Alumni in the pros - Feb '05

[Q]Will Wrote:

I'm not very familiar with how trades work in the AHL. Is trading on loan like this a common procedure? Are clauses built in to make the trade permanent should both clubs agree?[/q]
Loaning player, as part of a 'trade' or not, is pretty common in the AHL. If the club has a need, or the club can't fit a guy into their lineup, they may lend him away. After all, the Bruins couldn't care less if the Phantoms win the Calder Cup over the P-Bruins, so long as their prospects get the experience (not to say they don't try to put a good AHL club on the ice (usually), but they're it doesn't exactly effect their long term plans).

Now when I say its common, I don't mean most teams have several loaned guys. I mean that most teams are involved of one or two trades/loans of that nature every season or two - at least that's my very general estimate. So you're aware of it, but its not constantly going on.

If a 'swap' like that does work out, the two teams can feel free to work out a trade for the players to make it permanent, but I don't think the swap/loan agreement includes any such option itself.

It's still an interesting situation. It certainly doesn't happen in baseball. It's probably a consequence of the less structured minor league/farm system that exists in hockey. I don't know if this is the case anymore, but there used to be AHL teams that were affiliated with multiple NHL teams. In that case you already have development collaboration with other franchises, so it's not too much of a stretch to have loans.

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

It's still an interesting situation. It certainly doesn't happen in baseball. It's probably a consequence of the less structured minor league/farm system that exists in hockey. I don't know if this is the case anymore, but there used to be AHL teams that were affiliated with multiple NHL teams. In that case you already have development collaboration with other franchises, so it's not too much of a stretch to have loans.[/q]

It happens very frequently in the English Premier League when a player is not quite ready for "first team football" (being a starter) but has run his course playing with reserves. Often EPL teams will loan their young players to first or second division clubs to get starting experience. Loans also happen when a team is trying to get rid of a player but the purchasing club wants to guage the players commitment before making their own financial commitment.

I don't think Storr is being loaned to gain experience since he has played quite a few games for the Kings in the past. Management must have thought Lenny could learn more from Storr than he could from JMP.

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

It's still an interesting situation. It certainly doesn't happen in baseball. It's probably a consequence of the less structured minor league/farm system that exists in hockey. I don't know if this is the case anymore, but there used to be AHL teams that were affiliated with multiple NHL teams. In that case you already have development collaboration with other franchises, so it's not too much of a stretch to have loans.[/q]
30 NHL clubs, 28 AHL clubs - so there are still two dual affiliations

The Lowell Lock Monsters are Calgary and Carolina, and the Houston Aeros are Minnesota and Dallas.

[www.theahl.com]

The AHL's goal for a long time has been to be at 1:1, but the system doesn't seem quite stable enough to actually reach there (see the Saint John Flames last year). Anytime they get to 29 teams, someone cancels an affiliation causing the team to fold, or the team just folds. FYI, every AHL team must be the primary affiliate of some NHL team (Lowell & Houston are primary affiliates of two NHL teams) or they can't operate. That rule lead to the extinction of the most recent, and probably last ever, New Haven AHL team, when the Hurricanes pulled their affiliation, they had to suspend operations, and never could find anyone else. Similar thing with the Quebec whatevers (I forget, and even I remembered I don't think I could spell it) when Montreal pulled their affiliation.

They'll be back to 29 next year with a new team in Des Moines (yup, Iowa), and two teams moving, Worcester -> Peoria and St. John's (different than Saint John) -> Toronto (making 4 NHL cities with AHL teams - Phily, Chicago, Edmonton, and Toronto - all except Chicago are their respective affiliates).

[Q]Jacob '06 Wrote:

Brian Wrote:

Maybe they are not struggling goaltenders, maybe it's the defense in front of them![/Q]
That certainly was mostly the case for utah when I saw them play.[/q]

And when I saw them play @Hartford.

If there's one thing I've learned from going from Cornell Hockey to watching AHL games, it's that I have a newfound appreciation for Schafer's attention to defense.