AHL West in 2015-16?

[Fenway]

I don't see Boston leaving Providence for Worcester unless H. Larue Renfroe wants them to since he owns the team. Though if the Sharks leave it would give him an opening since it would be the first time since he got majority control(2006) that a team in Worcester didn't exist and he owns that rink in Marlborough that's just a few miles outside the city. Hmmmmmmm. Might have a great base for a Providence to Worcester rumor here if it wasn't for the fact that Providence is doing much better in attendance though that might be attributed due to affiliation(Bruins v. Sharks).

Boston isn't leaving Providence. Delaware North has a nice concession income there.

Of course there is another elephant in the room as sooner or later the NHL will expand to at least 32.

 

[Royalsflagrunner77]

Boston isn't leaving Providence. Delaware North has a nice concession income there.

Of course there is another elephant in the room as sooner or later the NHL will expand to at least 32.

Yea I see the NHL adding seattle and Quebec

 

[Fenway]

Those teams probably get added to The ECHL.

That is what I am afraid of. I went to an ECHL game last year in Greenville and it was bad hockey and would be a very hard sell in a market used to the AHL.

 

[Royalsflagrunner77]

That is what I am afraid of. I went to an ECHL game last year in Greenville and it was bad hockey and would be a very hard sell in a market used to the AHL.

LOL Thats cuase you went to greenville Should have went South carolina 'fort wayne or evansville.

 

[Hoodaha]

Yea I see the NHL adding seattle and Quebec

That would be the logical additions, but what I've heard is Seattle and Vegas. Note that the conferences are not balanced because there are 14 Western teams and 16 Eastern ones...Vegas is building an NHL quality arena.

 

[Fenway]

That would be the logical additions, but what I've heard is Seattle and Vegas. Note that the conferences are not balanced because there are 14 Western teams and 16 Eastern ones...Vegas is building an NHL quality arena.

I suspect that Quebec will get a relocated team as early as next year that plays in the Atlantic Division.

 

[adsfan]

That would be the logical additions, but what I've heard is Seattle and Vegas. Note that the conferences are not balanced because there are 14 Western teams and 16 Eastern ones...Vegas is building an NHL quality arena.

With triple the usual amount of refrigeration?

Does anybody know what the ice quality is like in Glendale? Is it ever a problem?

 

[tigervixxxen]

I don't think NHL expansion is as close as people think. Building is an issue in Seattle and then balanced conferences issue will need to get resolved. It will happen eventually but there are a lot of hurdles.

Lake Erie has the 3rd highest attendance in the AHL playing in a NBA arena, I can't imagine that market going down to ECHL. In terms of distance I'm not sure moving to California is all that much better for the Avs anyway. With the conference realignment the Monsters are properly aligned with division rivals now. The Avs don't want to be a pacific division team, they've made their preference clear to the NHL so I don't know that they really want to be part of the western expansion. Now if they could move AHL affiliation to Colorado, maybe. The Colorado Eagles are well-attended and are in a separate enough market in northern Colorado that it would be nice to turn that into the AHL team. I can't see the Denver Cutthroats becoming anything more than ECHL, it's in a dumpy arena and there just isn't enough interest in the market to have two pro hockey teams in Denver so I can't see Denver itself supporting AHL.

 

[Royalsflagrunner77]

Could colorado or one of the western conference teams use Rapid city as a AHL affiliate.

 

[PCSPounder]

With triple the usual amount of refrigeration?

Does anybody know what the ice quality is like in Glendale? Is it ever a problem?

That "ice in the desert" crap is tired. Please.

Not that this means there will be NHL (or any league) in Vegas anytime soon. The arena being built will probably never see a pro team. I'm making a guess (since the people building own MGM Grand) that ownership seeks to replace the Grand Garden across the street rather than let any team in that wants a majority of the profits from the building get that.

 

[BruinsSharks]

Basically you'd have to have a bunch of teams be traded.

Florida trades San Antonio to Phoenix for Portland which saves them.
Then you start with Columbus trading Springfield for Lake Erie from Colorado which removes Springfield since Colorado will move them. Rangers maybe move up 91 to Springfield....
Minnesota trades Iowa to Nashville for Milwaukee then like the rest of the southern teams(Florida/Portland, Tampa Bay/Syracuse) Nashville puts their team in Worcester..........????????

I don't see Boston leaving Providence for Worcester unless H. Larue Renfroe wants them to since he owns the team. Though if the Sharks leave it would give him an opening since it would be the first time since he got majority control(2006) that a team in Worcester didn't exist and he owns that rink in Marlborough that's just a few miles outside the city. Hmmmmmmm. Might have a great base for a Providence to Worcester rumor here if it wasn't for the fact that Providence is doing much better in attendance though that might be attributed due to affiliation(Bruins v. Sharks).

Renfroe wants to get the P-Bruins up to the Worcester/Marlboro area, preferably near the NE Sports Center (by the way, he is adding 2 more ice sheets to put the Sports Center up to 8). The Sharks practice at the SportsCenter quite a bit.

He is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and although the attendance would be lower than Providence it would be substantially better than the Sharks affiliate. If the Sharks have manageable losses each year, I would bet he would at least break even with the Bruins as the affiliate. Just the fact they would be competitive each year would help. With his money and the profitable company he owns I would guess some tax losses on the sports team are not a terrible thing.

As a 5 year Sharks season ticket holder I would love for the Bruins to come up to Worcester. Providence would likely get another team as they are a very solid minor league market.

I did not purchase Sharks season tickets this year as they didn't fire Roy Sommer and I can't imagine the front office spending much money on veterans in a lame duck season in Worcester.

 

[Royalsflagrunner77]

That "ice in the desert" crap is tired. Please.

Not that this means there will be NHL (or any league) in Vegas anytime soon. The arena being built will probably never see a pro team. I'm making a guess (since the people building own MGM Grand) that ownership seeks to replace the Grand Garden across the street rather than let any team in that wants a majority of the profits from the building get that.

So the wranglers going dorment is the end of the franchise. I thought they had 2,000 comited season ticket holders. All they needed was a arena.

 

[wildcat48]

Or Maine could fall into the Atlantic Ocean! Where would that leave the Portland Pirates, eh wildcat48?????

.Wet

 

[wildcat48]

Yahoo's Puck Daddy looks at what a new AHL might look like

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-p...-ahl--echl--and-chl-in-2015-16-091626868.html

There is so much wrong with this article that I don't know where to begin.... I'm not even going to bother because I have a feeling it will fall on deaf ears, but the bottom line is western NHL team only have one of three options to create an AHL Pacific Division. Own a franchise & move it, purchase a franchise & move it or affiliate with a private owner of an existing franchise..... There is not going be any absorbing of ECHL franchises. It will diminish the value of current stakeholders in the league now and they aren't going to do that.

Burger King and McDonalds are both fast food restaurants, but they're completely separate franchises. You can't all of a sudden start selling Whoppers in a McD's If I want to sell Whoppers I need to own a Burger King franchise. It's the same principal. If I want to play in the AHL I need an AHL franchise. Right now and for the foreseeable future there are only 30 franchises. Dave Andrews has said they will not expand beyond 30 teams unless the NHL expands.

 

[Fenway]

There is so much wrong with this article that I don't know where to begin....

Wait until you read this one - your head will explode

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2014/8/7/5976075/ahl-west-echl-chl-realignment-minor-league-hockey

 

[PCSPounder]

There is so much wrong with this article that I don't know where to begin.... I'm not even going to bother because I have a feeling it will fall on deaf ears, but the bottom line is western NHL team only have one of three options to create an AHL Pacific Division. Own a franchise & move it, purchase a franchise & move it or affiliate with a private owner of an existing franchise..... There is not going be any absorbing of ECHL franchises. It will diminish the value of current stakeholders in the league now and they aren't going to do that.

Burger King and McDonalds are both fast food restaurants, but they're completely separate franchises. You can't all of a sudden start selling Whoppers in a McD's If I want to sell Whoppers I need to own a Burger King franchise. It's the same principal. If I want to play in the AHL I need an AHL franchise. Right now and for the foreseeable future there are only 30 franchises. Dave Andrews has said they will not expand beyond 30 teams unless the NHL expands.

I understand the mechanics of the situation, probably better than expressed in this article. That's fine.

The assumptions I see made here:

- "It's rather hard to get a franchise to move." What you're really trying to say is "my team is stable." Chances are, not as much as you think. It's minor pro hockey, and even in the AHL, that's the nature of the beast. Not that we can't figure out who's stronger and who's weaker. However, there will be some "political" decisions made as this process moves forward.

- "The bigger the better." If I can get the same attendance in Stockton as in Cleveland while paying rent for half the building (which I'm going to guess is LESS than half the rent), I'd rather be in Stockton. (I know, I know, very likely a false comparison, but I'm making a point about costs for the AHL team)

- "It's cheaper to run the team with all the other teams back east." I'm sensitive to development time arguments, but I see more than one person discussing the costs... as they relate to the AHL team. Some of this exercise is about the costs to the NHL team. I think the big guys have different priorities.

 

[PCSPounder]

So the wranglers going dorment is the end of the franchise. I thought they had 2,000 comited season ticket holders. All they needed was a arena.

It's really hard to get out of dormancy. The track record shows this. If these other changes materialize, maybe it gets harder to re-establish knowing that there won't be many far western rivals to play in the ECHL... or you're going to need to rent the bigger building and not get a lot of Saturdays. Maybe worse.

 

[wildcat48]

Wait until you read this one - your head will explode

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2014/8/7/5976075/ahl-west-echl-chl-realignment-minor-league-hockey

I've already read that article and its pure fantasyland, but at least the author acknowledges that fact. If we could start from scratch this is what it would look like. That's different than saying "this is going to happen"

 

[wildcat48]

Keep seeing posts about restructuring minor league hockey. Seems easy on paper, but reality is that so many moving parts/obstacles exist.

Basically unless 30 NHL teams own AHL & ECHL affiliates outright, you won't see ideal geographic & economic affiliates. Just the way it is.

Mike McKenna (@MikeMcKenna56), a goaltender for Portland this season and a member of the PHPA Executive Committee.

http://www.phpa.com/index.php/players/executiveCommittee

 

[RFA]

Isn't it more likely that the NHL CBA changes? I doubt it was the labor side that suggested the cap hits take effect at different times. It would seem to be different/possibly unfair for teams with a greater distance to their AHL team, and management could work that out.

If I was the Chicago AHL management I'd make it very clear that I'd be accepting NHL to AHL players on loan for a day while they wait for a connecting flight in the airport- being compensated for the effort of course.

 

[210]

Isn't it more likely that the NHL CBA changes? I doubt it was the labor side that suggested the cap hits take effect at different times. It would seem to be different/possibly unfair for teams with a greater distance to their AHL team, and management could work that out.

If I was the Chicago AHL management I'd make it very clear that I'd be accepting NHL to AHL players on loan for a day while they wait for a connecting flight in the airport- being compensated for the effort of course.

AHL rules say once a player is loaned to a different AHL team from where he started the season he cannot go back to the original AHL team unless his NHL rights are traded.

 

[Clinton Comets EHL]

That is what I am afraid of. I went to an ECHL game last year in Greenville and it was bad hockey and would be a very hard sell in a market used to the AHL.

Bad ECHL hockey isn't limited to Greenville.

 

[HansH]

Bad ECHL hockey isn't limited to Greenville.

Can we just get a macro that posts the same thing every time you post?

We get it - you think ECHL hockey is swill that no sane fan should ever pay to watch. Your point is made. Let it GO.

 

[Hoodaha]

Can we just get a macro that posts the same thing every time you post?

We get it - you think ECHL hockey is swill that no sane fan should ever pay to watch. Your point is made. Let it GO.

Aww, you don't want to hear more about how horrible and insanely low quality the ECHL is? I was kinda hoping to hear it another 20 or 30 times....

 

[PCSPounder]

Let's see... do I really want to throw the "rumored 4 expansion NHL teams" issue into the mix?

Maybe? But I have to believe that rumor first. It's hard.