battling all season long to secure a playoff spot. This Canadian division will have at least two teams who finish the season extremely disappointed just by not making the playoffs while the Central and West have a guaranteed three teams to make it and one surprise.
The strongest division, though, has more Cup contenders and a couple of perennial playoff teams that will be left out.
East Division
Over the previous three seasons this division has the most combined points, playoff appearances and and playoff success in the entire league. There will be at least one team that does not make the playoffs that could be considered a contender.
My guess would be Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins may miss the playoffs for the first time since Crosby was in his rookie season. If that does occur, it would be a massive off-season story as it could cause an entire over haul of the team, which may not have happened had they been in their regular division.
The Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils are destined to miss the playoffs in this division, but these two teams, as well as the New York Rangers, seemed primed to take a step forward. Perhaps had their division not been so competitive that step forward may have been taken.
The Devils and Rangers have been playing decent hockey, they just get no easy games in this division, unless they play the Sabres. The New York Islanders aren’t exactly a sexy team to watch, but they continue to win year after year since Barry Trotz became head coach and are always difficult to play against.
To round out the division the Philadelphia Flyers, if they can get their goaltending back in track, can make some serious damage in the playoffs. The Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins also seem to be a Cup contender every season, and this season is no different.
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By the time the dust settles on this division there will be at least two legitimate Cup threats eliminated from the playoffs. This East Division, in my opinion, will be the most interesting and unpredictable of the four divisions and I am looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.