The tried and tested American Hockey League playoff format has been in place for a while now.

There was nothing wrong with the first round comprising of five games and then opting for the best-of-seven format adopted in the NHL.

For a league that voluntarily chose to cut the number of regular-season and playoff games, the choice to increase that number doesn’t ring true.

A total of 23 teams will qualify for postseason play when the 2021-22 regular season concludes and incredibly the play-offs will now consist of five, yes five rounds!


As per the official press release.
“Our clubs and their National Hockey League partners recognize the importance of playoff races and postseason experience on overall player development,” said AHL President and Chief Executive Officer Scott Howson. “Expanding the Calder Cup Playoff field will allow some 150 additional players to play more meaningful games in pursuit of a championship.”

More games for a league that stated its intention to cut the number of regular-season games in favour of more practise time, less travel and fewer three-in-three weekends?

“Meaningful games” is just a PR phrase concocted by the league to appease anyone who may disagree with this new format.

It’s quite simply a cash grab by the AHL and in some ways, you cannot blame them.

Independently run teams have been hit hardest by the pandemic and three teams were forced to opt-out of the most shortened campaign.

What this does do in my opinion is cheapen the regular season, goes a long way to almost making it redundant and produces an argument for shortening the season further.

Admittedly there is a lopsided look to the Pacific Division with nine competing teams this year (possibly extending to ten in 2022).

That being said, seven of the nine teams qualifying for the play-offs is a poor look for the league, absolutely diminishes the importance of regular season play and to my mind brings into question the integrity of the league.

‘In each of the AHL’s four divisions, all but two teams will qualify for postseason play in 2022, creating a playoff field of six teams in the Atlantic Division, five in the North Division, five in the Central Division and seven in the Pacific Division. Teams will be ranked by points percentage in the regular-season standings.’

If 70-77% of the teams competing in each division will qualify for an extended playoff campaign for the foreseeable future, then other problems will undoubtedly crop up.

Those include asking the fans, the paying customer, but more crucially the lifeblood of the AHL – namely the season ticket holder, to dig deeper into their pockets.

The league is already asking them to pay for fewer games. Rarely do those packages include playoff tickets which will be a point of conjecture.

I am left wondering how those season ticket holders who have already paid for the 2021-22 campaigns feel about an extended post-season?

The AHL as a whole and individual teams will have to think long and hard about the long-term damage they could inflict on their hardcore fan base by asking them to shell out for up to an extra fourteen home games at inflated prices.

First Round match-ups will be best-of-three series.

The top two teams in the Atlantic Division, the top three teams in each of the North and Central Divisions, and the first-place team in the Pacific Division receive byes into the best-of-five Division Semifinals, with the First Round winners re-seeded in each division.

The Division Finals will also be best-of-five series, followed by best-of-seven Conference Finals and a best-of-seven Calder Cup Finals series.

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