What a new AHL realignment could look like in the 2023-24 season

With the AHL playoffs set to start the third round this weekend, some fans, whose teams are out of the playoffs, are looking forward to the 2023-24 season.

Since the 2021-22 season, the AHL divisional realignment has been confusing to some fans as to why certain divisions have more teams than others.

This past season, the Seattle Kraken’s affiliate, called the Coachella Valley Firebirds joined the AHL which made it 32 teams. Currently, the AHL divisions have eight teams in the Atlantic Division, seven in both the North and Central Divisions, and ten in the Pacific Division.

These alignments made this year’s playoffs a bit complicated. First, the Atlantic Division had six teams that qualified with two of them receiving byes into the next round. The North and Central Divisions had three teams receiving byes while two teams played in the opening round. Finally, the Pacific Division had seven teams qualify for the playoffs with one team getting a bye.

The last time a major realignment took place was after the 2014-15 season when the league expanded to the west coast. The Anaheim Ducks (Norfolk Admirals), Edmonton Oilers (Oklahoma City Barons), San Jose Sharks (Worcester Sharks), Los Angeles Kings (Manchester Monarchs), and the Calgary Flames (Adirondack Thunder) moved their teams to the west coast, leaving those cities without a team.

Luckily, some of these cities were able to get teams that were part of the lower division known as the ECHL that moved into their arenas. The Manchester Monarchs did return to the ECHL but later folded. Meanwhile, the Admirals and Thunder lived on while Worcester got a new team called the Railers.

I think in the near future, the AHL are going to turn its attention to the southeast states to place teams near the Charlotte Checkers. The Checkers are in a precarious position as they don’t have any teams near them in the AHL. Teams like Tampa Bay, Nashville, and Carolina, could either relocate or establish an AHL team close to their cities. However, Carolina has not been kind to their affiliates as the Checkers were once the Hurricanes’ affiliate for over a decade. Maybe Carolina will wise up and own their team. Charlotte is currently affiliated with the Florida Panthers.

Charlotte Checkers were once in the ECHL from 1993 to the end of the 2010-11 season when the team folded and a new incarnation of the Checkers, in the form of the old Albany River Rats took their place. The River Rats were a beloved team in Albany. Albany did get a second team called the Devils until they relocated to Binghamton and have since moved to Utica.

However, one thing I will say about the Checkers is if you are paying attention to the Chicago Wolves situation, the AHL could look different in the next decade.

The AHL wants its teams to be affiliated with NHL clubs but next season, the Wolves are going independent and the Carolina Hurricanes are going to have to partner up with another AHL team. There is a chance that the Wolves might not be in the AHL for long. I’ll discuss that in the next hockey post. Back to the realignment.

The AHL can go two ways to even out the divisions. The simple solution is moving teams around to get to eight for each division except for the Atlantic Division. The North Division would see the Grand Rapids Griffins return to the North Division to make it eight teams.

Then, with the Central Division down two teams, you move the Colorado Eagles and the Tucson Roadrunners over, and there you have an even eight team divisions for each conference. Evening out the division will help create better playoffs for the AHL. Here is a better alignment for the AHL.

Now, having eight teams in one division is too much and it needs to be broken down similar to how the NFL does its divisions with four in each conference. The Eastern Conference would have the Atlantic, East, North, and Northeast divisions.  

For the Western Conference, they will also have a North, Northwest, Southwest, and South divisions.

When it comes to a playoff format for these four divisions. You can have the Atlantic and East Divisions battle in one bracket, the North and Northeast for the other in the Eastern Conference. For the Western Conference, it can be North against the South in one bracket, and Northwest and Southwest in the other.

You would eliminate the byes, and only two teams from each division get into the playoffs. However, I would keep the playoffs as they are with the best of three, five, and seven.

While some team’s alignments don’t make sense like Iowa. The truth is they don’t have a lot of southern teams there and Iowa is closest to being a south division team compared to the other locations.

I think making four divisions for each conference is the way to go and it would help lessen the cost of travel for these teams while making every game critical as only two teams from each conference would qualify for the playoffs. It will be interesting to see what the AHL does this offseason as far as realignment goes.