May 23 2010
Should I stay, or should I go?
Just when the Central Hockey League was looking to bolster their membership of teams, two teams jump ship. The Amarillo Gorillas, who had previously announced they will not be returning for the 2010-11 season, faded into the sunset, then suddenly arose.
The NAHL official website says, “The North American Hockey League (NAHL) has announced that its Board of Governors has accepted the membership application for an expansion team in Amarillo, Texas, to begin play for the 2010-11 season.”
The Corpus Christi IceRays had just recently announced they will also jump ship to the NAHL. “The Caller-Times has learned the IceRays plan to leave the Central Hockey League after 12 seasons in the professional ranks.”
The Central Hockey League membership consisted of 15 teams this past season, with 8 teams in the Southern Conference along with 7 in the Northern Conference. With the subtraction of the IceRays and the Gorillas, that leaves just 13 teams.
Assuming the Conference alignments remain the same, there will be only 6 teams in the South and 7 in the north. This can’t work. Ok! It could work, but only if they lowered number of teams qualifying for the post-season from 5 to 4. This will leave us with an 8-4-2-1 playoff format.
I have also learned, the once tenants of the Santa Ana Star Center, New Mexico Scorpions will be forced to give way to the NAHL New Mexico Mustangs. Whether or not the Scorpions can resume play in the Central Hockey League is bleak at best.
It seems the NAHL is gathering it’s herd, and if a few CHL cities get pulled into the pen then so be it. Are these hockey towns and their fans better off? Well first let’s find out what the North American Hockey League is all about.
A little history of what the league is all about. Here is excerpt from the NAHL website history page.
“NAHL competition helps players make the transition from midget and high school hockey to college hockey by creating an environment that is highly competitive, encourages skill development and provides time for physical growth and maturity.” The article also goes on to say it is an affiliate of USA Hockey.
Although players can be brought in from anywhere, there are also tryouts within the area the team is based in. League average attendance according to Pointstreak.com averaged a mere 1,157 fans league wide over its 58 game schedule in 2009-10.
Although having a team from this league in your back yard may appear to be minor in comparison to any of the pro league’s. It does have its perks.
There have been numerous National Hockey League players that sharpened their skills in this developmental league. Such names as Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks to USA Olympic goalie Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres. Here is the Alumni list for the NHL.
There have been (4) Bossier Shreveport Mudbugs to come out of the league as well. Joe Blaznek, Jim Jorgensen, David Pszenyczny, and Adam Krug, who played in just 4 games for the purple and teal last season. Here is the full CHL Alumni list.
As for CHL and their teams dropping like flies, one has to wonder if the Players Union has something to do with it, hmmm! Just a thought. Whatever the reason may be, it’s bad for the league and a bit disheartening for the fans. I sure hope there will some addition to counter the subtraction over the summer.
The CHL Annual summer meetings hopefully will bring us some good news. They are set to take place June 3rd – 5th. Here is the article about the meeting of the minds.
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