WINNIPEG, Manitoba – When you think of summer time, hockey is usually far from the front of your mind. But if your name is David Andrews, hockey runs your life and not much has changed this off season. Andrews is the CEO of the American Hockey League and with changes in the National Hockey League, there are bound to be changes to the AHL as well. No bigger change than the AHL losing the Manitoba Moose a great franchise that is the perfect image of what an AHL and NHL franchise should look like. The City of Winnipeg welcomed the Atlanta Thrashers to town as their new NHL team and renamed them the Winnipeg Jets. Thus the Manitoba Moose were moved out of town to an all to familiar St John’s, Newfoundland and become the main AHL affiliate to the newly purchased NHL team. But that is not all, with the purchase of the Thrashers, True North Sports & Entertainment also bought all the contracts that go along with them. That means all the players under contract playing for the Chicago Wolves were purchased too. True North Sports & Entertainment at that point controlled two AHL Teams, now this gets a little confusing, the former Chicago Wolves players will play in St John’s as the main AHL affiliate to the Winnipeg Jets. The former Manitoba Moose players Eddie Lack and Company are under contract with the Vancouver Canucks not True North Sports & Entertainment thus those players will become the new Chicago Wolves. So, changes in the NHL demanded changes in the AHL structure. David Andrews held a Board of Governor Meetings in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina where the Board approved all the moves needed to make the AHL work for the 2011-12 season. These are the changes The St John’s team will be the top affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets that was established a while ago, while the team is still un-named it is believed that the St John’s Ice Caps is the front runner.
With the loss of the Moose the Vancouver Canucks were without an AHL affiliate for the first time in almost ten years. The Canucks signed an affiliation deal very quickly with the Chicago Wolves.
There have been a few other team changes including the Phoenix Coyotes ended their affiliation with the San Antonio Rampage and took on the Portland Pirates as their affiliate, and finally the Florida Panthers took on the San Antonio Rampage as their main affiliate. So, all NHL teams are tied into deals with all the teams in the AHL. Additional changes were made as the playoff format has changed. The AHL has opted to go back to their roots and the quarter finals of the playoffs will be a best-of-five series instead of a best-of-seven. The semis, finals and championship series will be best-of-seven series. It is rumored that the AHL will not play an 82-game schedule but rather opt for a 76 game skid, which is yet to be comfirmed. In a final note, the new St John’s club will leave the North Division and move to the Atlantic Division.
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