[2] Mirroring a change the National Hockey League had taken prior to its 2013–14 season, the AHL moved back to having four divisions of seven or eight teams.
The implementation of an unbalanced format was seen as a way to ease the California teams' travel costs as well as reducing stretches of 3 games in 3 nights, which can impede player development and hamper attractive forms of play.
[3] To alleviate the 68/76-game imbalance, the AHL began using an alternative method of ranking its teams and determining playoff seeds.
[4] In support of the new division, the AHL played an outdoor game called the Golden State Hockey Rush at Raley Field in West Sacramento, California on December 18, 2015.
In order to fulfill their arena contact in St. John's, they negotiated with the Montreal Canadiens to move the Hamilton Bulldogs to St. John's and take on the IceCaps identity; in turn, the Bulldogs fulfilled their arena obligation by transferring their lease and intellectual property rights to the former Belleville Bulls, a junior hockey team.
In the previous season, the AHL first experimented with 3-on-3 overtime but had three minutes of 4-on-4 play before reducing the number of players on the ice.
[4] This rule change mirrors one the NHL also implemented for 2015–16;[17] previously in both leagues, the visiting team's player placed his stick on the ice first regardless of the face-off location.
The 2016 playoff format changed as a result of the realignment and unbalanced regular season schedules.
The new playoff format was finalized at the Annual Board of Governors meeting that took place July 6–9, 2015.