What Realignment Means for the Leafs

When I first heard about the potential for the NHL to move to the 4-conference format, my initial thought was that this would be a win for the Maple Leafs.  After all, now the Leafs will only have to best three teams to make the playoffs.  Currently, the Leafs would be sitting in 3rd place in their Conference though, which is a little more tenuous than a Leaf fan might have hoped for.  Long term, there are some issues that could dramatically effect the Leafs and their new Conference.

First of all, one needs to look at the young cores that these conference rivals are currently establishing.  The current rosters don’t tell us much, and perhaps give Leaf fans a false sense of hope that making the post-season each year will be easy from here on out.  It would be a little more prudent to look 2-3 year down the road at what kind of teams we might be running into then.  Keep in mind though, it’s impossible to take into account the draft selections these clubs might make this year or next.  While we can assume that those players will take a long 3-5 year road to the NHL, like 95% of all prospects, the potential to pick up a Jeff Skinner could dramatically alter the playing field.  As it stands though, these are the young cores the Leafs and their competition are moving forward with: