Part 2 of 2
ORLANDO, FLA – In part one of our look at the new Orlando-Tampa affiliation, we explored how the Solar Bears and Lightning could make the I-4 connection into one that could be a boon to the sport of hockey across the middle of the state of Florida. This time we will delve into how the on-ice product and coaching can benefit both franchises as well as their shared AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.
Since their inception, the Lightning have been affiliated with eleven different ECHL teams, including the Florida Everblades from 2010-13, prior to the past off-season. A year ago, Tampa entered into a one-year secondary deal with the Adirondack Thunder – a natural choice given the Thunder’s location in Glens Falls, New York which made travel to and from Syracuse fairly easy.
During Tampa’s trip to Orlando for a preseason game, new General Manager Julien BriseBois explained that although they appeared to be very selective in the number of players placed in the ECHL (last season a total of four spent time in Adirondack), the franchise’s interest in the double-A league has been steady.
“We’ve always wanted to have a successful partnership at the ECHL level,” BriseBois said. “Some years were more successful than others for all sorts of reasons.”
The idea of having an ECHL affiliate is purely associated with player development. When the opportunity came around to hook up with Orlando, BriseBois saw an opportunity that Tampa could not pass up.
“The geography obviously and the fan base,” he said when asked what made Orlando attractive. “The fact that there are a lot of Tampa Bay Lightning fans in the Orlando marketplace in the community here already which is just a natural. Plus it’s easy for us to send Frantz Jean, our goalie coach, up highway I-4 to work with our goalies here or any of us to travel. Stacy Roest, he’s our director of player development, when he’s in Tampa he’s going to see the ECHL guys. [It’s] easy for me to go see players that are playing here.”
The short distance between the two cities mentioned by BriseBois was echoed by Solar Bears Head Coach and General Manager Drake Berehowsky.
“I think the proximity is great so hopefully they’ll send us some of the skills coaches or the goalie coach once in a while,” Berehowsky said. “I just think that being so close to each other is going to benefit both organizations.”
Communications is another key to a successful affiliation. Berehowsky said that since the two franchises agreed to work together, he and BriseBois have struck up a solid working relationship – one that Berehowsky thinks will go a long way to helping his Solar Bears.
“Julien’s been awesome. He’s always available for calls and texts,” Berehowsky noted. “Any time I call him about a player, he’ll give me the report on him or he’ll connect me with someone who knows about the player. We’re just hoping to improve us as an organization and as a hockey team hopefully by learning from them.”
BriseBois returned the praise while relaying how he and the Lightning have worked with Berehowsky and the Solar Bears during the off-season.
“I enjoyed working with Drake Berehowsky all summer, working on getting information on players and getting him set up with some players,” BriseBois said. “We think when it’s all said and done, we’ll be able to provide him with some good players that we’re going to be able to count on when we need to recall guys for Syracuse.”
The biggest assist the affiliation provides is assigning players to the ECHL team. When the Solar Bears worked with Toronto, there were times when as many as ten players signed to AHL contracts were playing at the Amway Center. Of course with that many players on the roster, there is a risk of a rash of injuries at the NHL and AHL levels causing a call-up that could gut the ECHL roster.
BriseBois, who as assistant general manager under Steve Yzerman ran the AHL Crunch, said that he has a number of players that ideally would be sent to Orlando.
“In an ideal world, when everyone is healthy – which rarely happens – with everyone healthy you’re probably in the four to six range. It’s more of a quality over quantity philosophy,” BriseBois explained. “In an ideal world, with everyone healthy again and that never happens, they (Solar Bears) have a goalie here, maybe a left shot defenseman, a right shot defenseman and a line of forwards. That would be optimal. [However] my experience is that with injuries both at the NHL level and the AHL level, there’s always a lot of players moving from one team to the other but if we could kind of set that up, that would be great.”
For Berehowsky, who had to become a master of balancing numbers through call-ups, BriseBois’ ideal world concept is a good one.
“I think it’s a great number. If they were to give me those numbers, it would be great,” Berehowsky said. “The thing with those kinds of numbers is that it doesn’t deplete you completely with call-ups and stuff like that. You still have your ECHL guys who are going to be there for the year and stuff like that so I think it’s a great number. And hopefully some of our ECHL guys can impress them enough to get a call-up as well. I don’t think he’s (BriseBois) beyond calling the best player up and that’s what we’re trying to create here – good competition.”
As for moving from the systems that Mike Babcock used in Toronto to the ones Lightning head coach Jon Cooper uses in Tampa, Berehowsky said that adapting what he and new assistant coach Marc LeFebvre are teaching has been easy.
“I think every coach has his own twist on things. Whether it’s Toronto or Tampa, we’re going to play the way that we think will suit this hockey club and we hope that it will be a seamless transition,” Berehowsky said. “There’s still a difference in [that] we play three [lines] and we have only ten forwards so at times we’re going to have to play a different way than those NHL and AHL teams.”
Long term, both BriseBois and Berehowsky agree that the affiliation between Tampa and Orlando will go a long way to making Central Florida into an even stronger hotbed of hockey – and hopefully bring more Stanley and Kelly ups to the region.
“Hopefully it will grow interest in the game. It will grow interest in both the Solar Bears, their team and their activities here and the Lightning and our activities in Tampa,” BriseBois said. “If we can grow the fan base in both markets, that would be outstanding.”
Said Berehowsky, “I think it’s going to be a great relationship. We want to grow hockey in Florida here and I think Tampa has done an unbelievable, remarkable job, even from [seeing] my kids hockey when we’re down in that area. They’ve done an unbelievable job growing the sport and I think our staff does an unbelievable job. With Tampa supporting us, it’s just going to be that much better. I expect to see hockey keep growing here.”
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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