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With so many clubs returning to the playoff pool after varying absences, no room for the defending Cup champs or the fallen Leafs.
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Published Apr 10, 2026 • Last updated 6 hours ago • 3 minute read
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Florida Panthers’ A.J. Greer checks Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews during a game earlier this season. The Canadian PressArticle content
A year ago, they fought a high-stakes, seven-game series with Stanley Cup implications.
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On Saturday, the Maple Leafs and Panthers will be scrapping over who will be cast into the NHL’s bottom five next week.
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Not only are both missing the playoffs, the Leafs are in talks with Florida assistant general manager Sunny Mehta to perhaps leave the two-time champs and put Toronto back on track to ending a 59-year title drought.
But the humbling of the Leafs after their nine-season run of playoff appearances and an off-year for the Panthers after three straight trips to the final, aren’t the only remarkable shifts to the post-season bracket.
Four, and possibly five, new clubs are back in the Eastern Conference dance, while up to three have re-entered the Western picture.
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Welcome back, after a league-worst 14-year hiatus, to the Buffalo Sabres. Also quite likely back in is Philly after four sitting out, Pittsburgh after three, Boston re-arming in just one summer and Detroit, still hoping to end its drought at nine seasons.
Just outside the wild-card window approaching this weekend is Columbus, which narrowly missed a berth last year, and the New York Islanders, who also came up short in 2024-25.
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In the West, Anaheim has cured its seven-year itch, while Utah put up its ‘X’ on Thursday, the Mammoth’s first since moving from Arizona. The Predators are back in the hunt, too.
There were no games Friday, ahead of six frenetic final days of the regular-season schedule.
“We could see the highest year-over-year playoff turnover in league history,” a release from NHL Stats noted Friday afternoon. “The current record is seven teams (set four times between 2014-15 and ‘20-21). There are currently 11 teams either inside the bracket or within four points of it after missing out last season, including three that have already clinched.”
Specific to the Leafs and the East, the changing of the guard of up to five teams can match 2016-17 (the start of Toronto’s playoff streak) as the most since conference play was initiated in 1974-75.
WHAT’S AT STAKE FOR TORONTO ON SATURDAY?
Scotiabank Arena will have a weird vibe for a supposed meaningless game between eliminated clubs. They’re tied at 78 points with the Cats at the end of a five-game trip, all losses to date. But if any team can rest a bit on its laurels, it’s Florida.
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Meanwhile, it’s Toronto’s final Hockey Night in Canada date and second last at home, where they’ve been a bust.
But a significant chunk of its fan base wants them to fade through their last three games also (here Monday against Dallas and Wednesday in Ottawa) hoping Florida and others pick up enough points to land the Leafs in the league’s bottom five.
Pending the draft lottery, that would revert this year’s traded first-round draft pick from Boston. Fifth-from-bottom Seattle, which has had ex-Leaf Bobby McMann score seven goals in 13 games since the trade, has the biggest say in the Leafs’ draft fate at present, sitting a point behind with a game in hand.
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Chris Pronger taking cautious approach to Maple Leafs executive opening
LEAFS TAKEAWAYS: Artur Akhtyamov set for first NHL start against Islanders
The Leafs had a mandatory day off from practice Friday after back-to-back defeats to Washington and the Islanders.
Joseph Woll is expected to start in net Saturday after Artur Akhtyamov’s full debut as an NHL starter, a 60-minute shooting gallery in New York facing 44 pucks.
The extent of Anthony Stolarz’s lower-body injury should be updated Saturday after further medical imaging as well as the ailments of defenceman Brandon Carlo and winger Dakota Joshua from the same game.
Centre Luke Haymes, with his Ottawa-area family in attendance, had an assist in his first NHL game and won four of 10 draws.
Defenceman William Villeneuve and forward Ryan Tverberg are also up from the Marlies on emergency recall, the former most likely to play in the next couple of days.
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