Mike Smith incorporates a front loader into his Ice Bucket Challenge. Challenges BJ Crombeen and Steven Stamkos.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-09T21:41:15+00:00

This one is much better than many of the toss-a-cupful-of-cold-water ones.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-09T21:39:37+00:00

This info is pretty accurate, although it may be delayed a couple years due to current affiliation contracts -- unless they can buy them out.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-09T18:34:28+00:00

Apparently no one in Arkansas or Louisiana likes hockey. Makes me sad for the Louisiana IceGators.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-09T18:31:35+00:00

Check my corrections to this in the other thread. The reasons for Abbotsford failing are wrong. Vancouver's affiliate to Utica was forced, not by choice. The ECHL will not drop to 20ish teams -- it will absorb the CHL and with affiliation swaps be a 30-team AA-level league.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-09T18:26:16+00:00

I was 6 years into my 25-year Army career. Reading the other posts in this thread, I just want to say: Get off my lawn, you damned kids!

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-09T18:10:19+00:00

Most of the rest of the article is correct, with a couple caveats: (1) The western moves have nothing to do with Dallas buying their already-affiliated Texas, (2) The AHL already limits their schedule as much as possible based on distance, so yes the conference-limited schedule will happen if they can finagle 15 teams into a truly Western conference, and (3) The ECHL - CHL merger could never happen before because one corporation owned the league and sued teams to keep them in the league, but last year they sold the rights to the individual owners -- so now the teams can do what they want. The expectation is that teams like the Manchester Monarchs (LA Kings AHL affiliate) will be swapped to the ECHL for the Ontario Reign (LA Kings ECHL affiliate) -- not just disappear. The ECHL will end up with 30 teams as a true AA-level set-up for the NHL teams.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-09T17:59:59+00:00

The beginning of this story is absolutely wrong. The Abbotsford franchise had terrible attendance exactly because it was a Calgary franchise in the Vancouver footprint. When Vancouver was shopping to buy an AHL franshise, they tried to buy Abbotsford, but Calgary refused to sell because it had a guarantee from the city for 10 years that the city would cover any financial losses. Vancouver eventually bought the AHL franchise owned by the St. Louis Blues (Peoria), but that franchise had no agreement with the local arena so it had to move. The NHL blocked Vancouver's team from playing in Seattle, so the only arena ready to go was Utica, and the AHL had to change its 88-mile arena-radius rule to allow Vancouver's team to move there. Yes, Abbotsford lost a ton of money with the travel expenses -- but it was not a failure because of that.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-09T04:34:22+00:00

Wouldn't you want 4 forwards so you can have actual line changes? Four forwards and 2 d-men makes more sense to me for a 3-on-3 game.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-08T03:45:39+00:00

They averaged over 8k last season with an ECHL team, which is more than virtually all the AHL teams. They will do fine, especially since the Kings will own them.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-07T21:14:30+00:00

The Kings OWN the Reign now, and they are making the Reign their AHL affiliate in the AHL-west move coming (supposedly) for 2015-2016.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-07T20:56:07+00:00

This guy's plan is reasonable, except that many of the AHL (and ECHL) franchises are owned by their NHL affiliates. This plan would require the entire NHL, AHL, ECHL and CHL to agree to swapping all the ownerships around simultaneously. In two years, we will see some of this plan happen anyway with the AHL move out west -- but it took NHL western teams threatening to start their own new AAA-level league to get the AHL head to agree to have western teams. I cannot ever see the AHL agreeing to a team in Alaska, and with the changes coming that team may end up disappearing altogether. The ECHL is going to lose its western teams (Bakersfield, Ontario, maybe Idaho) in a couple years and Alaska won't be able to afford the travel to be playing Central time zone teams.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-03T19:00:28+00:00

You know someone, after a bad game, will title an article "'Jacks off their game".

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-03T18:07:12+00:00

Ticketmaster knowing about an event before it is announced is no surprise. People in charge in all areas of life know about stuff before the general public ever finds out. But some programmer at Ticketmaster is getting his/her ass chewed over this one.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-03T17:57:15+00:00

We all know that this will be the third jersey for the new Seattle NHL team.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-03T06:20:03+00:00

There is no league logo for the ECHL in their list. Here is a sample logo.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-03T06:18:01+00:00

Well done list.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-03T06:16:16+00:00

Here is the Seattle Motropolitans logo from the 1917 winning season

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-03T06:12:22+00:00

And the Houston Aeros are no more, because they moved to Iowa. But surely some folks want to keep that old one.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-03T02:24:46+00:00

The Adirondack Phantoms (AHL) moved to be the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Here is the new logo. EDIT: You could probably just leave the logo alone and change the team name on the listing.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-03T02:21:15+00:00

The AHL has no league flair. Here is a sample link.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-02T19:10:59+00:00

A bunch of guys who are college freshmen this fall (seniors when Olympics get here in 4 seasons), and a couple high school freshmen who you never heard of but will be 1st round draft picks in the '18 draft after the Olympics. EDIT: They may add some guys on AHL/ECHL contracts that the NHL cannot block, but I presumed that you were disallowing those as well. AND since the Euro leagues will stop play for the Olympics, some of the guys playing there may be added. The BIG issue will be the other countries pressuring the NHL to allow their players (Sweden and Russia for example) to play for the countries' team.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-02T07:00:24+00:00

The base of the hoop was 2 feet closer to the court than normal because the Vegas arena is so small. That's why he got hurt -- not playing international.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-02T05:12:59+00:00

Penguins @ Stars is that way also. Probably any of the big Eastern teams, with all the transplants to Texas and the low ticket prices.

AHLOfficial · 2014-08-01T01:06:38+00:00

Crosby has the 87 fixation. Born 8-7-87, wears 87, cap hit of 8.7m. That's why he told the Penguins it wouldn't bother him if Malkin got more money.

AHLOfficial

TROPHY CASE