The AHL will have a season, but it won’t be with 31 teams. The Charlotte Checkers, Milwaukee Admirals, and Springfield Thunderbirds have all elected to opt out of the 2020-21 season. All three will return for 2021-22. After a board of governors call today, the league has announced realignment for the upcoming season that will see 28 teams operate in five divisions. Those divisions will be as follows:
Atlantic:
Bridgeport Sound Tigers
Hartford Wolf Pack
Providence Bruins
Canadian:
Belleville Senators
Laval Rocket
Manitoba Moose
Toronto Marlies
North:
Binghamton Devils
Hershey Bears
Lehigh Valley Phantoms
Rochester Americans
Syracuse Crunch
Utica Comets
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Central:
Chicago Wolves
Cleveland Monsters
Grand Rapids Griffins
Iowa Wild
Rockford IceHogs
Texas Stars
Pacific:
Bakersfield Condors
Colorado Eagles
Henderson Silver Knights
Ontario Reign
San Diego Gulls
San Jose Barracuda
Stockton Heat
Tucson Roadrunners
Several teams have also secured provisional relocations. The Binghamton Devils will play in Newark, New Jersey; the Ontario Reign will play in El Segundo, California; the Providence Bruins will play in Marlborough, Massachusetts; and the San Diego Gulls will play in Irvine, California.
The league will play a schedule with variable lengths for each division but will have a minimum of 24 games. The league is hoping to start on February 5, though an official schedule has not been announced yet.
The question now becomes what will happen to minor league players for the Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues, NHL affiliates of Charlotte, Milwaukee, and Springfield respectively. Patrick Williams of NHL.com reports that St. Louis will be sending players to Utica; no word yet on the other two franchises.
Quality realignment.
3 teams in one division. 7 in a nearby division. Makes sense.
i think this alignment is more based on closeness to each other it’s not like ahl teams have the finances to travel cross country all the time. yes it’s a wacky alignment but until this whole covid thing is no more we might as well just get used to things being whacky.
You’d still think it would be fairly easy to have a couple teams like Syracuse and Rochester go on a bus trip in the opposite direction than they are just to even it out a bit.
yeah, not that hard. not like I care as I view the AHL as a pipeline for the NHL, but still at the very least silly if not downright absurd.
you guys make great points it dose seem like they should of made more of an effort but i also don’t see this as the final alignment. the nhl did do some last min alignment so i wouldn’t be surprised that until 2 weeks when the ahl kicks off you see some realignment.
btw jd and dark merry/happy holidays and keep making your post your passion for your team and your realism gives good insight on your teams. i read your comments all the time on mlbtr and there really informative and unbiased for the most part.
You as well!
Ontario Reign playing in El Segundo makes so much sense…as it’s also the practice facility for the Kings. 2 good sheets of ice.
A team from Springfield,MA opts out because of “Covid and MA regulations regarding attendance.”
A team from Rhode Island relocates to Marlborough,MA, which is further away from the two teams they’ll face than Providence, and has to deal with those dreaded MA regulations but will make do? Hm.
Springfield should have just said “It’s stupid to have a team here because everyone around roots for the Bruins or Rangers, and 0 people within 1500 miles root for the Blues. This will never work. Relocate us to Missouri.”
you make a good point unless it’s someone from the stl area that is living in the area for various reasons hard to follow an ahl (milb)team that’s not in your big clubs market. then again i’ve always thought that any teams minor club should play near the big club. it’s like nick w said in his post “who in the f in the bos & ny area cares about the kids in stl system”. i can say this if bos nyr or the nyi had a minors team by me i wouldn’t give a f because the blues play 30 mins away
Still boggles the mind that they didnt keep Peoria, it was close and a decent facility. Or just sucked it up and made k.c work. This ahl carousel probably isnt great for the ahl guys and their families .
Or because Springfield is a locally owned team. They aren’t owned by their NHL parent team who are footing the bill for the season – like the Bruins…
Local ownerships can’t afford to play in front of zero fans. Both Milwaukee and Charlotte are locally owned too. Hence why they opted out.
And not all teams are located near their parent team. Do you think Utica fans are Canucks fans? No, they are Sabres and Rangers fans…
Right on the money pev4. I’ve been a Springfield AHL fan for over 50 years – all the way back to the mid-sixties Indians and the Butch Goring led Kings of the early seventies. The team names, affiliates and even arenas have changed over the years but I’ve been a loyal Springfield supporter AND a die-hard Bruins fan throughout the period. Whose farm team they were was a non issue – they are our local club.
@retsubllab good man!
We just need to bring back the Coliseum!
Go eagles!