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Sharks ECHL affiliate the San Francisco Bulls folding or moving to Fresno

bosrs1

By bosrs1
in Sports In General

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HedleyLamarr

HedleyLamarr

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With college hockey on the rise, I'm just not sure what purpose a AA league serves anymore except to fill dates at an arena in Stockton and give hockey jobs to guys who washed out of developmental systems. Very few players in the ECHL are there on assignment.

Meh. Isn't that enough? They don't need to serve a meaningful purpose in the grand hockey hierarchy... they just need to be able to get butts in the seats. College hockey? Dumb, bad hockey players deserve jobs, too.

That's kind of Admiral's point.

The purpose of minor leagues is to develop talent and advance them to the next level (or drop-kick those that won't make it to the show). Between college hockey, Canadian junior leagues, the KHL and other European leagues.....the ECHL is just kinda there. It's not much of a developmental league. Baseball's minor league system works because there's basically no equal alternative (aside from staying in college). There's no minor leagues for the NBA and NFL due to college being the default minor league.

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The_Admiral

The_Admiral

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Conversely, AA baseball is on the rise as more and more blue-chip prospects do their serious maturation at that level and then go straight to the show, with AAA basically just functioning as a holding pen for spot-starters and has-beens. It's similar to how the best of the best in hockey go right from juniors to the NHL without logging any flight miles in the AHL -- sometimes by necessity due to that stupid age-20 minimum forced on them by the juniors. The analogy breaks down, though, because where does the ECHL fit in? Yeah, exactly.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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rams80

rams80

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With college hockey on the rise, I'm just not sure what purpose a AA league serves anymore except to fill dates at an arena in Stockton and give hockey jobs to guys who washed out of developmental systems. Very few players in the ECHL are there on assignment.

I wouldn't say college hockey is on the rise. Many of the programs are still on life support. All the Big Ten forming accomplished was breaking up a potential logjam for future expansion.

On 8/1/2010 at 4:01 PM, winters in buffalo said:
You manage to balance agitation with just enough salient points to keep things interesting. Kind of a low-rent DG_Now.
On 1/2/2011 at 9:07 PM, Sodboy13 said:
Today, we are all otaku.

"The city of Peoria was once the site of the largest distillery in the world and later became the site for mass production of penicillin. So it is safe to assume that present-day Peorians are descended from syphilitic boozehounds."-Stephen Colbert

POTD: February 15, 2010, June 20, 2010

The Glorious Bloom State Penguins (NCFAF) 2014: 2-9, 2015: 7-5 (L Pineapple Bowl), 2016: 1-0 (NCFAB) 2014-15: 10-8, 2015-16: 14-5 (SMC Champs, L 1st Round February Frenzy)

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The_Admiral

The_Admiral

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I think within the next ten years, college hockey will substantially close the gap on major-junior. I don't like it one bit, but that's the way I see it going. Structurally, it can become pretty attractive to play college, it'll just be a matter of elevating the talent level. You're never going to have many future first-line forwards playing college because those guys get drafted prior to their age 19 season and so they'd be on track to play at the highest level available, major-junior, and thus forfeit college eligibility, but you'll see college hockey grow.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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Coast2CoastAM2006

Coast2CoastAM2006

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With college hockey on the rise, I'm just not sure what purpose a AA league serves anymore except to fill dates at an arena in Stockton and give hockey jobs to guys who washed out of developmental systems. Very few players in the ECHL are there on assignment.

Meh. Isn't that enough? They don't need to serve a meaningful purpose in the grand hockey hierarchy... they just need to be able to get butts in the seats. College hockey? Dumb, bad hockey players deserve jobs, too.

wasn't this kinda what the IHL was before they closed shop? Seems like I remember teams like the Milwaukee Admirals being stocked with guys that didn't make the cut in the NHL or AHL and the occasional prospect.

islandersscroll.gif

Spoilers!

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Sodboy13

Sodboy13

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With college hockey on the rise, I'm just not sure what purpose a AA league serves anymore except to fill dates at an arena in Stockton and give hockey jobs to guys who washed out of developmental systems. Very few players in the ECHL are there on assignment.

Meh. Isn't that enough? They don't need to serve a meaningful purpose in the grand hockey hierarchy... they just need to be able to get butts in the seats. College hockey? Dumb, bad hockey players deserve jobs, too.

wasn't this kinda what the IHL was before they closed shop? Seems like I remember teams like the Milwaukee Admirals being stocked with guys that didn't make the cut in the NHL or AHL and the occasional prospect.

Yes. The IHL was mainly a "4-A" league, though some teams did have NHL affiliations.

On 1/25/2013 at 1:53 PM, 'Atom said:

For all the bird de lis haters I think the bird de lis isnt supposed to be a pelican and a fleur de lis I think its just a fleur de lis with a pelicans head. Thats what it looks like to me. Also the flair around the tip of the beak is just flair that fleur de lis have sometimes source I am from NOLA.

PotD: 10/19/07, 08/25/08, 07/22/10, 08/13/10, 04/15/11, 05/19/11, 01/02/12, and 01/05/12.

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The_Admiral

The_Admiral

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If memory serves - there's no AHL team west of Texas.

Just good old Abbotsford.

And the distance to Worcester is offset by how much practice time it allows teams who don't have to do so much traveling.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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bosrs1

bosrs1

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Looks like the Bulls owners got an extension to continue negotiations with the new ownership group while that group nails down a venue in either Oakland or Fresno. Keeps the Bulls from folding immediately but no one knows yet how long the extension will be.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/bulls-receive-extension-to-find-new-ownership/Content?oid=2685924

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illwauk

illwauk

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With college hockey on the rise, I'm just not sure what purpose a AA league serves anymore except to fill dates at an arena in Stockton and give hockey jobs to guys who washed out of developmental systems. Very few players in the ECHL are there on assignment.

Meh. Isn't that enough? They don't need to serve a meaningful purpose in the grand hockey hierarchy... they just need to be able to get butts in the seats. College hockey? Dumb, bad hockey players deserve jobs, too.

wasn't this kinda what the IHL was before they closed shop? Seems like I remember teams like the Milwaukee Admirals being stocked with guys that didn't make the cut in the NHL or AHL and the occasional prospect.

Yes. The IHL was mainly a "4-A" league, though some teams did have NHL affiliations.

The NHL affiliations were also a much looser relationship in the IHL than in the AHL. A lot of IHL clubs (like the Admirals) were quasi-major league teams operating on a minor league budget, much like the Pacific Coast League in the 1950s.

You also have to keep in mind that the NHL had much fewer teams in the IHL's heyday, meaning the talent pool was much less diluted. There's guys starting on playoff teams in the NHL now who would've been playing for teams like the Admirals 25 years ago.

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bosrs1

bosrs1

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The S.F. Bulls have indeed ceased operations. The team has folded effective immediately.

Guess between the 23rd and today the potential new owners couldn't find a place to play. Not surprising really. Fresno was a long shot and Oakland was a "never gonna happen".

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AndrewPF

AndrewPF

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If the Sharks are in San Jose, and the Bulls are also in California, how in the world does it make sense to have Worcester be the AHL affiliate?

http://i.imgur.com/4ahMZxD.png

koizim said:
And...and ya know what we gotta do? We gotta go kick him in da penis. He'll be injured. Injured bad.

COYS and Go Sox

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