I think 2012 was the first time in my life (at least in my ten+ years following hockey, and god knows it was only worse before) that we made it through a summer without any serious developmental shuffling. The AHL is highly volatile; affiliations switch, franchises fold, move, and expand so much that you need at least three sources to figure out the lineages of these stupid teams.

2011 had the returning Winnipeg Jets booting the Manitoba Moose all the way out to Newfoundland, which led to the Wolves having to affiliate with the Canucks. There were a few other affiliation swaps, but they weren't critical. That one, evidently, is about to fuck shit up for everyone.

So the Calgary Flames, who live up to their name by utterly torching every market they put their affiliate in (Saint John, Omaha, the dear old Quad Cities, Abbotsford), have finally grown tired of selling their shitty prospects to the Canucks fans out in inland BC. At the same time, the Canucks have grown tired of storing their prospects in Rosemont, which is halfway across the continent and infamous for not giving two shits about the parent team's development. Just ask the Jets, who ran an exemplary AHL program as the Moose only to inherit the atrophied bodies and wayward souls of the Thrashers-Wolves connection.

The plot thickens as the St. Louis Blues are once again, true to their position on the Mississippi River, right back up shit creek with respect to their finances. A local beer distributor bought (deep breath) the team, the arena lease, the adjacent opera house, and the Peoria Rivermen from some faceless private equity group last year, but now it turns out this new owner is broke already, and in a fit of garage-sale desperation, has sold the Rivermen to the Canucks, where they will be moved up to Abbotsford as a Canucks affiliate, where they will be made to subsidize the travel expenses of everyone who has to play there.

This pushes out the Flames' affiliate, which is expected to move to Superintendent Chalmers's hometown of Utica, New York, right in the heart of AHL country. This gives upstate New York teams in Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Binghamton, Utica, and Glens Falls, though that last one will be back off the map once the Flyers finish building a new arena for them in Allentown. Bus trips ahoy!

The Blues, then, draw the short straw and have to affiliate with the Wolves, so their shuttle bus will now go straight up I-55 instead of turning off at Bloomington. It also means that they'll go from having 100% control of their developmental operations to being the Wolves' bitch, as they continue to shirk developmental responsibilities in favor of winning the Calder Cup. And with the Blues said to have one of the better prospect pools in the league, this couldn't come at a better time for the Blackhawks. Gotta love that the Wolves will once again be affiliated with a rival team known for being a bunch of dillweeds.

Also this could all change because, again, AHL, volatile

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Yea, this sucks for Peoria. Started going to Rivermen games in the 80's. Hopefully, there'll be some team in Peoria next year. What a clusterfuck.

While the St Louis affiliation looks the most likely at the moment, other things may change that. The NHL pretty much saying the Yotes are moving may turn this even more upside down. One of the groups actively trying to buy them is led by.... Wolves owner Don Levin. How convenient that Portland, PHX current AHL team, is having lease issues they don't seem to be in a big hurry to resolve.

And yeah I'm a Wolves apologist, but the ATL problem was Hartley couldn't draft worth a fuck. Not Rosemont being bad for player development. This years group of future Nucks has a give a fuck level of 0.

Portland is shaky? That fits nicely with the story that broke a few months ago about Trois-Rivieres looking to get a team, which was shouted down as never having happened just about as soon as it happened.

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Glad to know I can continue to hate the Wolves.

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Yeah there's some issue with Portland's lease. Everybody thinks the Wolves - St. Louis partnership is a done deal, but what I heard on Friday (came from a scout in the press box from what I was told) is to think outside the box about affiliations and keep the NHL situation in mind. What came from that convo seemed to draw the path of Levin getting the Yotes and having the Wolves be the affiliate of the Phoenix / (Seattle?) franchise. Calgary is rumored to be going to Portland (or somewhere on the East coast with that franchise) with Vancouver moving the now Wolves (good riddance) to Abby. If Calgary puts up a stink and stays in Abby, then the Nucks would possibly keep the current Rivs franchise in Peoria until the Calgary / Abby contract is up.

Either way. Get those damn Nucks out of my Horizon!

I don't think Seattle is the done deal that some people are making it out to be. There are no shovels in the ground for the new arena, and the KeyArena is not an adequate interim venue, new arena or not. Seattle would be a nice way to grow the game, but the NHL needs bedrock markets right now, not potential inroads in crowded cities.

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I just put Seattle cause it's the city that gets the most mention and I know Levin was invloved with the group trying to build a new stadium there if they got an NBA team. All signs point to the Yotes no longer being in Phoenix, so substitute KC or Quebec City or wherever for Seattle

Sale of the Rivs made official today.