Now, I present to you the seeding for the Third Annual Ultimate NHL Playoff.

To start, the first factor in the seeding is the number of Cups the franchise has won. After that, the first tie breaker is number of appearances in the Stanley Cup Final and the second tie breaker is years of operation. Let’s address the changes starting at the top. With the Pittsburgh Penguins winning their fourth Stanley Cup, they jump ahead of the original Ottawa Senators, the New Jersey Devils and the New York Islanders. The Pens have the same number of Cups and Final appearances as the Islanders, but have existed longer, therefore they jump them and the original Senators for the same reasons. The Devils are left behind by Pittsburgh since they have won three Cups. The Anaheim Ducks and Carolina Hurricanes swapped places simply because the Ducks have been around longer, which is also why the Washington Capitals jumped one spot above the Florida Panthers.

The San Jose Sharks made a big jump (three spots) because of them making their first Stanley Cup Final appearance. They jumped over the Panthers, the modern Ottawa Senators and the Minnesota North Stars because San Jose has been around longer than all of those franchises. Simply because of another season in the books, the Nashville Predators jumped up two spots, over the original Winnipeg Jets and the extinct New York Americans. Lastly, the final change is the modern Jets jumping over the extinct Hamilton Tigers and Pittsburgh Pirates also because of putting another season in their books. All that’s left now is to get the Qualifying Tournaments started and that will begin on July 1st!