The Philadelphia Flyers have announced a multi-year extension to their affiliation agreement with the Reading Royals of the ECHL, keeping them together through the next two seasons. The deal also includes an option for the 2024-25 campaign. Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher released the following statement:
We’ve had an excellent relationship with the Royals for the last eight years and are thrilled to continue that partnership. We have put a big emphasis on the development of our young prospects and our club has seen the difference firsthand how beneficial it is to have not just one, but both of our primary minor league affiliates just a few hours away.
The Flyers affiliation system has been one of the most stable in recent league history, with both the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and Royals in place for the last eight seasons (with the Phantoms much longer than that). While the ECHL club isn’t used for top prospects, Reading does have a history of helping the development of goaltenders in particular, with names like Jonathan Quick, Philipp Grubauer, and James Reimer, all among their alumni. In terms of recent Flyers prospects to go through the system, Felix Sandstrom and Max Willman are shining examples of how the low-minors can help nurture raw prospects and help their professional careers reach the next level.
The “closest affiliation chain in professional hockey” as the release states, the Flyers have immediate access to players for call-up situations and should be able to monitor progression even more closely.
Reading finished the 2021-22 season with a 45-17-9 record, though ended up losing in the second round of the playoffs to the Newfoundland Growlers.
Does anybody actually fall for this crap? I thought the people that work telemarketing making phone calls were losers, these clowns that flood these forums with this nonsense are the ultimate losers.
@Polish Hammer – Did you also flag this/these a-holes, too? I think you may be giving them more credit than they’re due. I was going to send a friend an email to see if he was seeing the same thing, but you’ve proved that it isn’t just my session. These maggots need to be dragged behind a rocket sled for about two miles, or so. I’d like to see @Gavin & Co. put them in “your comment is awaiting moderation” purgatory, then revoke the B.S. account.
I suggested in one of the live chats that they just ban links from comments. That would probably fix the problem.
@DarkSide830 – The problem is, there are many cases where somebody has a good link to elaborate on a story here that might otherwise be missed. I’ve personally taken advantage of others’ sharing of additional sources for a story. And, flagging certain countries doesn’t necessarily work, as the hockey world still exists outside of North America. The purgatory idea, of course, means extra crap-work for @Gavin & Co., but unless a known blacklist of bad email domains is already in existence, it entails an unneeded layer for the writers and sysadmins. What they need is the equivalent of the CPR V5000 call blocker, pre-programmed with bad actors’ email domains.