The Big AHL Affiliate Swap
Saturday · Mar 27 · 2010 | 12:15 PM PDTIt's been a busy week for affiliate relations between the NHL and AHL. Three teams from each league were involved in the big swap. Here's how it all breaks down.
The Edmonton Oilers started it all on February 9 by announcing plans to resurrect their dormant AHL franchise in Oklahoma City, ending their partnership with the Springfield Falcons.
The Oklahoma City team will be a relaunch of a franchise that has existed since 1984, most recently as the Edmonton Road Runners for the 2004-05 season, during the NHL lockout. The club gets back in action in 2010-11 but has yet to be named.
Some have predicted that it will be called the Blazers after the Central Hockey League team which was originally founded in 1965. The latest incarnation of the club, assembled in 1992, folded in 2009. The head of that ownership group is now involved with the AHL franchise.
Count on Icethetics for details on the new name and logo when it is officially announced.
Falcons announce new NHL partnerAbandoned by the Oilers, the Springfield Falcons announced a new affiliation agreement with the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.
During the press conference, the Falcons said they would be changing their colors to match their new parent club. The recolored Falcons logo was unveiled along with renderings of the new uniforms.
- See the new dark jersey
- See the new light jersey
- See the recolored Falcons logo
The Falcons are still affiliated with the Oilers through the end of the season, so the new colors and uniforms will not be adopted until next season.
The Blue Jackets' new deal suddenly left another AHL team without an affiliate.
Crunch joins forces with DucksThe Syracuse Crunch wasted no time, announcing the same day that the Anaheim Ducks would be their new NHL partner.
And just like the Falcons, the Crunch announced they would also be changing their colors to match the Ducks. The red and blue will give way to orange and gold. A recolored logo and uniform set has yet to be officially released.
The Ducks have spent this season without an affiliate, partnered previously with the Iowa Chops, who were suspended by the AHL on July 7, 2009. Recently, the Ducks expressed interest in placing an AHL franchise in San Diego. Costs led them to back down. Instead, they opted for an existing team on the opposite coast, a geographical head-scratcher.
As of now, each of the 30 AHL franchises set to play in 2010-11 are affiliated with their own NHL teams. Most wear their parent club's colors and/or logo on one or both shoulders of their uniforms.
Reader Comments (18)
Neither the Heat nor the Moose display the logo of the affiliate NHL club.
True, Johnny, but the Heat do mimic the Flames by wearing their provincial and national flags on their shoulders.
OOMMMGGGG I thought it was news about the Edmonton Oilers getting a new jersey, and was sorely dissapointed... LOL
Man, those Springfield unis are horribly ugly compared to what they have now.
Why would the Ducks honestly choose a AHL franchise that is located on the other side of the country? Oh well at least each NHL team will have their own AHL team next season.
The Amerks do neither.
That Springfield Falcons logo was horrible before, now its even worse.
Ducks can't seem to keep a team. The Iowa Chops went under (although that MIGHT be a Godsend; their logo was.... something else). How do you disperse your prospects to other organization's farm clubs? It just doesn't seem right.
The cost of subsidizing every other AHL club's travel expenses to the west coast is what most likely made the Ducks choose an existing franchise in the east. It's easier to pick up the cost of shutteling players back and forth through call-ups and such. Basically, it came down to money.
seriously, the falcons logo looks like a high school mascot logo. as far as the ducks affiliate being so far away from anaheim, I think it's that the ducks don't want to sink the money into moving a farm team any farther west and don't want to subsidize travel expenses. they were affiliated with portland for a few years too which never made sense to me.
another missing piece for next season are the Texas Stars. The Stars only have a conditional franchise which was granted by the league on condition they purchase another existing franchise within one year. The clock on the agreement runs out in the next month or two. the only outstanding franchise is iowa.
hopefully it stays 30 for 30 this year... not that alot of you care but it would be nice to have an NHL video game with the AHL that does not screw up the affiliations for once
Instead of recoloring the logo and uniforms, the Falcons should have started over and got a better looking logo. That is a bad looking logo, old colors or new colors.
The Falcons should just keep their old colours. The old uniforms look so much better and they had nothing to do with the Oilers brand anyways. Personally I find it really annoying how these teams change their colours every couple of years now. It's stupid. Can you imagine being a fan of the Syracuse Crunch with the number of affiliates they've had?
What difference does it really make what the NHL affiliate club is anyways? The really successful franchises in the AHL tend to have their own colour schemes and uniforms.
The Falcons had a great uniform and logo now it is awful. It looked like someone spent 5 miutes on photoshop. I am very disappointed.
Johnny is on the money. The Moose, Amerks, Milwaukee Ads, and Hershey have always had their own colors and logos which has built up a solid identity independent of their NHL affiliation. I'm cool with having the NHL club's logo on your shoulder, but switching yoru colros to match means that you will probably be changing again when the affiliation inevitably switches a couple years later. Naming the AHL after the NHL team is even worse; the odds of the AHL team folding after an affiliate swap increase exponentially. See Cincinnati Mighty Ducks, Iowa Stars (that confused many people who thought the team folded and never realized the Chops were the same team), Quad Cities Flames, Louisville Panthers, St Johns Flames, etc.
As far as Texas not having an affiliate and us having a suspended franchise, I am interested to see how it plays out. Rumors have several teams interested in Des Moines, but those are mere rumors. It looks like the AHL is intent on building a block of teams in and around Texas with the Stars, Aeros, Rampage, and now OKC. So I see interest in giving Austin our franchise. If that happens, I suspect that another lawsuit will be filed by Polk County, Des Moines & Global Spectrum against the Schlegels and possibly Tom Hicks for collusion. There is a lot of speculation that the Dallas-based Schlegels wanted Austin from day 1 but could not get it and used the Iowa Stars to convince Austin to build a bigger facility for the AHL team; a lot of that was being said as soon as they announced the "Iowa Stars" name. The whole thing is fishy.
Another part of the whole mess is that San Antonio may fold or be sold to the Stars. From what we've heard in various places, things are not well with the Rampage. That would leave Phoenix with no AHL team. Again RUMOR.
There is also the ever-present Wild moving their AHL affiliate to Des Moines rumor. It would make sense since we are only 3 1/2 hours away. But RUMOR.
i see the falcons wasted no time in riding them selves of the oilers, not that i blame them, the affiliation really didnt work for either of the teams involved, hopefully edmonton can get it right with OKC
Johnny,
The Syracuse Crunch have had the same affiliate for the last 10 years...a very long time by minor league standards...and they only made one logo/color change in 16 years.