The AHL, ECHL, CHL reshuffle and what it means for the NHL

Each of the NHL's 30 teams can have a up to, and no more than, 50 players contracted in the clubs system. With a maximum of 23 of those assigned to the NHL team there has to be somewhere else for all the other players to play, providing they are signed to a two-way contract. This is where the AHL (American Hockey League) & ECHL (East Coast Hockey League) come in. The vast majority find themselves playing for their NHL's AHL affiliate team compared to a handful who play in the ECHL. One problem the NHL teams find is the location of AHL teams. As the premier minor league for player development it is staggeringly lopped sided geographically. With 20 of the 30 AHL teams playing in the East and Central timezones plus St Johns who are in Newfoundland time.

A change was clearly needed. This summer the Abbostford Heat (Calgary Flames affiliate) moved to Glen Falls, NY and became the Adirondack Flames, replacing the Adirondack Phantoms who moved to Allentown, PA to be closer to the Philadelphia Flyers. Abbotsford the lone pink pin in the North West was losing money to the Heat. The arena was losing money, they had a small fan base (because Abbotsford happens to be in the locale of Flames rival Vancouver Canucks). and the players travelled twice as much as the other teams in the league. The city ended the lease agreement for the team to play their so the team moved to the cluster of blue pins on the East coast. Now the Flames face the same problem as 10 other teams. They will now find it more problematic to call up and send down players between them and their AHL team due to the vast distance between the sides locations. So add an extra team to the 21 teams east of the Mississippi. As well as reducing the players travel size proximity is also key to many development techniques. This gives an advantage to the Eastern teams and the West are not too happy.

A solution comes in failure. The CHL (Central Hockey League) is in meltdown. It currently consists of 9 teams based mainly in the Central and Mountain time zones plus the Brampton Beast in the east. With doom the only forecast, 2014/15 predicted as the final CHL season, news broke that the ECHL is looking to ingest the league. Similar to the 2003 "merger" that saw the ECHL take in all of the WHCL and the latter ceased to exist.

With the San Francisco Bulls of the ECHL folded mid season in January the AHL, CHL and ECHL add up to make 62 minor league hockey teams throughout the United States with 3 in Canada. SBNation created a map of the 62 teams. AHL in red, ECHL in blue, and CHL in green. Then created a second map where the ECHL and CHL teams are in blue as the "new" ECHL.

The idea, post merger, is to take about 10 western based ECHL teams and stick them in the AHL, thus whatever number is added the same amount of eastern AHL teams must drop down into the ECHL.

As it currently is the Western conference NHL teams are an average of 1633 miles from their AHL affiliate, ranging from 86 miles (Chicago to Rockford) to 3358 (Winnipeg to St Johns). The East on the other hand? A mere 338 miles, the biggest 1356 miles (Florida to San Antonio), the shortest 2 miles (Toronto to Toronto). If you match up the 11 NHL teams furthest from their AHL teams to a "new" AHL team that makes geographical sense the travel time is drastically reduced. Move the affiliates of Anaheim (from Norfolk, VA to Bakersfield, CA), Arizona (from Portland, ME to Las Vegas, NV), Calgary (from Glen Falls, NY to Boise, ID), Colorado (from Cleveland, OH to Loveland, CO), Edmonton (from Oklahoma City, OK to Anchorage, AL), Florida (from San Antonio, TX to Estero, FL), Los Angeles (from Manchester, NH to Ontario, CA), San Jose (from Worcester, MA to Stockton, CA), Tampa Bay (from Syracuse, NY to Orlando, FL), Vancouver (from Utica, NY to West Valley City, UT), and Winnipeg (from St John's, NF to Rapid City, SD) the average distance reduces from 2385 miles to 485 miles. That is huge. It would nothing but great news for high end AHL players and perhaps a handful of unsung heroes hoping for their one shot at playing in the NHL.

One counter argument is that fans of the AHL teams that will be headed to the ECHL will lose their NHL affiliation. Although I doubt too many people in Manchester, NH hang their hopes and dreams on the LA Kings, especially not as much as a Bridgeport Sound Tigers fan would feel about the New York Islanders.

Whatever may come of the CHL the talk of a merger and the creating a true Western AHL conference will only ramp up. It will make the league more competitiive as less travel keeps players fresh and make player development a simpler process.