Chirps from Center Ice

A fan blog about the AHL's Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins

The Most Confusing Post You Will Ever Read…

2 Comments Posted by on May 21, 2011

Lots of chatter up on the internet and speculation on the Twitter side on what cities the AHL will be playing hockey next season.

We know that Pittsburgh will be supplying players to Wilkes-Barre for next year and beyond so if you are not in to rumor mongering, stop reading.

There have been tons of reports that the Atlanta Thrashers are moving to Winnipeg to bump out the Manitoba Moose. Including this report from The Globe and Mail. In fact, if the Thrashers move to Winnipeg, there have been rumors that they will take the Moose namesake.

So where do the Moose land? Reports today out of St. John’s, Newfoundland have them playing at the Mile One Centre in St. John’s. The article eludes to a Friday press conference however the Manitoba Moose deny such press conference from occurring.

If the Thrashers move to Winnipeg, it would then leave the Chicago Wolves without an NHL parent. The Wolves are currently the AHL affiliate to the Atlanta Thrashers. The Winnipeg AHL team, in this case the team rumored to move to St. John’s, would be the new Winnipeg NHL teams’ AHL team.

Sigh. Still with me? Good, cause it gets better.

There is more to this AHL merry-go-round of affiliation drama. The Buffalo Sabres have bought, or are close to buying, haven’t done so yet but will soon, the Rochester Americans. Who knows. But then, what happens to the Portland Pirates who are the Sabres’ AHL affiliate? You basically need a Rosetta Stone to figure this one out. Chris Roy from the Maine Hockey Journal blog tries to make sense of it all in his entry:

  • Tampa Bay could pull out of Norfolk and move to Syracuse.
  • Florida, late of Rochester, could then marry up with Norfolk.
  • Anaheim and Portland, left at the dance by their dates, could then marry up again and we will party like it’s 2005.

Imagine for a second what this is doing to the stomachs of the fans in all of the cities affected by the speculation. That is why I say that Penguins fans have it so well because of the stable marriage between Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre and grind and gnash my teeth whenever I read how people get bent out of shape that the team didn’t salute the fans like this one fan did in his letter to the Citizens’ Voice editor.

Hopefully, this merry-go-round of affiliation switches and “who’s on first” game of hide the truth will be over soon and we can all get back to playing hockey.

Go Penguins!

The AHL

2 responses to “The Most Confusing Post You Will Ever Read…”

  1. JenniP's avatarChasingCheckers May 24, 2011 at 11:13 pm

    I am so glad the Canes and Charlotte have an agreement for at least the next two season (don’t have physical proof of this, just what one of the guys in the front office told me!) It will be interesting to see how all the AHL clubs line up. I think a restructuring of conferences needs to happen, but that can’t till we know where the teams are going to be! Charlotte is one of those cities that can’t drive to most cities, so wherever we end up it won’t be a huge deal… we fly almost everywhere as it is!

    If the Winnipeg/Thrashers thing happens, our NHL game in Charlotte could be up in the air, which I’d hate to see!

  2. Pingback: The one about Southern Hockey, and the plight of the Atlanta Thrashers « Chasing Checkers