Better Know A Minor League: Southern Professional Hockey League

With the lockout doom-- DOOOOOOOM-- it's probably for the best that the actual NHL fans actually get acquainted with some other leagues out there. Yes, that's right, folks-- there's other hockey leagues out there besides the NHL. Crazy, I know. So, here we go.  

While it is one of the youngest and least known leagues-- the history of the Southern Professional Hockey League is an interesting one at best. It came together after a division of the Southern hockey contingency which was bound to ruin the whole landscape for those markets for other leagues.

The SPHL came from the remaining teams in the South East Hockey League and the World Hockey Association 2, which were competing leagues in the Southeastern US during the 2003-04 season and both of those leagues were spawns of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League, which ran during the 2002-03 season.

After both the WHA2 and SEHL failed (WHA2 because of a cease-and-desist from the failed new WHA and SEHL only have four teams and two of them fold), the SPHL came together with eight teams coming into the league-- two from the SEHL (Fayetteville FireAntz and Knoxville Ice Bears), one from the WHA2 (Jacksonville Barracudas), and one dropping down from the ECHL (Columbus Cottonmouths). Along with the Huntsville Havoc; Fayetteville, Knoxville, and Columbus still remain as the originals.

Currently, the SPHL has nine teams in seven states across the Southeast, in what could be considered "single-A" hockey in terms of the minor league system. This is a place where you would see many veteran minor leagues drop down to play in their later years and young college kids-- probably from D-III or club team schools-- would go to play to continue their pro dream or stay there to live it out.

However, one of the big catches for the SPHL-- DIFFERENT RULES!!

• No stick curve limit (Rule 10)
• No trapezoid (Rule 1.8)
• 16 players and two goalies to be dressed
• 3-on-3 overtimes and five shooter shootouts

If nothing else, the SPHL does bring to light the renegade hockey level of play for the fans that are down there.

Yet, while the SPHL does have it's niche; they have been in some areas where it hasn't worked, failing twice in Winston-Salem, NC; once in Richmond, VA (a former ECHL hot bed); as well in Orlando and Jacksonville, Florida. There have been some economic short-falls (which is something that is common with minor league hockey), but the SPHL has made some solid expansion decisions with former minor league hot-beds like Augusta, GA; Pensacola, FL; Biloxi, MS; and Lafayette, LA.

It's not well-known or well covered, but the support from the fans down there and the short scheduling is something that makes this a solid league to maybe get into-- especially for the Southern hockey fans needing their fix.

Better Know A Minor League: Central Hockey League

With the impending lockout doom-- DOOOOOOOM-- it's probably for the best that the actual NHL fans actually get acquainted with some other leagues out there. Yes, that's right, folks-- there's other hockey leagues out there besides the NHL. Crazy, I know. So, here we go. 

When it comes to mergers, the Central Hockey League is one of the tops there is for have leagues want to merge into their league. It started with the Western Professional Hockey League merging with the CHL in 2001 and then the second-incarnation of the IHL merging with the CHL in 2010; the Central Hockey League is a league that went from the South-Central US and has grown far and wide to the Midwest and Southwest.

Though the CHL only has ten teams, it's all in eight states-- Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois, South Dakota, Arizona, Colorado, and Missouri. While they like to tout themselves as another "AA" league like the ECHL, only three NHL teams have affiliations with any team whatsoever; and most of them are due to proximity to the NHL's home-base. Luckily, the CHL has an 11th team coming into the league next season, which is a second team in Missouri.

In the realm of Southern hockey, the CHL has been solid with keeping their teams mostly in the Texas area, but going as far out as Macon, Georgia to the east and Youngstown, Ohio to the North and East. However, in recent years, the CHL has been in a flux of teams coming and going. Many teams have dropped down into the US Junior ranks, while others have used it as a stepping stone to move into the ECHL. In fact, last year's Ray Miron President's Cup champion-- the Fort Wayne Komets-- will be in the ECHL this season.

The CHL is also a case study about a league that tries to get too far out of their comfort zone and have struggles because of it. Though they did have their little bubble, they allowed other teams which were much too far out of their range-- thinking it could be a good idea. That ultimately led to those teams failing and leading to much more travel costs and maybe leading to failure of other teams as well. It seems that the league has gotten to a point where they have been able to keep things around a close area, with only South Dakota not being connected to any other state that's in the league.

With all of that said, the CHL has a very dedicated fan base and provides a competitive game for those in attendance with many former college hockey players and former AHL and ECHL players bringing up the talent level. It also provides fans with decent road-trip options should they want to follow their team around the loop. While you may not see many of these guys in the NHL when all is said and done, the bond the players create with the area is something that probably holds more value to fans than whether or not they make it or not.

Better Know A Junior League: Canadian Hockey League

With the impending lockout doom-- DOOOOOOOM-- it's probably for the best that the actual NHL fans actually get acquainted with some other leagues out there. Yes, that's right, folks-- there's other hockey leagues out there besides the NHL. Crazy, I know. So, here we go. 

When you want to talk about the next rising stars that come to the NHL, you have to look at the Canadian Hockey League for the best bang-for-your-buck prospects feeder system for the pros. In the past few years, the CHL has been a cash-cow, growing in exposure and popularity thanks to the products they have developed.

The CHL is broken up into three leagues-- the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League, and Western Hockey League. Each of them have their own style of play and it shows when the winners of the three league championships and the host city meet in the Memorial Cup playoffs to determine the top team in the CHL.

Starting in the QMJHL, the league itself is more of a finesse league from what I've seen. While they do have some contact, the primary focus is on the scoring side of things, more offensive driven game-plans, and overall highlight reel kind of goals. While 12 of the 18 teams are in the Province of Quebec and take up two divisions, the QMJHL has a third division for the other six teams in the Maritime provinces (three in New Brunswick, two in Nova Scotia, and one on Prince Edward Island).  The past two Memorial Cup champions came from the Q-- the Saint John Sea Dogs and Shawinigan Cataractes.

Moving to the other side of Canada, the WHL is a very blue-collar league. It's a grittier, tighter checking, very physical side of the CHL, but also has the ability to be a skill league with such players a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Scott Niedermayer, Mike Modano, Joe Sakic, and Ryan Getzlaf to come out of the league. The most spread out league in the CHL, the WHL has 22 teams-- six in British Columbia, five in Alberta, five in Saskatchewan, four in Washington state, one in Manitoba, and one in Oregon. The spread out nature gives prospects a chance to experience the rigorous NHL travel schedule.

The Ontario Hockey League is a blend of both the QMJHL and WHL style. A lot of finesse players with a gritty edge to it as well. Five of the last six 1st Overall Picks in the NHL Draft have been from the OHL-- Nail Yakupov, Taylor Hall, Steven Stamkos, John Tavares, and Patrick Kane. All except three teams of the 20 member teams are based in Ontario-- two are in Michigan and one in Pennsylvania. With a solid display of both physicality and finesse, the OHL brings the best of both the QMJHL and WHL to Ontario.

While there is a great upside to watching the CHL, the downside is the fact it isn't that accessible to the masses to go see unless you visit the Great White North of Canada or some border states that they land in. However, if you do have the chance to go see a game (which is perfect for the family and quite inexpensive), I highly suggest it because there's action across the leagues for kids who have a lot of determination to get to that next level.

Better Know A European League: British Hockey-- EIHL and EPL

With the impending lockout doom-- DOOOOOOOM-- it's probably for the best that the actual NHL fans actually get acquainted with some other leagues out there. Yes, that's right, folks-- there's other hockey leagues out there besides the NHL. Crazy, I know. So, here we go. 

For those who know much about the podcast I've been doing for the past 11 years-- Face Off Hockey Show-- you will know that our fan base is far and wide. One of the bigger fan bases is that of the British persuasion and I figured I would help promote their leagues (as wacky as they may be) and maybe get you to look beyond North America.

Great Britain is home of the 1936 Gold Medal Olympic winners and the main league is the EIHL, which has seen such former NHL players like Theoren Fleury (Belfast Giants), Nick Boynton (Nottingham Panthers), Eric Cairns (London Racers), and the late Wade Belak (Coventry Blaze) come over and play; though Fleury was the only one not to play during the 2004-05 NHL lockout. The EIHL allows up to 11 non-British players to be on the ice at one time, which means all imports have to have a British work permit in order to play. Sometimes they are not that easy to get, just ask Mike Danton recently. The limit was raised from 10 of 2011-12, which some people don't seem to like because of it taking a job away from a Briton. Though the league says it's to counteract the departure of top Britons to other European leagues, it stymies the attempt to produce more top-end players by taking a spot away.

Not knowing much or seeing much of the EIHL, I got the help of Anthony Russell, curator of Banners on the Wall, a blog about the Basingstoke Bison-- formerly of the EIHL and now of the EPL-- to get his take on the EIHL. Russell said that because of the influx of North American players who couldn't make it in the North American minors, the league feels more like a low-AA hockey league in North America with a lot of physical play and fighting. The 10 team league has four teams from England, four from Scotland, one from Northern Ireland, and one from Wales.

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A league lower than the EIHL is the EPL, which is a semi-pro and developmental league. Only those with European passports, residency, or of British heritage (mother or father with British citizenship) can play in this league. Those players without those key things are imports and teams can sign as many as they want. The import rule only has a team rostering four a game and three on the ice during any time of the game. Russell let me know that there is a two-minute-penalty for too many imports on the ice. About the game play, Russell said, "Because it's easier to sign Europeans, the game has a very European hockey feel to it, but also some touches of British physicality."

Another side to the EPL is the ownership situation. There's a vast difference on who owns the teams and how they could be run. Russell mentioned that the Guilford Flames are owned by a millionaire, while the Telford Tigers are owned by a trust made by fans who pay into it. If you buy one share of the team, you have a say in how they are ran.

There is another newly formed NIHL, which is a Tier 3/4 league that has a lower import rate and all of that-- but more of a development league for the EPL and then EIHL.

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The playoff system of the EIHL and EPL are kind of similar, but I'll let Russell explain as to what's the difference is when it comes to the trophy races:

Where British hockey really differs from others is the mentality over trophies. Britain is a football (soccer) country so playoffs, whilst part of hockey aren't the be all and end all. Really in British hockey, the main prize is the league title. You play your 54 game season and the team who wins the league title is generally the team regarded as the best. This is partially because that's how we're wired in Britain; anyone can win 1 or 2 games but being consistently good over 54 is what makes you good.  

Playoffs are the same for EIHL and EPL. Both are 10 team leagues so teams 1-8 qualify. Weekend after the regular season is done you have the Quarterfinals; 1st plays 8th, 2nd plays 7th etc over 2 legs (generally Saturday and Sunday) home and home, highest combined score over the two legs wins. The four winning Quarterfinalists qualify for Finals weekend the next weekend.  

The leagues hold them at different venues and generally on different weekends, the EIHL at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham and the EPL at the Skydome Arena in Coventry. Saturday, you get the two Semifinals and Sunday you get a junior game (generally, the Under-18s National Playoff Final) followed by the finalists battling it out to be playoff champs. It's different and sounds daft to North Americans but fans from all teams in the league will descend on finals weekend to meet up, watch hockey, drink themselves stupid, and have a good time. It's like a big party to end the season essentially, though many would prefer "normal playoffs" for the quality's sake but we enjoy ourselves.

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There's that-- a first look at the European side of the game. While I want to take credit-- Anthony Russell is the man. You can check out his work with writing for the Basingstoke Bison over at Banners on the Wall and check out his musings on British/European Hockey, wrestling, and other fun things in his world over at Twitter @84arussell.

Better Know A Minor League: The ECHL

With the impending lockout doom-- DOOOOOOOM-- it's probably for the best that the actual NHL fans actually get acquainted with some other leagues out there. Yes, that's right, folks-- there's other hockey leagues out there besides the NHL. Crazy, I know. So, here we go. 

A crazy thing about the ECHL is that the league is just that-- the ECHL. The letters don't stand for anything anymore, especially with the acquisiton of another league. In any case, this league was started out of the ashes of the All-American Hockey League at the end of the 1987-88 season. The ECHL was known then as the East Coast Hockey League, as the teams were predominately on the East Coast-- oddly enough. The first season, the ECHL had five teams and within five years had 19.

The ECHL soon expanded to more southern locales like Baton Rouge and Lafayette, Louisiana by the 1995-96 season, moving to New Orleans and Peoria in the 1997-98 season, while in the 2001-02 season, the league would see their peak at 29 teams under the East Coast Hockey League name. The name change to just letters would be in the 2003-04 season, when the West Coast Hockey League disbanded and joined up with the ECHL, creating a 31-team league for that season, spread out across the US-- including Alaska. There have been trying times for the ECHL, but for the 2012-13 season-- the league will have 23 teams, two new expansion teams in Orlando and San Francisco, and picked up Fort Wayne and Evansville from the Central Hockey League.

One of the biggest thing you'll see about the ECHL is how much they love when the alumni makes it to the NHL. Calling themselves the "Premier 'AA' Hockey League," the ECHL keeps a running total on the amount of alumni who have made it to at least one game in the NHL, which is at 490 after the 2011-12 season and 234 in the last seven years.

An interesting sidebar to the AA moniker is that not many teams use their ECHL affiliate. I pointed something out in April of this year how very few teams actually put their ECHL teams to good use. However, some teams like the Columbus Blue Jackets did just that with Allen York coming onto their roster and making a splash by coming directly from the ECHL to the NHL, bypassing the AHL entirely. Even though the honing of the player's skill happens in the AHL, the ECHL takes plenty of claim for their development-- rightfully or not is another story all together.

The ECHL is also the league that the Johnstown Chiefs used to play in before the team folded and moved to Greenville and became the Road Warriors. The Chiefs played in the same arena that the infamous movie "Slap Shot" was filmed in and the team was named after the fictional one. The Chiefs were one of the founding members of the ECHL, but the longest tenured team now is the Wheeling Nailers, who started in the 1991-92 season and moved from Winston-Salem, North Carolina where they were called the Thunderbirds.

With five divisions, two sides of the country, and untapped resources in Alaska; the ECHL is a very fun, spread out, and pretty talented league-- even if it does have some lifers in it. With a less corporate atmosphere, the ECHL is allow to have a lot of gimmick games and be able to show personality where other leagues may not want to. In a time were it'd be nice to have personality, the ECHL definitely helps fill some of that void.

Better Know A Minor League: The AHL

With the impending lockout doom-- DOOOOOOOM-- it's probably for the best that the actual NHL fans actually get acquainted with some other leagues out there. Yes, that's right, folks-- there's other hockey leagues out there besides the NHL. Crazy, I know. So, here we go. 

The AHL is the direct feeder system when it comes to the NHL and you'll see a lot of fans actually paying close attention to their AHL teams to see who is ready coming up through the pipeline of the team. Because of that, and a by-law, I believe; there are 30 teams-- one for each NHL team. They span from Newfoundland to British Columbia in Canada and in 16 States. Because of that 12 of the 30 AHL teams are owned by their parent clubs.

One of those teams that are independent is also the longest standing team in the AHL-- the Hershey Bears, who are now the affiliate of the Washington Capitals. They have the most Calder Cup championships with 11; the last coming in 2010. It should be noted that the Connecticut Whale have the longest lineage dating back to the Providence Reds in the 1936-37 season-- the first year of the AHL, but the Bears have stayed in the same town with the same name since 1938.

For the most part, the AHL was a predominantly Northeast region of the US league with spattering of Quebec and Ontario thrown in. However, with the "absorption" of six IHL teams and some ECHL moving upward into the AHL game; the league has expansion into the Midwest, Texas, and Western Canada. How west?? The Abbotsford Heat are the furthest team west and the closest team to them is the Oklahoma City Barons which is 2,100 miles away, while the Heat are 4,378 miles away from the St. John's IceCaps, the furthest team East.

There's not much else to be said about the nuances when it comes to the AHL. It's a talented league where you can see a lot of the good young prospects who couldn't get the fast-track to the AHL with some of the career AHLers who may have never gotten the chance. The pace of the game is almost on par with the NHL product and it's something where you could actually enjoy the entertainment value, as well as the hockey, for a solid price at the box office.

Should there be a lockout, you'll probably see a lot of the younger NHLers to be sent to the AHL to make sure they keep playing-- thus it would be a great idea to see a better talent on the ice. Even if there isn't a lockout and you have an AHL team in your area-- even if it's not the same as your parent club-- check it out to experience just one game of the next highest league in the North American hockey pipeline.