Its an annual ritual in the American Hockey League. Every summer, the league introduces new teams as others fade into history, while others change or add affiliations with National Hockey League teams. When host cities change, the AHL realigns its four divisions to keep travel schedules and distances from getting out of hand.
Refreshingly, this season the changes are pretty minimal, at least in this regard. In past seasons, major affiliation changes, league expansion, and a merger with the former International Hockey League made for sweeping changes year-to-year. Not so this summer.
Here is a quick look at the affiliations that have changed for the upcoming season:
Rochester Americans (Buffalo/Florida) ----------> Rochester Americans (Florida)
Portland Pirates (Anaheim) ----------> Portland Pirates (Buffalo)
Iowa Stars (Dallas) ----------> Iowa Chops (Anaheim)
The Dallas Stars find themselves in a peculiar situation in terms of player development. They will have no AHL affiliate this season, as they await the startup of the Texas Stars in 2009. Instead they have arrangements with four teams to place their developing players for the upcoming season.
Also of note is the change in Rochester. After decades of affiliation with Buffalo, the Sabres were not satisfied with the situation in Rochester (finances had a lot to do with it) and elected to pull out of their half of the stake they had in the Amerks, just down I90, and instead pair up with Portland. Call-ups and reassignments had been easy for the Sabres. Now, not so much.
Since the affiliation changes are minimal and there are no new AHL cities this season, the league did not tweak the conference alignments. They remain as they were last season:
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Western
Chicago
Houston
Iowa
Milwaukee
Peoria
Quad City
Rockford
San Antonio
Northern
Grand Rapids
Hamilton
Lake Erie
Manitoba
Rochester
Syracuse
Toronto
|
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Eastern
Albany
Binghamton
Bridgeport
Hershey
Norfolk
Philadelphia
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
Atlantic
Hartford
Lowell
Manchester
Portland
Providence
Springfield
Worcester
|
On the business front, at its board meeting in June the AHL approved the transfer of ownership of the Peoria Rivermen franchise from Rivermen II, Ltd., to the St. Louis Blues hockey club. The league also approved the transfer of ownership of the inactive Edmonton AHL franchise to Rexall Sports Corp., following the NHL approval of the sale of the Edmonton Oilers to the same group.
In the next installment, we will summarize the rules changes in the AHL for 2008-09. Stay tuned!
