Minor League Hockey Shake-up...coming

[JerseyJimmy]

putting your AHL team in your own city is one of the lamest things ever. watch, they're gonna call them "Calgary Flames II" or something like a USL club.

[CaliforniaGlowin]

And here the Kraken's AHL team is two states away.  With a custom arena, they ain't leaving anytime soon.

[DustDevil61]

49 minutes ago, CaliforniaGlowin said:

And here the Kraken's AHL team is two states away.  With a custom arena, they ain't leaving anytime soon.

 

The Firebirds themselves aren't going anywhere anytime soon, but I could see a scenario a few years down the line where they and Bakersfield swap affiliates (CV-->EDM, BAK-->SEA) and the Kraken shift the Condors to Boise. Of course, that would also require the Oilers to not move the Condors somewhere near Edmonton in said time (which I think they probably will).

[monkeypower]

It will be interesting to see how this shakes up the Calgary hockey and sporting scene.

 

Will the Heat draw fans? How does this impact the Hitmen? How will it to a lesser extent impact the Roughnecks? Does this have any impact on the Jr. A Canucks?

[Dilbert]

It will be interesting to see how Calgary plays out. Winnipeg has the Jets and  Moose (same venue) and WHL Ice, while Toronto has Maple Leafs and Marlies (seperate venues) and multiple nearby OHL teams. I know Canadians love their hockey but do they love it this much?

[DEAD!]

7 minutes ago, Dilbert said:

It will be interesting to see how Calgary plays out. Winnipeg has the Jets and  Moose (same venue) and WHL Ice, while Toronto has Maple Leafs and Marlies (seperate venues) and multiple nearby OHL teams. I know Canadians love their hockey but do they love it this much?

Also, the Montreal area has the Canadiens,  Laval Rocket and if you want to stretch out, the Armada. 

[Discrim]

On 5/23/2022 at 11:58 PM, JerseyJimmy said:

putting your AHL team in your own city is one of the lamest things ever. watch, they're gonna call them "Calgary Flames II" or something like a USL club.

If it were anybody else, I'd be skeptical...but it's the Flames.  Completely believable.

[LMU]

On 5/23/2022 at 9:58 PM, JerseyJimmy said:

putting your AHL team in your own city is one of the lamest things ever. watch, they're gonna call them "Calgary Flames II" or something like a USL club.

Clearly the Jets and Sharks missed the memo on that.

[TBGKon]

On 5/23/2022 at 7:39 PM, DustDevil61 said:

They couldn’t even wait for the Heat’s playoff run to end, could they?

I’m bummed for Stockton being among the latest scorched-earth (pardon the pun) market hit by Flames management. I’m also bummed that a larger, closer ECHL city like Salt Lake or Boise got passed over for AHL hockey (again), but the silver lining here is that neither of those cities will be Calgary’s next victim.

The talk around the league is that Salt Lake isnt interested in moving up to the AHL level.

[Burmy]

11 minutes ago, TBGKon said:

The talk around the league is that Salt Lake isnt interested in moving up to the AHL level.

The Utah Grizzlies were in the AHL for four seasons, having joined in '01 as one of the six IHL survivors to join (along with my Milwaukee Admirals and the Chicago Wolves, Grand Rapids Griffins, Manitoba Moose and Houston Aeros) before switching leagues in '05 (they bought the ECHL franchise most recently known as the Lexington Men-o-War, while their AHL franchise went dormant before being purchased by a new group, where they're now the Cleveland Monsters).

So maybe something went terribly wrong with their AHL time (likely how they were far away from other teams) and that's why have no interest in going back...

[Dilbert]

7 hours ago, Burmy said:

The Utah Grizzlies were in the AHL for four seasons, having joined in '01 as one of the six IHL survivors to join (along with my Milwaukee Admirals and the Chicago Wolves, Grand Rapids Griffins, Manitoba Moose and Houston Aeros) before switching leagues in '05 (they bought the ECHL franchise most recently known as the Lexington Men-o-War, while their AHL franchise went dormant before being purchased by a new group, where they're now the Cleveland Monsters).

So maybe something went terribly wrong with their AHL time (likely how they were far away from other teams) and that's why have no interest in going back...

To be fair at that time they were the only western team. Closest teams to them were San Antonio and Houston. When they joined the ECHL  in 2005 they had 10 other western opponents including, Idaho, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. Since then many of the western teams moved to the AHL and Utah and Idaho are the only western ECHL teams. If they did join the AHL now, they would have 9 other Western clubs including Colorado, Henderson, Tucson. Would they fit better geographically? Yes, but maybe they are happy with the ECHL costs and level.

[rams80]

9 hours ago, LMU said:

Clearly the Jets and Sharks missed the memo on that.

 

I mean, San Jose's AHL team might as well not exist between not actually selling tickets and not actually really trying to win.  They are space fillers intended to delude a corporate partner into thinking that it is people.

[monkeypower]

I see that the AHL schedule was released a couple days ago which includes the new Calgary team showing they are playing in Calgary and the Calgary release says they will be playing at the Saddledome. 

 

The WHL schedule was released a month ago showing the Hitmen still playing in the Saddledome and last year's NLL schedule wasn't released until September so it appears we won't know the Roughnecks schedule for a bit, but looks to me that there are going to be four teams running out of the Saddledome now. There's also some double bookings right now between the Flames, the Hitmen and the AHLers. We'll see how that goes and how much people take to the AHL team.

 

However, there's been absolutely nothing other than that, to my knowledge, that I have heard about this team. Not that I'm a Flames fan nor an AHL fan, but I am local to Calgary. Looking right now, the Flames Twitter account made a post about the AHL schedule release and tagged the Stockton Heat account. The AHL website uses the Flames logo. Tuscon's schedule release video just says Calgary instead of listing an arena name like they do for the other teams.

 

There'll have to be a name and logo announcement soon-ish, right?

[SeaTac]

On 5/26/2022 at 10:55 PM, rams80 said:

 

I mean, San Jose's AHL team might as well not exist between not actually selling tickets and not actually really trying to win.  They are space fillers intended to delude a corporate partner into thinking that it is people.

 

I went to a Barracuda game a few years ago. It felt like there were literally 400 people inside the Tank. 

[Seadragon76]

What will help for San Jose is a new arena - Tech CU Arena (Technology Credit Union Arena) opens its doors in August.

 

This is basically an expansion of the parent franchise's training facility to include a new home for the Barracuda.

[mcj882000]

1 hour ago, monkeypower said:

I see that the AHL schedule was released a couple days ago which includes the new Calgary team showing they are playing in Calgary and the Calgary release says they will be playing at the Saddledome. 

 

The WHL schedule was released a month ago showing the Hitmen still playing in the Saddledome and last year's NLL schedule wasn't released until September so it appears we won't know the Roughnecks schedule for a bit, but looks to me that there are going to be four teams running out of the Saddledome now. There's also some double bookings right now between the Flames, the Hitmen and the AHLers. We'll see how that goes and how much people take to the AHL team.

 

However, there's been absolutely nothing other than that, to my knowledge, that I have heard about this team. Not that I'm a Flames fan nor an AHL fan, but I am local to Calgary. Looking right now, the Flames Twitter account made a post about the AHL schedule release and tagged the Stockton Heat account. The AHL website uses the Flames logo. Tuscon's schedule release video just says Calgary instead of listing an arena name like they do for the other teams.

 

There'll have to be a name and logo announcement soon-ish, right?

Man, after all the speculation they were gonna be playing at the new arena on the Tsuut'ina Nation that hosted some Hitmen & Heat games during the pandemic, or even at Max Bell (which was unlikely anyways due to its age, but it's close to me so I can dream dangit), they're just gonna play at the Saddledome? That's kinda lame, but what else would I expect from a Flames farm team at this point?

[SeaTac]

4 hours ago, Seadragon76 said:

What will help for San Jose is a new arena - Tech CU Arena (Technology Credit Union Arena) opens its doors in August.

 

This is basically an expansion of the parent franchise's training facility to include a new home for the Barracuda.

 

It looks like it's going to be a nice little place for them plus they landed the 2024 AHL All-Star game to boot. 

[mcj882000]

The new name is in, the Stockton Heat have become the 2nd incarnation of the Calgary Wranglers. I for one am pleasantly surprised.

 

[VDizzle12]

On 5/24/2022 at 12:58 AM, JerseyJimmy said:

putting your AHL team in your own city is one of the lamest things ever. watch, they're gonna call them "Calgary Flames II" or something like a USL club.

 

It's lame and kind of unfair to other cities that could definitely support an AHL team. The NBA G-League is even more guilty of this (12 teams basically in the same city or metro of their parent club. Do teams in these leagues care more about convenience than attendance and fan support?

 

I'm still a bit salty that the Erie Blades only stuck around for one season in the AHL in the 80s and the Erie Bayhawks had decent attendance but kept getting dumped by their NBA affiliates and no longer exist. Now we're just stuck with the OHL and AA baseball. Neither really interest me anymore. 

[Burmy]

1 hour ago, VDizzle12 said:

 

It's lame and kind of unfair to other cities that could definitely support an AHL team. The NBA G-League is even more guilty of this (12 teams basically in the same city or metro of their parent club. Do teams in these leagues care more about convenience than attendance and fan support?

 

I'm still a bit salty that the Erie Blades only stuck around for one season in the AHL in the 80s and the Erie Bayhawks had decent attendance but kept getting dumped by their NBA affiliates and no longer exist. Now we're just stuck with the OHL and AA baseball. Neither really interest me anymore. 

This is another reason I get scared whenever I hear about the Preds' on-and-off proposed new minor league arena in Clarksville...because I worry that MKE might lose the Admirals (or that they'd be relegated to the ECHL)