NHL/AHL Affiliation Changes 2011

[Sodboy13]

One step down on the minor league ladder, but the Devils have successfully killed another hockey market. Albany, you're next!

[bosrs1]

One step down on the minor league ladder, but the Devils have successfully killed another hockey market. Albany, you're next!

Damn didn't they just kill Lowell last year? They're already on my list for killing that team. As the Lock Monsters they were the last sporting event I ever went to with my granddad before he started suffering dementia and eventually passed.

[RyanB06]

Here are the reorganized divisions for this season:

Eastern Conference:

Atlantic Division - Providence (Boston Bruins), Manchester (Los Angeles Kings), Portland (Phoenix Coyotes), St. John's (Winnipeg) and Worcester (San Jose)

Northeast Division - Adirondack (Philadelphia Flyers), Albany (New Jersey Devils), Bridgeport (New York Islanders), Connecticut (New York Rangers) and Springfield (Columbus Blue Jackets)

East Division - Binghamton (Ottawa Senators), Hershey (Washington Capitals), Norfolk (Tampa Bay), Syracuse (Anaheim Ducks) and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (Pittsburgh Penguins)

Western Conference:

North Division - Grand Rapids (Detroit Red Wings), Hamilton (Montréal Canadiens), Lake Erie (Colorado Avalanche), Rochester (Buffalo Sabres) and Toronto (Toronto Maple Leafs)

Midwest Division - Charlotte (Carolina Hurricanes), Chicago (Vancouver), Milwaukee (Nashville Predators), Peoria (St. Louis Blues) and Rockford (Chicago Blackhawks)

West Division - Abbotsford (Calgary Flames), Houston (Minnesota Wild), Oklahoma (Edmonton Oilers), San Antonio (Florida Panthers) and Texas (Dallas Stars)

Eastern Conference looks great. Not a fan of losing the Connecticut-Providence rivalry, but keeping Springfield and Bridgeport in the division with them was a good move. (Also a good thing for the Whale: both Portland and Manchester are gone. Yay!)

Also really looks like the AHL is trying to convince Calgary to pull out of Abby after next season. 1900 miles from Houston, 1800 from both Austin and San Antonio, and about 1560 to OKC. I can't even imagine what their travel budget will look like.

[rams80]

Here are the reorganized divisions for this season:

Eastern Conference:

Atlantic Division - Providence (Boston Bruins), Manchester (Los Angeles Kings), Portland (Phoenix Coyotes), St. John's (Winnipeg) and Worcester (San Jose)

Northeast Division - Adirondack (Philadelphia Flyers), Albany (New Jersey Devils), Bridgeport (New York Islanders), Connecticut (New York Rangers) and Springfield (Columbus Blue Jackets)

East Division - Binghamton (Ottawa Senators), Hershey (Washington Capitals), Norfolk (Tampa Bay), Syracuse (Anaheim Ducks) and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (Pittsburgh Penguins)

Western Conference:

North Division - Grand Rapids (Detroit Red Wings), Hamilton (Montréal Canadiens), Lake Erie (Colorado Avalanche), Rochester (Buffalo Sabres) and Toronto (Toronto Maple Leafs)

Midwest Division - Charlotte (Carolina Hurricanes), Chicago (Vancouver), Milwaukee (Nashville Predators), Peoria (St. Louis Blues) and Rockford (Chicago Blackhawks)

West Division - Abbotsford (Calgary Flames), Houston (Minnesota Wild), Oklahoma (Edmonton Oilers), San Antonio (Florida Panthers) and Texas (Dallas Stars)

Eastern Conference looks great. Not a fan of losing the Connecticut-Providence rivalry, but keeping Springfield and Bridgeport in the division with them was a good move. (Also a good thing for the Whale: both Portland and Manchester are gone. Yay!)

Also really looks like the AHL is trying to convince Calgary to pull out of Abby after next season. 1900 miles from Houston, 1800 from both Austin and San Antonio, and about 1560 to OKC. I can't even imagine what their travel budget will look like.

Abbotsford has already announced its plans to downsize its entire police department.

[OMMF]

I know Cleveland is pretty much set to always have a team somewhere in the AHL, but if Colorado or someone could somehow see fit to put their farm team in Boulder or Colorado Springs, if for no other reason than to make Abbotsford not so lonely, that'd be kinda cool.

Boulder wouldn't be so bad... Hell, put that team in the Coors Event Center and you're good to go.

Colorado Springs, on the other hand... I don't know if their arena (Which is used for Colorado College men's hockey team) would be up to AHL standards (If there is any).

You could always kick the Eagles out of the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, just south of Fort Collins. 7500+ seats would be enough, no?

[Seadragon76]

That would be enough (Abbotsford's arena only holds just a smidge about 7000), so that could be an option.

[Lee.]

Holds 7000, but only 3100 can be bothered to go to a game at anytime

[The_Admiral]

One step down on the minor league ladder, but the Devils have successfully killed another hockey market. Albany, you're next!

404Looks like your lost!OOOPS! The page you are looking for is no longer here.

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Looks like my lost

[Sodboy13]

That's weird. The league completely deleted the story from their site.

Anyhoo.

From nightly sellouts to dead-last in attendance. That's the Devils way.

Lowest Attendance, American Hockey League:

2006-07 Lowell Devils

2007-08 Lowell Devils

2008-09 Lowell Devils

2009-10 Lowell Devils

2010-11 Albany Devils

[JQK]

That's weird. The league completely deleted the story from their site.

Anyhoo.

From nightly sellouts to dead-last in attendance. That's the Devils way.

Lowest Attendance, American Hockey League:

2006-07 Lowell Devils

2007-08 Lowell Devils

2008-09 Lowell Devils

2009-10 Lowell Devils

2010-11 Albany Devils

So long as the players develop in the system, who cares...

[Breakwood]

That's weird. The league completely deleted the story from their site.

Anyhoo.

From nightly sellouts to dead-last in attendance. That's the Devils way.

Lowest Attendance, American Hockey League:

2006-07 Lowell Devils

2007-08 Lowell Devils

2008-09 Lowell Devils

2009-10 Lowell Devils

2010-11 Albany Devils

So long as the players develop in the system, who cares...

I don't know if anyone can say the Devils are developing players anymore.

[Lee.]

If the Devils and Flames were willing to split a farm team, they could kill mid-sized hockey markets in half the time.

[Sodboy13]

That's weird. The league completely deleted the story from their site.

Anyhoo.

From nightly sellouts to dead-last in attendance. That's the Devils way.

Lowest Attendance, American Hockey League:

2006-07 Lowell Devils

2007-08 Lowell Devils

2008-09 Lowell Devils

2009-10 Lowell Devils

2010-11 Albany Devils

So long as the players develop in the system, who cares...

Should the WBS Devils ever come to pass, you might.

[JQK]

That's weird. The league completely deleted the story from their site.

Anyhoo.

From nightly sellouts to dead-last in attendance. That's the Devils way.

Lowest Attendance, American Hockey League:

2006-07 Lowell Devils

2007-08 Lowell Devils

2008-09 Lowell Devils

2009-10 Lowell Devils

2010-11 Albany Devils

So long as the players develop in the system, who cares...

Should the WBS Devils ever come to pass, you might.

Meh... that's never gonna happen. The Pens are entrenched up here. There are no Devils fans in Lowell or in Albany. They have no pool to draw from. The NHL team has a very small fanbase to draw from as it is. There's one smudge of Jersey that's Devils country, the rest is Flyers or Rags. What hope is there of drawing fans in the minor leagues? Hoping for an AHL success story from the Devils organization is insanity.

[OMMF]

That's weird. The league completely deleted the story from their site.

Anyhoo.

From nightly sellouts to dead-last in attendance. That's the Devils way.

Lowest Attendance, American Hockey League:

2006-07 Lowell Devils

2007-08 Lowell Devils

2008-09 Lowell Devils

2009-10 Lowell Devils

2010-11 Albany Devils

So long as the players develop in the system, who cares...

By that rationale, any Canadian Hockey League team that gets players into the NHL shouldn't worry about attendance because it is all about developing players. We all know that isn't the case. These teams are businesses first and hockey producers second. If the attendance didn't matter, no team would ever move. NHL teams can't keep scorching earth and then moving on. At some point, they, or the people running the team they are affiliated with, need to invest in it. I don't think anyone is looking for a success story so much as a sign of interest from anyone involved.

[Sodboy13]

There are no Devils fans in Lowell or in Albany. They have no pool to draw from.

As opposed to the large pools of Capitals fans in Hershey, Thrashers fans in Chicago, Predators fans in Milwaukee, and Wild fans in Houston, I reckon. Maybe if the team bothered branding as something unique to their market, or didn't kill the established brand, like they did in Lowell, Trenton, and Albany, people would show.

I realize the aim of the NHL and AHL was to have a 30:30 balance, but the efforts put forth by the Devils and Flames are proving that perhaps this isn't the best idea. Some teams clearly feel they don't need that full tier of development. Let them take second-banana status and share an AHL franchise with another club.

[bosrs1]

There are no Devils fans in Lowell or in Albany. They have no pool to draw from.

As opposed to the large pools of Capitals fans in Hershey, Thrashers fans in Chicago, Predators fans in Milwaukee, and Wild fans in Houston, I reckon. Maybe if the team bothered branding as something unique to their market, or didn't kill the established brand, like they did in Lowell, Trenton, and Albany, people would show.

I realize the aim of the NHL and AHL was to have a 30:30 balance, but the efforts put forth by the Devils and Flames are proving that perhaps this isn't the best idea. Some teams clearly feel they don't need that full tier of development. Let them take second-banana status and share an AHL franchise with another club.

Well therein lies the problem. The Devils insist on branding the minor league team with the name of the NHL team when they play in other NHL fan markets. Lowell had a good thing going as the Lock Monsters that it took the Devils less than a year to completely destroy. I suspect Trenton met the same fate as will Albany someday soon.

It's the same misstep that made me cringe when the Tucson Padres were formed in MiLB this year. I know they planned to move to Escondido originally and be in the Padres market, but now that this won't be happening I'd hope they would rebrand the Tucson team during the off season to something more neutral seeing as they play in the Diamondback's territory.

[rams80]

There are no Devils fans in Lowell or in Albany. They have no pool to draw from.

As opposed to the large pools of Capitals fans in Hershey, Thrashers fans in Chicago, Predators fans in Milwaukee, and Wild fans in Houston, I reckon. Maybe if the team bothered branding as something unique to their market, or didn't kill the established brand, like they did in Lowell, Trenton, and Albany, people would show.

I realize the aim of the NHL and AHL was to have a 30:30 balance, but the efforts put forth by the Devils and Flames are proving that perhaps this isn't the best idea. Some teams clearly feel they don't need that full tier of development. Let them take second-banana status and share an AHL franchise with another club.

Well therein lies the problem. The Devils insist on branding the minor league team with the name of the NHL team when they play in other NHL fan markets. Lowell had a good thing going as the Lock Monsters that it took the Devils less than a year to completely destroy. I suspect Trenton met the same fate as will Albany someday soon.

It's the same misstep that made me cringe when the Tucson Padres were formed in MiLB this year. I know they planned to move to Escondido originally and be in the Padres market, but now that this won't be happening I'd hope they would rebrand the Tucson team during the off season to something more neutral seeing as they play in the Diamondback's territory.

I'm going to dissent here and point out that the Lock Monsters never broke out of the AHL's bottom 5 in average attendance during their entire existence. And it was usually worse than that. Yeah, the Devils did a number on them, but let's not pretend this was a healthy market before the Devils took over.

Check the numbers yourself.

[OMMF]

There are no Devils fans in Lowell or in Albany. They have no pool to draw from.

As opposed to the large pools of Capitals fans in Hershey, Thrashers fans in Chicago, Predators fans in Milwaukee, and Wild fans in Houston, I reckon. Maybe if the team bothered branding as something unique to their market, or didn't kill the established brand, like they did in Lowell, Trenton, and Albany, people would show.

I realize the aim of the NHL and AHL was to have a 30:30 balance, but the efforts put forth by the Devils and Flames are proving that perhaps this isn't the best idea. Some teams clearly feel they don't need that full tier of development. Let them take second-banana status and share an AHL franchise with another club.

Well therein lies the problem. The Devils insist on branding the minor league team with the name of the NHL team when they play in other NHL fan markets. Lowell had a good thing going as the Lock Monsters that it took the Devils less than a year to completely destroy. I suspect Trenton met the same fate as will Albany someday soon.

It's the same misstep that made me cringe when the Tucson Padres were formed in MiLB this year. I know they planned to move to Escondido originally and be in the Padres market, but now that this won't be happening I'd hope they would rebrand the Tucson team during the off season to something more neutral seeing as they play in the Diamondback's territory.

I'm going to dissent here and point out that the Lock Monsters never broke out of the AHL's bottom 5 in average attendance during their entire existence. And it was usually worse than that. Yeah, the Devils did a number on them, but let's not pretend this was a healthy market before the Devils took over.

Check the numbers yourself.

I'm going to trot out the Winnipeg argument here and point out that it's not how many people but what percentage of the building is full. Getting 4000 in a 6500 seat arena is better than 5000 in an 11000 seat arena, no? Percentage-wise, their attendance wasn't terrible considering the size of the arena they were in. Add in that Lowell has a much smaller population than Cleveland, Houston, Toronto, Hamilton, etc. and they look fairly healthy as an AHL market.

[rams80]

There are no Devils fans in Lowell or in Albany. They have no pool to draw from.

As opposed to the large pools of Capitals fans in Hershey, Thrashers fans in Chicago, Predators fans in Milwaukee, and Wild fans in Houston, I reckon. Maybe if the team bothered branding as something unique to their market, or didn't kill the established brand, like they did in Lowell, Trenton, and Albany, people would show.

I realize the aim of the NHL and AHL was to have a 30:30 balance, but the efforts put forth by the Devils and Flames are proving that perhaps this isn't the best idea. Some teams clearly feel they don't need that full tier of development. Let them take second-banana status and share an AHL franchise with another club.

Well therein lies the problem. The Devils insist on branding the minor league team with the name of the NHL team when they play in other NHL fan markets. Lowell had a good thing going as the Lock Monsters that it took the Devils less than a year to completely destroy. I suspect Trenton met the same fate as will Albany someday soon.

It's the same misstep that made me cringe when the Tucson Padres were formed in MiLB this year. I know they planned to move to Escondido originally and be in the Padres market, but now that this won't be happening I'd hope they would rebrand the Tucson team during the off season to something more neutral seeing as they play in the Diamondback's territory.

I'm going to dissent here and point out that the Lock Monsters never broke out of the AHL's bottom 5 in average attendance during their entire existence. And it was usually worse than that. Yeah, the Devils did a number on them, but let's not pretend this was a healthy market before the Devils took over.

Check the numbers yourself.

I'm going to trot out the Winnipeg argument here and point out that it's not how many people but what percentage of the building is full. Getting 4000 in a 6500 seat arena is better than 5000 in an 11000 seat arena, no? Percentage-wise, their attendance wasn't terrible considering the size of the arena they were in. Add in that Lowell has a much smaller population than Cleveland, Houston, Toronto, Hamilton, etc. and they look fairly healthy as an AHL market.

They only cleared 4000 4 out of a possible 12 seasons. Honestly having teams in both Worcester and Lowell wasn't all that smart to begin with, and Lowell was probably better off just emphasizing UMass-Lowell full time.

And I'd also suggest at the minors total gate still trumps percentage. It's not like they were selling the place out.