NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — The Central Hockey League concluded their three-day Summer Conference in Phoenix, Arizona and announced the results including changes that will affect the upcoming 2008-09 season.
Divisional Alignment
The CHL will maintain its dual conference (North and South), four-division alignment for the 2008-09 season.
The expansion Rapid City Rush will join the Colorado Eagles, Rocky Mountain Rage and Wichita Thunder in the Northwest Division.
The Tulsa Oilers will move from the Northwest to the Northeast Division to take the place of the Youngstown SteelHounds. They join the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, Mississippi RiverKings and Oklahoma City Blazers.
The Texas Brahmas will move from the Northeast Division to join the Laredo Bucks, Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees and Corpus Christi Rayz in the Southeast Division.
The Southwest Division will remain unchanged with the Arizona Sundogs, Amarillo Gorillas, New Mexico Scorpions and Odessa Jackalopes. Official schedules for the 2008-09 season are expected to be released in mid-July.
Playoff Format
For the second consecutive season, the playoff format will include 10 teams; five from each conference. The fourth and fifth seeds in each conference will then play a best-of-three mini round, with the winner advancing to the conference semifinals. Each remaining playoff round (conference semifinals, conference finals, and President’s Cup Finals) will feature best-of-seven series.
League Expansion
The CHL introduced two expansion franchises that will take the ice during the 2009-2010 season, in Independence, Missouri and Allen, Texas. Both teams will play in newly constructed event centers.
Expansion Draft
An expansion draft was held for the league’s newest team, the Rapid City Rush. All 15 existing CHL teams were required to expose four players from their roster, providing a pool of 60 players for the Rush to choose from.
The Rush chose forward Garrett Prosofsky (Oklahoma City Blazers) with their first selection, followed by center Derek LaBlanc (Rocky Mountain Rage), defenseman Cody Blanshan (Mississippi RiverKings), forward Mike Lukajic (Wichita Thunder) and goaltender Mike Minard (New Mexico Scorpions) with the fifth selection. The Rush then traded Minard to the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees in exchange for future considerations.
The players join a roster that already consists of three Canadian players who will begin their professional careers in Rapid City: University of Prince Edwards Island Panthers Defenseman Stephen Cooke, 24, of Stirling, Ontario, Queen’s University Golden Gaels forward Brady Olsen, 24, of Enterprise, Ontario and Acadia University MVP goalie Lanny Ramage, 25, of Baldur, Manitoba. The Rush have also signed former Austin Ice Bats All-Star goaltender Miguel Beaudry.
Officiating
Stricter enforcement of interference penalties is to be expected. The objective of this decision is to speed up the pace of games and allow for more of a skillful display of hockey.
CHL Supervisor of Officials Wayne Bonney described the rule change to all attendees and the league also distributed DVD’s created to help teach teams about the stricter enforcement.
Collective Bargaining
A panel of three CHL owners including Randy Sanders (Austin Ice Bats and Amarillo Gorillas), Jeff Lund (Tulsa Oilers) and Dave Ellet (New Mexico Scorpions) was chosen to form a negotiating committee for the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to be drafted as a result of the Players’ decision to join to the Professional Hockey Players’ Association at the end of the 2007-08 season.
The PHPA negotiating team will be comprised of 3-6 CHL players, 2 attorneys and PHPA staff, guided by the findings obtained by a player questionnaire which the union uses to create negotiation strategies. Owners were shown a “wish list” based on the questionnaire.
Negotiations are expected to begin soon.
2007-08 Season League Awards
The following is the complete list of awards given at the Conference Awards Banquet.
Ralph Backstrom Soul of Service Award – Kevin McClelland, Mississippi RiverKings; Merchandising Franchise of the Year – Oklahoma City Blazers; Marketing Franchise of the Year – Oklahoma City Blazers; Game Operations Franchise of the Year – Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees; Ticket Sales Executive of the Year – Chris Augusto, Colorado Eagles; Group Ticket Sales Franchise of the Year – Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees; Ticket Sales Franchise of the Year – Colorado Eagles; Community Relations Franchise of the Year – Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees; Broadcaster of the Year – Brian Clark, Rocky Mountain Rage; Communications Executive of the Year – Shane Ferraro, Arizona Sundogs; Corporate Sales Executive of the Year – Gavin Riches, Colorado Eagles; Corporate Sales Franchise of the Year – Laredo Bucks; CHL Leadership Award – Troy Nelson, Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees; CHL Brad Treliving Executive of the Year – Brent Thiessen, Arizona Sundogs; CHL Franchise of the Year – Colorado Eagles.
Contact the author at robert.keith@prohockeynews.com
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