Sodboy13

But think of what it might do to the deeeeevellllllopmennnnnnt

The Ontario Reign have let it leak via season ticket literature that they'll only be playing a 68-game season, as opposed to the 76 games the other 25 AHL teams will play. I am now calling the AHL Pacific the Special Snowflake Division.

Las Vegas now offering, for the low low price of two season ticket deposits, a free replica jersey of a team that may never have a name, logo, or colors. Expect the offer to be upped to an ownership stake and complimentary buffet at the Bellagio by next Thursday.

In two weeks, Las Vegas has found 7,000 of the 10,000 people it wanted to drop down a $150 refundable deposit on potential NHL season tickets. Hey, that seems very, very bad! I bet the league won't be holding any guns to heads about it like they did with Winnipeg, though!

That story's from May 20, 2014. The team announced a few weeks ago that it was folding.

Canucks announce Tom Sestito isn't going to ever play anywhere in their system again:

http://www.uticacomets.com/tom-sestito-out-for-the-season/

This is a weird thing, right? I mean, we all know he's a sack of crap on the ice, but he must be doing something dreadful off of it to get perma-benched from AHL action.

Don't worry, unnamed Russian dillhole, he'll be getting $3 million in evaporating oligarch money per season the moment his sentence of probation and deportation gets handed down.

Oh, Cathal Kelly wrote this? *reads two lines in, prints article, wipes ass with it*

10,000 pledges of $150 each?

Calgary ditching the Stockton Thunder identity that's been around for a decade to rebrand the team the Flames. Well, that went great in Quad City, I'm sure it'll take off like gangbusters in a place that's actually bankrupt.

I know Brampton was basically added as a desperate, last-ditch move by the CeHL to keep a respectable number of teams, and I think they basically got subsidized by the few CeHL owners with actual money to barely make it to the merger. That's a team that never should have been, and it can't go away fast enough.

Then disband the league and run intrasquad scrimmages in practice rinks, like an NFL practice squad. Don't have a league that you expect hundreds of thousands of people to attend and support if you aren't interested in maintaining the facade of one.

If I'm paying money to watch a hockey game, I am going to that game to watch teams play to win, not to watch systems run drills. If the NHL wants the Calgary/New Jersey model, they can stop pretending it's a product anyone should spend thousands, hundreds, or even tens of dollars on.

I'd be okay with the AHL basically functioning as three separate leagues until playoff time: an 8-team league in the West, an 8 or 10-team league in the Great Lakes/Midwest/Texas, and a 14 or 16-team league in the Northeast. But the current setup, where you pretend to be one unified league, oh but here's some teams that never play outside their conference, oh and here's some teams who practically play as much out of conference as they do inside their division, oh and this little group of teams doesn't have to play as many games as all the other ones do, is certifiable garbage. And it's an insult to fans in the markets who understand, yes, it's an affiliated minor league, but that shouldn't prevent it from being a properly competitive one.

Don't forget Glens Falls.

Someone in the truck at Fox Sports Tennessee was engaging in a recreational pursuit on the clock, and didn't realize the pot for the audio feed from that computer was up.

It was porn. Porn porn porn porn porn.

Wes Gilbertson of the Calgary Sun says, per Gary Bettman, the California teams will play fewer games per season then the rest of the league. That's nice and fair for the playoffs!

Actually, how are the Avs going to get their hands on an AHL team too, because the Cavs aren't selling.

Apparently, the owner of the Norfolk Admirals was told in no uncertain terms that if he didn't sell his franchise to the Ducks, they'd terminate their affiliation, and no one else would come to replace them. So, that's how.

Sports reporter in Rockford asked someone with the IceHogs on how the Pacific movement would impact them, and the spokesperson basically said they'd replace some eastern-ish road games with some western ones. So it looks like the Pacific 5 may not be completely insular. Maybe each of the other 10 West teams takes a swing through California with a game or two at each stop.

Scott Walker promised $220 million to the new arena about two breaths after he announced his plan to cut $300 million in funding to the University of Wisconsin system. I hope Rocky Wirtz calls territorial rights for that alone.

NHL Milwaukee isn't happening unless the Bucks move, and the new arena is based entirely on the Bucks staying and will therefore likely be basketball-centric. I wouldn't be surprised if the Admirals get bumped to the MECCA when the new taxpayer-funded palace for a basketball team that hasn't been relevant in 45 years opens for business.

Oh, and all media events for the Super Bowl are being held in Phoenix (including today's media day at US Airways Arena instead of the Jobberdome), and ESPN is basing all of their Super Bowl activity out of Scottsdale. GOOD JORB, GLENDALE.

Glendale, Arizona is a sports money pit, and the Times is on it!

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/sports/football/albatross-of-debt-weighs-on-super-bowl-city.html?src=mv&_r=0&referrer

Sleazy buttnugget Daryl Katz, who you may remember from his "oh hey just chillin with my bro Gretz in Seattle at a Seahawks game nbd" escapade, loansharked an OHL team as part of an elaborate plan to threaten to move the Oilers to Hamilton.

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/hockey-lawsuit-exposes-grimy-underside-of-sports-ownership/article22646466/?service=mobile&cmpid=rss1&click=dlvr.it

The Timber Rattler is neither native to the Fox River Valley, nor is the team the only Midwest League franchise in Wisconsin.

See also: The Wisconsin Woodchucks of the Northwoods League, who started out as the Wausau Woodchucks, and inexplicably changed as more Wisconsin teams got added to the league, including one in Wisconsin Rapids.

The Phantoms logo is obviously a rough draft, and even though I don't care for what I see, "Fox Cities Phantoms" sounds a whole lot more natural and has a better flow to it than "Wisconsin Timber Rattlers", which was clunky to me even in the XXXXTREME mid-'90s when it was unveiled.

There's been a stated intent to move the Icecaps to Thunder Bay, but I think Thunder Bay has to actually build an arena for it to happen. I don't know if shovels are even in the ground for it yet.

Pierre LeBrun says Matthew Hulsizer is going to buy a minority stake in the Wild.

And also, the Devils killed hockey in Lowell. Proving harder to do it in Albany, but it's not for lack of trying!

Maybe eventually. Canucks to Abbotsford seems especially inevitable. When the Heat played there, the Wolves were the Canucks' affiliate, and had to play Abby eight times a year, despite not being in their division, because those were the only four games a season the Heat could fill more than half the arena. Arizona may not want to shift theirs west because 1) they don't own Portland outright and don't want to buy a franchise, and 2) we're about 2 years out from the next Here We Go Again thread. All signs point to a 5-team western division/conference/league/fiefdom being announce at the outset.

Admiral: Hey, the QC Mallards still exist! In the ECHL, no less.