It's now official: the Central Hockey League is no more, and the ECHL is taking in all of its remaining teams.
The Allen Americans, Brampton Beast, Missouri Mavericks, Quad City Mallards, Rapid City Rush, Tulsa Oilers and Wichita Thunder have all officially been admitted to the ECHL, leaving the CHL in ruins and growing the ECHL, widely regarded as North American pro hockey's top third-tier league, to 27 total teams.
The teams will join the ECHL as of the 2014-15 season, which begins in just 10 days on October 17. A new schedule from the league is expected this week.
These rumors have been swirling all offseason, and it's likely just the first step in a massive realignment of minor professional hockey in North America. There's word that the American Hockey League -- one step below the NHL -- is set to add a division on the Western half of the continent, which would leave some old AHL mainstay franchises behind in lower-tier leagues and promote some western franchises up a level.
In August, we attempted to reset the entire AHL/ECHL landscape with a hypothetical realignment based on the ECHL-CHL merger rumors and the expected western AHL growth.
CHL shuts down
Moderator: SharksGM
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Edmonton Mike
Re: CHL shuts down
Is this big news?
TBH, I have no clue what we're talking about here. I like hockey but don't care enough to watch more than 10-12 Habs game per season, let alone any other team and/or league. I've never heard of the Central Hockey League and always thought the ECHL was laughable. Couldn't name a single ECHL team to get a tittyfuck from Kate Upton as a reward.
Rapid City Rush sounds like they belong in the WNBA.
TBH, I have no clue what we're talking about here. I like hockey but don't care enough to watch more than 10-12 Habs game per season, let alone any other team and/or league. I've never heard of the Central Hockey League and always thought the ECHL was laughable. Couldn't name a single ECHL team to get a tittyfuck from Kate Upton as a reward.
Rapid City Rush sounds like they belong in the WNBA.
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Jungle Cats
Re: CHL shuts down
I'm counting 28 teams.
Decent players have spent time in the ECHL on their way up... the CHL, much less so.
The CHL has been lagging and falling behind the ECHL for years, the former 'East Coast' league has expanded impressively and persistently in the last two decades. I don't know what the difference is in terms of business practices, but even though the ECHL has a fair amount of turnover, they seem to grow two heads where one is cut off.
As a small sample of the kind of one-backward, two-forward approach:
They expanded up the west coast to Alaska and Victoria, two immediately successful teams with ridiculous travel demands, and then rebounded very quickly when the Salmon Kings went defunct (when their ownership group was offered the WHL's Chilliwack Bruins they jumped at the opportunity to move from AA to Major Junior, because... obviously.) adding the Chicago Express and stealing a CHL team, the Colorado Eagles. The following year the Express folded and the league added three teams.
I'm left to imagine that AA hockey is booming - probably a result of NHL teams wanting to carry organizational depth beyond the AHL more frequently.
As for the CHL... well, 'A' level hockey doesn't have the same draw, apparently, and neither does a minor league without any NHL affiliations. Ie, last year's runner-up, Denver, had to suspend operations due to lack of cash. That's not a recipe for health.
Would be interesting to see how the ECHL and AHL could work together to get AAA hockey west of Texas... maybe promote the Aces?
Decent players have spent time in the ECHL on their way up... the CHL, much less so.
The CHL has been lagging and falling behind the ECHL for years, the former 'East Coast' league has expanded impressively and persistently in the last two decades. I don't know what the difference is in terms of business practices, but even though the ECHL has a fair amount of turnover, they seem to grow two heads where one is cut off.
As a small sample of the kind of one-backward, two-forward approach:
They expanded up the west coast to Alaska and Victoria, two immediately successful teams with ridiculous travel demands, and then rebounded very quickly when the Salmon Kings went defunct (when their ownership group was offered the WHL's Chilliwack Bruins they jumped at the opportunity to move from AA to Major Junior, because... obviously.) adding the Chicago Express and stealing a CHL team, the Colorado Eagles. The following year the Express folded and the league added three teams.
I'm left to imagine that AA hockey is booming - probably a result of NHL teams wanting to carry organizational depth beyond the AHL more frequently.
As for the CHL... well, 'A' level hockey doesn't have the same draw, apparently, and neither does a minor league without any NHL affiliations. Ie, last year's runner-up, Denver, had to suspend operations due to lack of cash. That's not a recipe for health.
Would be interesting to see how the ECHL and AHL could work together to get AAA hockey west of Texas... maybe promote the Aces?