AHL Franchise Relocation News & Rumors

[the admiral 29,105]

How entrenched can it be? United States junior hockey is at best equal to Junior A in Canada, and Junior A teams come and go like garbage in the wind. An Indianapolis IHL team would indeed be nice, probably better than my Quad Cities suggestion in the realignment thread. Conseco Fieldhouse is probably down to like 10,000 seats for hockey, perfect size for what they'd be.

[Geoff 590]

1. "At best" they're equal to Canadian Jr. A? Top USHL teams can regularly compete with the top Major Junior teams. And even if it was just as good at the BCHL, that's still a damned good league with solid teams that don't "come and go like garbage."

2. An Indy IHL team? Good luck with that, the IHL is dead.

[rams80 4,278]

2. An Indy IHL team? Good luck with that, the IHL is dead.

We're speaking in terms of "what if the AHL's Western Teams broke away and set up their own league (likely named the IHL).

[illwauk 423]

The Admirals played in the USHL for 6(?) years before going pro and linking up with the IHL, I'm sure it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for Indianapolis to do the same.

[the admiral 29,105]

I don't think that was the same USHL. This USHL is a Tier 1 junior league. It's a way for American hockey players to play junior hockey without going to major-junior and forfeiting NCAA eligibility (major-junior players get a small cost-of-living stipend which makes them professionals in the atavistic eyes of the NCAA). It would be an altogether new Indianapolis Ice franchise. Which I'm all for, after consideration. Good Beej affiliate!

And holy crap I have never seen anyone go so HAM over Tier 1 junior. I mean really. Fight on, brother, fight on.

[illwauk 423]

I don't think that was the same USHL. This USHL is a Tier 1 junior league. It's a way for American hockey players to play junior hockey without going to major-junior and forfeiting NCAA eligibility (major-junior players get a small cost-of-living stipend which makes them professionals in the atavistic eyes of the NCAA). It would be an altogether new Indianapolis Ice franchise. Which I'm all for, after consideration. Good Beej affiliate!

Nope, this was indeed the same USHL that's now home to the Green Bay Gamblers, Chicago Steel, Waterloo Black Hawks, etc. It turns out the USHL was a pro-am hybrid league for a few years in the 1970s while the Admirals played there.

[Sport 14,573]

The entire structure of minor league hockey's business model perplexes me... baseball doesn't even try to cram all of its AAA and AA clubs into a single league. When you play a schedule as division-heavy as the AHL's, it's a sign that you've pretty much failed at being a national entity. I honestly don't understand why the AHL and ECHL aren't at least three separate leagues a piece.

Well, the AHL took care of the northeast while the IHL had the midwest/south/Rockies, but the IHL got too big and collapsed under its own crapulence around 2001, 2002. The AHL took in Chicago, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Winnipeg, Salt Lake City, Houston, and maybe a few others I forget, but never really integrated them into the league fully, for obvious reasons. I believe there was a WCHL and an ECHL, but the WCHL fell apart and their teams were taken in by the ECHL.

We'd really be better off with two Triple-A leagues again with a few independent teams rather than a 1-to-1 AHL where the idiot bastard sons of the IHL are tolerated but only made to play one another. Of course, we're now looking at an NHL where the idiot bastard sons of the Western Conference are tolerated but only made to play one another, so I shouldn't get my hopes up. Oh, and same for Double-A hockey, which I feel is a really underused resource. I don't even know what goes on at an ECHL game. I suspect a million fights, but there has to be a better use for it than that.

I've been to a half dozen Cincinnati Cyclones games since moving here and I grew up with the Columbus Chill. It's a lot of fights and a lot of cheap beer, and a lot of poor skating big doofuses, and a lot of guys without the speed or size or ability to get to the next level. They're professional hockey players, but you just kinda feel bad for them. They have no future in hockey, but no future anywhere else because of hockey.

But the games are still a blast. I was at a game last year where the Cyclones trailed the Toledo Walleye 6-1 after 1 period and won 7-6 in overtime after tying the game with 15 seconds left. A couple weeks ago the Cyclones goalie was credited with a goal because he was the last player to touch the puck before the one of the Trenton Titans accidentally dumped it into his own empty net.

[rams80 4,278]

The entire structure of minor league hockey's business model perplexes me... baseball doesn't even try to cram all of its AAA and AA clubs into a single league. When you play a schedule as division-heavy as the AHL's, it's a sign that you've pretty much failed at being a national entity. I honestly don't understand why the AHL and ECHL aren't at least three separate leagues a piece.

Well, the AHL took care of the northeast while the IHL had the midwest/south/Rockies, but the IHL got too big and collapsed under its own crapulence around 2001, 2002. The AHL took in Chicago, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Winnipeg, Salt Lake City, Houston, and maybe a few others I forget, but never really integrated them into the league fully, for obvious reasons. I believe there was a WCHL and an ECHL, but the WCHL fell apart and their teams were taken in by the ECHL.

We'd really be better off with two Triple-A leagues again with a few independent teams rather than a 1-to-1 AHL where the idiot bastard sons of the IHL are tolerated but only made to play one another. Of course, we're now looking at an NHL where the idiot bastard sons of the Western Conference are tolerated but only made to play one another, so I shouldn't get my hopes up. Oh, and same for Double-A hockey, which I feel is a really underused resource. I don't even know what goes on at an ECHL game. I suspect a million fights, but there has to be a better use for it than that.

I've been to a half dozen Cincinnati Cyclones games since moving here and I grew up with the Columbus Chill. It's a lot of fights and a lot of cheap beer, and a lot of poor skating big doofuses, and a lot of guys without the speed or size or ability to get to the next level. They're professional hockey players, but you just kinda feel bad for them. They have no future in hockey, but no future anywhere else because of hockey.

But the games are still a blast. I was at a game last year where the Cyclones trailed the Toledo Walleye 6-1 after 1 period and won 7-6 in overtime after tying the game with 15 seconds left. A couple weeks ago the Cyclones goalie was credited with a goal because he was the last player to touch the puck before the one of the Trenton Titans accidentally dumped it into his own empty net.

I wouldn't say the fighting is as frequent as say the CHL or SPHL. The developmental track does exist a little more strongly in the ECHL, so you will get at least some players who could theoretically top out as 3rd or 4th liners in the NHL if they really worked at it. But yeah, it does kind of straddle the line between beer league and actual developmental league.

[rvrdgsfn 94]

So.... Here's the latest Rumor....

The Heat move to Utica, In return the Canucks buy the Peoria Rivermen and move them to Abbotsford while the Wolves become the Blues affiliate... Although Peoria is denying this.

http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1522341785/Eminian-Rumor-mill-talks-of-Rivermen-move

[the admiral 29,105]

That's a terrible idea. The whole idea of moving the team from Abbotsford to Utica is to not have an AHL team in Abbotsford anymore.

Have you guys seen the Utica Auditorium? They filmed parts of Slap Shot there. I don't know how they couldn't have.

This has to happen. It's like when that one wrestling federation had shows inside a big pink cube.

[Island_Style 163]

So.... Here's the latest Rumor....

The Heat move to Utica, In return the Canucks buy the Peoria Rivermen and move them to Abbotsford while the Wolves become the Blues affiliate... Although Peoria is denying this.

http://www.pjstar.co...f-Rivermen-move

So New Orleans is getting the Jazz name back?

[rams80 4,278]

So.... Here's the latest Rumor....

The Heat move to Utica, In return the Canucks buy the Peoria Rivermen and move them to Abbotsford while the Wolves become the Blues affiliate... Although Peoria is denying this.

http://www.pjstar.co...f-Rivermen-move

Losing the Rivs to St. Charles or some Midwestern City Of Consequence is something that, while upsetting, I could understand and deal with. Losing the Rivermen so that the AHL's version of Phoenix might live and some fundamentally unviable and possibly dying upstate NY town gets hockey is a touch more...infuriating.

Hopefully Eminian's just being a -stirring jackarse again, but he'd almost certainly be out of a job if the Rivermen moved so...ARGH!

[the admiral 29,105]

I'm with you. I don't want Peoria to lose the Rivermen. Midwest uber alles.

St. Charles seems like a good idea, but it might cannibalize the market. I'm sure we've discussed this before.

[crashcarson15 2,482]

In regards to Indianapolis.

The owners of the Ice, the Skojdt family, are related through marriage with the Simons who kind of run the Pacers and manage Bankers Life.

The Pepsi Coliseum, the traditional home, is under renovation. It'll be at like, 9000 or 10000 seats when done, the perfect size IMO.

[Cosmic 6,506]

That's a terrible idea. The whole idea of moving the team from Abbotsford to Utica is to not have an AHL team in Abbotsford anymore.

Have you guys seen the Utica Auditorium? They filmed parts of Slap Shot there. I don't know how they couldn't have.

This has to happen. It's like when that one wrestling federation had shows inside a big pink cube.

That looks like a pretty darn cool place to watch a minor league game, but it only holds 4,000 for hockey. Even if they sell out every single game, they'll be 27th out of 30 teams for attendance. This is going to go well...

[JackieMoon 334]

Would be a shame to see Peoria go (if it's true). I am really hoping one day the Blue Jackets and Cyclones sign an affiliation. I think it would be a smart move for CBJ to buy them and move them up to the AHL. Sending players back and forth down 71 would be better than sending them clear to Massachusetts.

[zpqmaowl 419]

Anaheim, LA, Phoenix, and San José have no problem sending guys to and from Virginia, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts.

[IceCap 22,597]

Anaheim, LA, Phoenix, and San José have no problem sending guys to and from Virginia, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts.

Yes, but you underestimate the petulance of the Vancouver Canucks. They want an AHL team in their backyard and they don't care if it drags the whole league down, by G-d!

[Cosmic 6,506]

Anaheim, LA, Phoenix, and San José have no problem sending guys to and from Virginia, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts.

I'm sure they do have a problem with it, but they aren't willing to shoehorn a team where it doesn't belong.

[illwauk 423]

This has to happen. It's like when that one wrestling federation had shows inside a big pink cube.

That would be the AWA.... one of the original "big three" (along with the NWA and WWWF) and arguably the top promotion in the world before the 80s boom. How telling is it that even people who live in their old territory (Illinois-Minnesota-Wisconsin) barely remember their name?