The affiliate thread

Grand Rapids Griffins win the Calder Cup.

 

The AHL musical chairs continue. Binghamton moves to Belleville, ON. NJ seizes the opportunity to escape the lousy Albany market and moves their baby Devils to the Southern Tier (that's what that part of NY is known by).

Montr?al, as expected, moves from faraway St. Johns, to suburban Laval.

The league announces expansion for 2018-19 to bring the league to 31. St. Louis has gotten displaced by Vegas in [del]Rosemont[/del] Chicago. After an awkward year of sharing the Wolves the Blues will get their own team again. Expect a Midwestern city, hopefully in MO. But do not expect the Sprint Center in KC to host a minor league team.

Vancouver will, eventually move their team out West. I think the most attractive cities would be: Abbotsford, Fresno, Portland, or Salt Lake City.

 

I didn't see this coming. The Colorado Avalanche have a new AHL affiliate, and it's less than an hour drive away in Loveland, CO. The Colorado Eagles really parlayed their Kelly Cup Championship (ECHL) into a promotion to the A.

St. Louis plunks their prospects in San Antonio. That's a heluva lot better than the previously announced second fiddle in Chicago. The Wolves will now be solely manned by Vegas.

 

I remember riding my '67 shovelhead through Loveland in '93 on my way to see some family that lived in Nun. I don't remember a rink back then.

 

Some tweet sniping between Hershey and WBS. Caps affiliate jumps in to help WBS.
https://sports.yahoo.com/ahl-affiliates-caps-penguins-flyers-170447110.html

 

When I was young, I would ride the bus downtown and watch the Goaldiggers... their sweaters are classic. They were part of the IHL back then.

 

Speaking of afilliates, the jays affiliate(syracuse chiefs,buffalo bisons),were always rivals with the mud hens.

 

Saw them play too.

 

Those jerseys are awesome. Classic beauties.

 

Toledo should be the home for the Uniform Hall of Fame.

Toledo athletes have worn some classics. The Walleyes go ape-shit with uni variety. One team that's Uni HoF worthy by itself.

 

Toledo is actually a decent sports town and supported well by the locals. Kinda famous in some regards, actually.

The new facility's for hockey and baseball are top notch and second to none.

If your ever in the area we might just do a game... Baseball, hockey venues, cant go wrong. Very affordable too.

On a side note ~ The Walleye are averaging 7500/game in attendance... the place only holds 8.

 

Back in the 80s, I saw the Toledo Mudhens play against the Charleston (WV) Charlies. I also saw Pawtucket(?) play in Charleston as well. I think the Charlies were a Pirates affiliate, then they changed to the Texas Rangers. Now they operate as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders. Interesting that they switched the primary town in opposite of the Penguins minor league hockey team (WBS). Wow, that was nice... a full circle.

The Cobra...

 

The LAK and VGK swing a deal with a former 6th round pick moving to the desert (actually to Rosemont, IL).

Zac Leslie seemed stuck in the Kings org and may toil as a career AHLer. He's bottom six material in the NHL, at best.

So, why did Vegas trade for him? I think this had more to do with AHL rules than any perceived value that Leslie brings.

This year the GK's have shared the Chicago Wolves with the Blues. Next year STL will stock San Antonio (COL promotes the ECHL Colorado Eagles to the A). Vegas will be solely responsible for stocking the Wolves roster.

The AHL requires that of 18 skaters dressed for each game, (2 G's exempted), at least 13 must be qualified as "development players" *. Vegas won't have a hard time attracting FA's to play in Vegas or in Chicago. But they're capped out at 5 career AHLers that no longer are deemed to be in development. (Leslie still qualifies.)

( * What constitutes a Development Player would take more space than I care to grab. But, one basic factor is that such a player has played in a max. of 260 pro games; that would be 260 NHL, AHL, or Euro Elite league games.)

This move enables the VGK to fill 1 of 13 AHL roster spots that would not otherwise be workable through conventional means, i.e., the draft.

Expect them to make a few more similar trades between now and September.

 

Informative stuff Dan, thanks.

 

Another amazing Toledo creation...

 

This one looks more feisty and dangerous.
The last one (on the shield), looked kind of like Mr. Limpet.

 

This is just an amazing sweater. I want one!

 

walleyes are bony and evil, they fight and procreate like Phillip Rivers.