AHL Summer Update

SPRINGFIELD , Mass. — True to its reputation for stability, the American Hockey League is having a comparatively tranquil off-season, with the customary handful of franchise affiliation shifts and a slate of rule changes, mostly to bring the league more in line with the NHL.
 
The most noteworthy affiliation change came in Rochester, N.Y., where the Buffalo Sabres maintained a top-level farm team for 29 years.
 
Questions about the future of the Americans’ franchise led the Sabres on June 10 to sign an affiliation agreement with the Portland Pirates through 2011. The move keeps the league in Maine, which has had a franchise since the Maine Mariners began operations in 1977. Portland’s three-year agreement with the Anaheim Ducks ended a week before the Buffalo announcement, when Anaheim decided to move its minor-league operation closer to home and inked a new deal to locate prospects in Des Moines, Iowa.
 
The Amerks compiled a .593 winning percentage in 2,320 regular season games as a Buffalo affiliate and won three Calder Cups. But Rochester’s ownership group was able to maintain a pro hockey presence in the upstate New York city, signing an agreement with officials there on June 19 to continue playing at Blue Cross Arena at Rochester War Memorial, then entering into a three-year pact to serve as the primary affiliate for the Florida Panthers, who stocked the Rochester roster as part of a dual-

affiliation agreement with the Sabres the past three seasons.
 
Anaheim ’s move gave the former Iowa Stars a new identity. In July, the team was rechristened the Iowa Chops – a bow to the state’s agricultural heritage, and to what team owner Kirby Schlegel called the definition of “chops”: nerve, resilience and staying power. The new crimson, grey and black logo features a snarling boar’s head.
 
The move also dislodged the prospects belonging to the Dallas Stars, who plan to operate an AHL franchise called the Texas Stars in a new arena in Austin for the 2009-2010 season. Dallas is expected to spread its players among several AHL teams this coming season, including the Peoria Rivermen .
 
Several teams extended existing affiliation agreements. In May, the Washington Capitals extended their deal with the Hershey Bears through 2011 after seeing 13 Bears players and former Hershey coach Bruce Boudreau move to the nation’s capital for all or part of the 2007-2008 season. The Phoenix Coyotes similar extended their agreement with the San Antonio Rampage, the team’s sole AHL affiliate since 2005.
 
The local ownership group in Peoria sold the team to the parent St. Louis Blues while a dormant franchise in Edmonton was transferred to Rexall Sports Corp. as part of the sale of the NHL Edmonton Oilers to that gro up.
 
The league board of governors met on Hilton Head Island, S.C. in June and approved one intriguing rule change, instituting one-minute minor penalties during overtime in the regular season. The switch is believed to be an experiment at the behest of the NHL, which could follow suit for its 2009-2010 season.
 
The AHL powers-that-be approved other minor changes that mimic the NHL rulebook, awarding double minors instead of major penalties for high-sticking infractions that cause an injury and deciding to impose automatic minor penalties for delay of game whenever a defending player shoots the puck out of the playing surface.
 
The league also is instructing officials to award penalties for “unnecessary or dangerous contact” during icing touch-ups, largely to ensure any contact is solely for the purpose of playing the puck. A final rule change dictates20that, if a puck is shot off the crossbar or goal post, the subsequent face-off will be in the end where the puck went out of play.
 
The board of governors additionally increased the size of regular season rosters by one skater, to 18 players and two goaltenders