NHL Playoff turnover on a year to year basis

[Sylvanfan]

So we are 10 regular seasons complete since the NHL went to a salary cap system which had the intention of creating league parity.

I was curious to see how much playoff turnover has been occurring. A few years back I heard an NFL stat where since the league went to a 12 team playoff format every season at least 5 of the 12 playoff teams had not made it the previous season. I believe that has held true every year since and right now only the Raiders and Bills have not made the playoffs in the past 12 years.

I started with the 05-06 season, and than considered the 9 subsequent seasons to see how many teams in that years playoffs had made it the previous season.

Of the 144 playoff teams in that time frame 45 had not qualified in the previous season. That works out to an average of 5 new playoff teams per season or just over 31% turn over. This past season saw 7 new teams which is the highest number. The 2010-11 season saw only three new teams in the playoffs which is the low. Other than that 5 seasons where its been 5 new teams, one with 6 and another with 4. Of those 45 teams who did not qualify the previous season 24 were in the East and 21 in the West. In the past two seasons with the unbalancing of the Conferences 6 teams made the playoffs who failed the previous season.

Of the 45 teams who had not been in the playoffs the previous season 11 of them made it out of round 1 (includes the Flames and Capitals from this season). In the previous 8 seasons to this 4 of those 9 teams made the Conference Finals (Philly 08, Carolina 09, Chicago 09, NJ 12) with only New Jersey getting to the Stanley Cup. 6 of these teams were from the East and 5 from the West. 6 of the 11 who did advance beat out another team who also were not in the playoffs the previous season. Meaning teams who did not make the playoffs the previous season are 5-28 in series when matched up against an opponent who did.

Other things of interest. The West has had it happen 3 times where 4 teams made the playoffs after failing the previous season (08-09, 09-10, 14-15). Only once has the turnover been this high in the East (07-08), and 4 is the highest number of new qualifiers in either Conference. Conversely the West has had three occasions where there was only one new playoff team (07-08, 10-11, 11-12) and the East has only had this few teams once in 08-09. Since the playoff format change each conference has had 6 new playoff teams over two seasons. In the West 12 of the 14 teams have made it (looking at you Edmonton). In the East 11 of the 16 teams have made it at least once. Going forward I would expect more turnover in the East so long as the Conferences are unbalanced.

I do think that parity does exist, but you still need to be methodical in building a team as established teams are far more successful in the playoffs. Edmonton, Toronto, and Florida all have only one playoff appearance while Carolina, Columbus, Atlanta/Winnipeg are at 2. I think the Flames are mindful of this and will be able to build a team thats in the mix every year. The experience they are gaining this year goes against past numbers.