Worcester Railers to join the ECHL in 2017-18

[Nightsquad]

You do realize that there have been people who have held the role of GM/Coach in the NHL? I don't really see what skeptical about it?

Skeptical yea because I think the two responsibilities are not one of the same. I think a coach shouldn't be burdened with all the "financial" or "front office" responsibilities that come along with a GM title. I get skeptical when I hear things like GM Coach or even player coach, especially at the developmental minor pro level. My concerns are an organization is trying to consolidate function as cost savings measure. Worcester already has one departure before the puck has even been dropped. I think northeast markets once home to AHL clubs opening up for the ECHL is a very good thing but Worcester's arrival has been interesting to date. The soccer like "HC" brand of the club, one front office departure already, and the owner earlier announcing what "he" needs from the business community to get things off the ground.

For northeast cities formerly home to AHL team's owners need to realize and expect a year or maybe quite possibly two or three seasons of adjustments. I want to see the ECHL do well and be sustainable in places like Worcester, Portland, and Adirondack very much. I think having the ECHL All Star game in Adirondack will be a good way to league showcase from fans in nearby Worcester, Portland, and maybe fans in nearby Utica or Binghamton will make the short trip to catch some ECHL should the AHL depart their cities.

 

[210]

Skeptical yea because I think the two responsibilities are not one of the same. I think a coach shouldn't be burdened with all the "financial" or "front office" responsibilities that come along with a GM title. I get skeptical when I hear things like GM Coach or even player coach, especially at the developmental minor pro level. My concerns are an organization is trying to consolidate function as cost savings measure. Worcester already has one departure before the puck has even been dropped. I think northeast markets once home to AHL clubs opening up for the ECHL is a very good thing but Worcester's arrival has been interesting to date. The soccer like "HC" brand of the club, one front office departure already, and the owner earlier announcing what "he" needs from the business community to get things off the ground.

For northeast cities formerly home to AHL team's owners need to realize and expect a year or maybe quite possibly two or three seasons of adjustments. I want to see the ECHL do well and be sustainable in places like Worcester, Portland, and Adirondack very much. I think having the ECHL All Star game in Adirondack will be a good way to league showcase from fans in nearby Worcester, Portland, and maybe fans in nearby Utica or Binghamton will make the short trip to catch some ECHL should the AHL depart their cities.

Not sure why you're harping about Toby leaving. He was going to be in charge of the business operations and be GM, which is something that would be a whole lot harder than just being GM and head coach.

The person who took over the business side of things when Toby left, Mike Myers, was the anchor of the Worcester Sharks business operations and is someone that local officials and business people here urged Cliff Rucker to hire long before Toby even thought of leaving. When you consider San Jose didn't give two craps about Worcester and gave the front office here no support the amount of positive impact Myers had for the businesses and community here was incredible. And now that Toby is gone Myers is showing why nearly everyone wanted him there.

So of you're going to talk about things that are happening here in Worcester you should take a few minutes and look into what's actually happening here.

 

[wildthing202]

http://www.telegram.com/sports/20160914/holy-cross-hockey-could-be-moving-to-hockey-east-dcu-center

Talks about the Railers a bit.

 

[Woo Hockey]

Named coach and the GM lol? Meet player and coach Reggie Dunlop. I don't know, very skeptical about this. How can any one person truly be tasked with General Manager duties, and fulfill all the responsibility that goes along with coaching?? We're not talking the FHL, or even the SPHL, we're talking a league that has evolved into a season long developmental league which plays an important role in the chain of development of pro hockey. Coaches should concern themselves with the coaching, the hockey operations side of things. GMs should only be tasked with finances of operating the team.

Having someone play two major roles like the coach and GM or like the example you gave of being coach and player isn't uncommon, especially in the Minor pro leagues like the ECHL or AHL. I'm pretty sure there's been a few player coaches in the NHL at one point. There's definitely some overlap between these positions and I don't think it's a dumb idea to be assigned a double position like that as it could make them do better at either position.

Skeptical yea because I think the two responsibilities are not one of the same. I think a coach shouldn't be burdened with all the "financial" or "front office" responsibilities that come along with a GM title. I get skeptical when I hear things like GM Coach or even player coach, especially at the developmental minor pro level. My concerns are an organization is trying to consolidate function as cost savings measure. Worcester already has one departure before the puck has even been dropped. I think northeast markets once home to AHL clubs opening up for the ECHL is a very good thing but Worcester's arrival has been interesting to date. The soccer like "HC" brand of the club, one front office departure already, and the owner earlier announcing what "he" needs from the business community to get things off the ground.

For northeast cities formerly home to AHL team's owners need to realize and expect a year or maybe quite possibly two or three seasons of adjustments. I want to see the ECHL do well and be sustainable in places like Worcester, Portland, and Adirondack very much. I think having the ECHL All Star game in Adirondack will be a good way to league showcase from fans in nearby Worcester, Portland, and maybe fans in nearby Utica or Binghamton will make the short trip to catch some ECHL should the AHL depart their cities.

Departures within an organization shouldn't be that big of a deal unless there have been multiple people departing from the same position within a short period of time. Toby O'Brien's departure wasn't on bad terms and I recall him stating at one point that he'd eventually move up to a position within the NHL as that was his goal from the start. Hockey is a business and when you get a job offer in a bigger organization for a bigger role, you should take it.

Going off on a tangent here but I've seen twitter interaction between the Former President and GM Toby O'Brien and the new Coach and GM Jamie Russell, I don't have any doubts that Toby played a role in landing Jamie Russell that position in Worcester. That just shows that even though Toby's going on to bigger things, he's not backing away from his words that he wants this team to succeed in Worcester.

 

[Woo Hockey]

http://www.telegram.com/sports/20160914/holy-cross-hockey-could-be-moving-to-hockey-east-dcu-center

Talks about the Railers a bit.

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=2125473

There's a discussion on that in the Boston Bruins forum. They don't seem to think it would work but there are 36 home games for ECHL teams and 18 for Hockey East. There could be some overlap but putting into account that you won't have both teams playing at home during the same weekends means people in Worcester will have something to do. We could see Friday nights for HC and Saturday nights for Railers, or even double headers on Saturdays. Some posters here seem to think they'll compete with each other.

 

[Nightsquad]

Yea see the talks of Worcester hosting a Holy Cross team in Hockey East is of great concern to an ECHL team which doesnt yet exist. Heck a Hockey East team sharing the same building of an existing AHL team would be of a concern. We see what it did to Lowell's AHL club, it probably is not helping Hartford's Wolfpack attendance either. Like it or not but NCAA DI college hockey alumni makes up roughly 30% or better of today's NHL players. Those numbers are not peanuts and when you consider NCAA DI teams are starting to call bigger and better buildings home and the fact they charge much cheaper ticket prices then many AHL or even ECHL teams the college hockey becomes a much better value. Especially in today's AHL where it's NHL development is a priority over winning at the minor league level. The beauty of college sports is that it's always the goal to win, win for the college community as well as civic pride for the cities they call home. Even Smallbany NY when they host the two nearby colleges of Union and RPI in Albany's downtown arena each year the game draws around 10,000 whereby Albany's AHL team seldom draws half of that on any given night of the season. I am very optimistic for the return of minor league hockey to Worcester and think the city would be a perfect fit for an ECHL northeastern footprint but the news of hockey east calling Worcester home bears watching cautiously.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

Skeptical yea because I think the two responsibilities are not one of the same. I think a coach shouldn't be burdened with all the "financial" or "front office" responsibilities that come along with a GM title.

Dual coach/GM is pretty standard in the ECHL and doesn't seem to have been much of an impediment to success.

Steve Martinson of Allen has won four consecutive AA Championships (the last 2 in the ECHL, prior 2 in the CHL) as coach/GM. When the Cincinnati Cyclones won their two Kelly Cups in 2008 and 2010, Chuck Weber was coach/GM.

 

[CrazyEddie20]

Dual coach/GM is pretty standard in the ECHL and doesn't seem to have been much of an impediment to success.

Steve Martinson of Allen has won four consecutive AA Championships (the last 2 in the ECHL, prior 2 in the CHL) as coach/GM. When the Cincinnati Cyclones won their two Kelly Cups in 2008 and 2010, Chuck Weber was coach/GM.

All of this is true, except that the CHL was not Class AA.

 

[Speed]

Yea see the talks of Worcester hosting a Holy Cross team in Hockey East is of great concern to an ECHL team which doesnt yet exist. Heck a Hockey East team sharing the same building of an existing AHL team would be of a concern. We see what it did to Lowell's AHL club, it probably is not helping Hartford's Wolfpack attendance either. Like it or not but NCAA DI college hockey alumni makes up roughly 30% or better of today's NHL players. Those numbers are not peanuts and when you consider NCAA DI teams are starting to call bigger and better buildings home and the fact they charge much cheaper ticket prices then many AHL or even ECHL teams the college hockey becomes a much better value. Especially in today's AHL where it's NHL development is a priority over winning at the minor league level. The beauty of college sports is that it's always the goal to win, win for the college community as well as civic pride for the cities they call home. Even Smallbany NY when they host the two nearby colleges of Union and RPI in Albany's downtown arena each year the game draws around 10,000 whereby Albany's AHL team seldom draws half of that on any given night of the season. I am very optimistic for the return of minor league hockey to Worcester and think the city would be a perfect fit for an ECHL northeastern footprint but the news of hockey east calling Worcester home bears watching cautiously.

LOL more like what the Devils did to Lowell's AHL club. It's not a big issue, there isn't much co-mingling between the pro and college fans in Worcester. Even with pro hockey being dark, not much of a bump in attendance, and there was a game at the DCU last year which 'announced' attendance was just over 1000. The draw would be from out of the area HE fans. We'll be like Baltimore, when the Red Sox come to visit.

 

[Cyclones Rock]

All of this is true, except that the CHL was not Class AA.

Sure it was. While the ECHL was certainly a half step up from the CHL, the CHL was a lot closer to the ECHL in caliber of play than it was to the A level SPHL. CHL teams had some affiliations with AHL teams IIRC.

 

[Speed]

Possible update

 

[wildthing202]

http://www.telegram.com/sports/2016...ers-while-holy-cross-hockey-east-plot-futures

News update...

 

[wildcat48]

http://www.telegram.com/sports/2016...ers-while-holy-cross-hockey-east-plot-futures

News update...

Just the fact that this is even being brought up is mind-boggling. I would have never thought there was a remote possibility that Worcester's ECHL club would come to Maine nor would I have even expected it. Just Rucker saying it out loud leaves me shocked. *

 

[210]

Just the fact that this is even being brought up is mind-boggling. I would have never thought there was a remote possibility that Worcester's ECHL club would come to Maine nor would I have even expected it. Just Rucker saying it out loud leaves me shocked. *

Rucker didn't actually say that. The editorial content around the quote makes it seem like his comments are about Portland, but it's really about shutting down in Worcester.

 

[wildcat48]

Rucker is in Kansas City this week to attend the annual ECHL league meeting and said he did not want the future of his team to be a topic of discussion at the meeting, which is one reason he wanted to go public about his plans.

Staying here was not his only option. Rucker could have just shut down the team, for one thing, and Portland, Maine, is looking for a pro team to replace the AHL Pirates. They have moved to Springfield for the 2016-17 season.

“When the story broke, the thought crossed my mind. I’m not going to lie,†he responded to questions about the Portland option, or shutting down. “I was thinking about it, and I couldn’t do it. I’ve already invested two years of my life in this.â€

The fact that Portland is even mention I found interesting.

 

[210]

The fact that Portland is even mention I found interesting.

It was mentioned by Ballou, not Rucker. No idea why Ballou did that.

 

[Woo Hockey]

Recap of the event held tonight:

https://woo.hockey/2e10vrj

Jamie Russell, Mike Myers, and Cliff Rucker spoke at the event about the contributions the team has brought to the community and the businesses that have sponsored the team.

The team has $900,000 in corporate commitments, which is above more than half of every other ECHL team. The team has set a goal to be in the top 5% of teams in season ticket holders and in corporate commitments. The team wants anyone and everyone to be involved and by doing so, they will meet those goals.

 

[wildthing202]

http://www.telegram.com/news/20161014/game-changers-reveal-what-brought-them-to-worcester?start=2

Talks about why they went to Worcester and stuff.

 

[210]

RailersHC hits 1000 season tickets

http://railershc.com/1086-2/

 

[GarbageGoal]

I know it's probably a ways off, but what are the chances Worcester games are broadcast on WTAG?

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

I know it's probably a ways off, but what are the chances Worcester games are broadcast on WTAG?

Railers also got the same broadcaster back from the Sharks era, after a season w/ the Barracuda as Eric Lindquist returns as VP of marketing/communications, I'D LOVE to find out how SVSE allowed Lindqvist to exit the Sharks organization;

IT wouldn't shock anyone if WTAG Gets the call.

Russell's an interesting choice, too, knowing the drama off ice in Elmira didn't seem to affect the Jackals on ice.

 

[210]

I know it's probably a ways off, but what are the chances Worcester games are broadcast on WTAG?

They'd be the logical choice...

 

[210]

I'D LOVE to find out how SVSE allowed Lindqvist to exit the Sharks organization;

Ummm....my guess is he said "I'm quitting" and they said "OK". It's not like they could stop him from quitting his job.

 

[Woo Hockey]

The logo on the jerseys look better than what I expected them to be.

 

[mk80]

Those are some good looking threads. The logo is not bad, I think the different look works well for them.