There is no question that expansion or relocation has been a hot topic over the past few seasons in all three professional hockey leagues. Before the Vegas Golden Knights joined the NHL for the 2017-18 season, it had been 17 years since the prior expansion which brought the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild into the league in 2000. However, the NHL was very active in the ’90s as they expanded from 22 teams in 1991 and by 1999, were up to 28 teams.
With a new NHL team comes either a brand new AHL team or a relocation of another team. In late February, it was announced that the San Antonio Rampage had transferred ownership from the St.Louis Blues to the Vegas Golden Knights. The team will be renamed to the Henderson Silver Knights, beginning play this upcoming season and will play at the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada.
The Blues will take over Florida’s affiliate in Springfield and according to AHL reporter Mark Divver, Florida will move their affiliate to Charlotte while Carolina will look to Partner with the Chicago Wolves.
Could The ECHL Be The Next League To Expand?
There have been rumblings that the ECHL would look to expand to 27 teams and the original and realistic hope was for this to happen during the 2021-22 season. With how everything has changed in the past month due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it wouldn’t be a shock to see this delayed for at least a year. The ECHL has named two cities that they could expand to; Manchester, New Hampshire and Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.
Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester had an ECHL team from 2016-2019 after spending the previous 16 seasons as a club in the AHL. During those years, they made the Kelly Cup Playoffs all three years and in their last year as part of the AHL, they also won the Calder Cup against Utica. They also hosted the 2005 AHL All-Star Game during the NHL Lockout and had NHL players compete during that weekend in which both events sold out.
This move makes sense for a few reasons. It’s familiar territory for the ECHL and is easily located in a perfect location for most North Division teams. Maine and Worcester are both located within two hours from the Southern New Hampshire Arena. Adirondack is about three and a half hours away.
Reading has a long trip regardless as they are one of the teams that have a distance to drive for most away games being located in Reading, Pennsylvania. They also already have a rink there, so finding a venue wouldn’t be a problem and they have an established fanbase already in the area. However, the one thing that may be an issue is trying to get the Los Angeles Kings back on board to be their ECHL affiliate as a commute across the country wouldn’t be convenient for the players.
Trois-Rivieres, Quebec
Trois-Rivieres make a lot of sense for the ECHL and Montreal Canadiens. A new arena is being built in Trois-Rivieres that would seat 4,390, including 18 corporate boxes. It would overtake the Adirondack Thunder for having the smallest barn in the league. There is also a U Sports team in the area that has had major attendance issues in the past and bringing in an ECHL team would probably help that.
The biggest winner of this would be the Montreal Canadiens who would get an ECHL affiliate, which as we learned this year, they could use one. Michael McNiven and Hayden Verbeek started the season in Adirondack as well as a select few other players who were sent to other teams around the league. Also, having their ECHL and AHL club just a couple of hours apart will be extremely convenient.
This would solve a major travel issue in the North Division for all the teams. Adirondack Thunder head coach Alex Loh expressed his pleasure this past season after a home-and-home with the Brampton Beast. This issue was brought to the league and is expected to change as teams will now have a day to travel to places like Brampton, Ontario and Newfoundland.
Adding Trois-Rivieres in the mix, clubs can now play all three Canadian teams in about a week and a half without having to play a game and travel within a span of 24 hours.
So Who’s Got The Advantage At This Time?
At this time, I believe Trois-Rivieres holds a slight advantage. It’s a Canadian market and you have another young team to share the arena with and as an ECHL team, it could be a landing spot for college kids looking to continue their careers playing hockey. It just makes too much sense to pass up.
New rink, new area to move into and most importantly, it’s not a giant rink, so there won’t be a handful of empty seats. Expect these expansion talks to ramp up next season as the ECHL will continue to evaluate these two hockey markets to move into.