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2016-17 Alaska Aces Thread


ShakyWalton

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12 minutes ago, JamesB said:

 

Glad to see the updates on the Aces. I have checked out the numbers a few times myself but could not generate enough energy to right anything down. I could say that the problem is that there is nothing going on with the Aces to get excited about. But that would be an understatement. There is not much that generates even slight interest. You would hope that someone on the Aces might have emerged as being good enough to help Utica, but not even that much has happened.

 

Right now, there is no one on Utica who looks like a good prospect to ever be anything more than a marginal NHL player and Utica is struggling. Canuck prospects had a truly dismal year at the World Juniors (all two of them), and there are no prospects in Alaska who even rise to the level of being longshots. At least Boeser and Gaudette in the NCAA are good prospects.

 

I am not sure if other NHL teams have interesting prospects in the ECHL. I note that Dane Fox is scoring quite a lot in the ECHL this year (21 goals and 30 assists in 48 games).

Yeah, nothing to write home about really, except Garteig. Last year the K-Wings had a couple of intriguing guys at least. Stewart is a waste of an ELC and although its early, Laplante is looking like a guy who should've been a development camp invite like Roy/Moynihan and not signed to an ELC so hastily.

 

Obviously its kind of pointless for me to critique our ECHL guys... :lol: but it'd be nice to have those two contract spots free to use on players with higher potential.

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1 hour ago, Alflives said:

Abbotsford?

 

1 hour ago, UticaHockey said:

I doubt it.  The travel costs have to be killing them and it wouldn't be any better in Abbotsford.

I don't know much about the economics, but if the Aces did move to Abbotsford they would at least be reasonably close to teams in Idaho, Utah, and Colorado -- much better than when Abbotsford was in the AH, and I think much better than the current situation for the Aces in Alaska. And with potential interest in getting a franchise in Portland a reasonable Western Division would be possible.

 

I hope it happens.

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8 hours ago, JamesB said:

 

I don't know much about the economics, but if the Aces did move to Abbotsford they would at least be reasonably close to teams in Idaho, Utah, and Colorado -- much better than when Abbotsford was in the AH, and I think much better than the current situation for the Aces in Alaska. And with potential interest in getting a franchise in Portland a reasonable Western Division would be possible.

 

I hope it happens.

Who would the ownership be? The Canucks have 0% ownership in the Aces just an agreement to supply a few players. With the Western movement of the AHL the ECHL has moved back east to fill the void in cities that have lost their AHL team. Portland, Maine lost their AHL team this season and has local ownership looking to bring the ECHL to that city.

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Add Worcester to the ECHL as well - they are definately adding a team.  Problem with the New England area, from an AHL standpoint, is you have a Bruins fan base, and a large number of fans aren't interested in seeing other franchise prospects.   The ECHL can work in this territoy because its teams attract the hockey die hards who just like hockey, or look at a game as a night out and there are enough of them to support the lower cost league.  The more East Coast ECHL teams form,  the lower the travels costs and that's good for the ECHL.  Still believe that in the near future the migration of the AHL will continue with teams shifting to cities outside of the East, whether it be West or South.  Follow the jobs.    The areas that are growing will have the money to build new arenas and will have the population to improve attendance. Cities like Springfield, Bridgeport, Utica and Binghamtom will become ECHL cities, which then puts a strain on Syracuse and Rochester.  While Syracuse's latest run in the AHL has been a long one, they have one of the worst barns in the league - period, and they too could an ECHL city at some point. 

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4 hours ago, UticaHockey said:

Who would the ownership be? The Canucks have 0% ownership in the Aces just an agreement to supply a few players. With the Western movement of the AHL the ECHL has moved back east to fill the void in cities that have lost their AHL team. Portland, Maine lost their AHL team this season and has local ownership looking to bring the ECHL to that city.

Oops. I did not realize that the "Portland" referred to in the article was Portland, Maine, not Portland Oregon. I admit that makes a franchise in Abbotsford less attractive.

 

As for ownership, a quick search of the Internet suggests a price tag of around half a million for a franchise in the ECHL. (See http://www.lfpress.com/2012/09/07/bullish-on-hockey).

 

Apparently a new franchise cost $475K in 2012. From the sound of things in Anchorage I am guessing the likely current price would be less, not more. But let's the say the price has gone up to 600K or so. I am thinking the Canucks could buy the franchise. After all, if they can commit $36 million to Loui Eriksson, surely they can spend less than 2% of that to buy an ECHL franchise. After all, the Canucks bought what is now the Utica franchise in the AHL.

 

Maybe a team in Abbotsford could actually make some money if the Canucks put some recognizable prospects on the team there. And there is talk about a new ECHL franchise for Reno, especially with Las Vegas coming into the NHL.

 

I am not saying any of this is likely, but it is probably more likely than the Canucks making the playoffs this year. 

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20 minutes ago, JamesB said:

Oops. I did not realize that the "Portland" referred to in the article was Portland, Maine, not Portland Oregon. I admit that makes a franchise in Abbotsford less attractive.

 

As for ownership, a quick search of the Internet suggests a price tag of around half a million for a franchise in the ECHL. (See http://www.lfpress.com/2012/09/07/bullish-on-hockey).

 

Apparently a new franchise cost $475K in 2012. From the sound of things in Anchorage I am guessing the likely current price would be less, not more. But let's the say the price has gone up to 600K or so. I am thinking the Canucks could buy the franchise. After all, if they can commit $36 million to Loui Eriksson, surely they can spend less than 2% of that to buy an ECHL franchise. After all, the Canucks bought what is now the Utica franchise in the AHL.

 

Maybe a team in Abbotsford could actually make some money if the Canucks put some recognizable prospects on the team there. And there is talk about a new ECHL franchise for Reno, especially with Las Vegas coming into the NHL.

 

I am not saying any of this is likely, but it is probably more likely than the Canucks making the playoffs this year. 

There is no real reason for NHL teams to own an ECHL team. The "prospects" sent their are low level complete longshots to ever contribute in the NHL.  Calgary, Edmonton and LA all bought ECHL teams in California not because they wanted to own an ECHL team but because they wanted to buy the lease agreement each team had with their arenas so they could move their AHL team there. I believe Edmonton and LA have both sold the ECHL teams to local owners after moving them east and I would be surprised if Calgary doesn't do the same. 

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On 13/02/2017 at 4:11 PM, JamesB said:

 

Glad to see the updates on the Aces. I have checked out the numbers a few times myself but could not generate enough energy to right anything down. I could say that the problem is that there is nothing going on with the Aces to get excited about. But that would be an understatement. There is not much that generates even slight interest. You would hope that someone on the Aces might have emerged as being good enough to help Utica, but not even that much has happened.

 

Right now, there is no one on Utica who looks like a good prospect to ever be anything more than a marginal NHL player and Utica is struggling. Canuck prospects had a truly dismal year at the World Juniors (all two of them), and there are no prospects in Alaska who even rise to the level of being longshots. At least Boeser and Gaudette in the NCAA are good prospects.

 

I am not sure if other NHL teams have interesting prospects in the ECHL. I note that Dane Fox is scoring quite a lot in the ECHL this year (21 goals and 30 assists in 48 games).

Sounds like you have written off Virtanen, McEneny, & Demko.  Much too soon to write off any of those three.  Of those, McEneny took advantage of playing in the ECHL last year as a spring board to this year.  Once Green finally played McEneny, he was steadily moved up in the lineup until he was on the first PK unit, then was always on the ice for the last minute of games and periods, and lately he has been on the PP - I believe he now has 9 points in his last 10  games (he was first star in Utica's last game, as I recall).  Juolevi, Brisebois(5 assist night two games ago), Neill, and McKenzie (as a two way third or fourth line centre) also show some promise.  Looking at McEneny's development, the ECHL might be a good place to bring on defencemen and goalies - both of whom seem to take more time in development.  Valk, the Comets highest scoring centre is also an ECHL grad.  

But yeah,the Canucks depth up front is far from good, even a fair ways away from adequate - Benning wasted some high picks on Vey and Dorsett, and may have really screwed up on the Gudbranson deal (a first (McCann), a second, and a fourth for the defenceman with the highest minus on the team at the time he got hurt.  

On the plus side, he did score on Stetcher and Tryamkin, and made good trades on Granlund and Baertschi.  Erickson looks like a major bad deal that will hurt us for years. If ownership can get their heads around the fact that this team needs a rebuild, then he has the opportunity to load up on picks at the trade deadline: might as well trade Hansen, Burrows, Edler and MIller - so that we can at least get something for them  Too bad nobody would even take the Sedins off our hands even if we paid them, and even if the Sedins were willing to leave their comfortable retirement home in Vancouver.  The performance out of those guys died the day they got their long-term deals.

If we could get rid of the other old farts on the team (Edler, Hansen, Burrows & Miller, and move Tanev because he is probably worth something pick wise), we might even manage to get to the third overall pick.  So long as Benning doesn't waste that pick on another guy with a bad shoulder to start his NHL career - we might gain a valuable forward at the draft.

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Aces, we hardly knew ye.

 

http://canucksarmy.com/2017/2/23/canucks-echl-affiliate-will-cease-operations-at-year-end

 

Gonna be interesting to see where things go next season. The only remaining unaffiliated ECHL franchise is Fort Wayne. Unless another is created.

 

Might seem like a minor issue but the ECHL has actually served us pretty well. McEneny developed down there and is now proving himself to be a quality AHL player with real NHL potential. Grenier and Valk also made good use of their time in the ECHL. Garteig is learning the pro game at that level. Plus several other of our minor prospects have passed through the league (with mixed results) this year and in years past.

 

Have to expect we'll work something out with another ECHL team by next season. But it's a shame the current affiliation didn't last (although I was never really thrilled with the location and travel requirements in Alaska). Changing farm teams (and all that entails) never seems to be good for player development. Hopefully the next arrangement is for the long term.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Adirondack Thunder who were owned by the Calgary Flames have been sold to local ownership in Glens Falls so now there are no longer any ECHL teams that are NHL owned.  The Thunder are only 2 hours from Utica and might be a good spot for the Canucks to place their ECHL level players next season.  

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3 hours ago, UticaHockey said:

The Adirondack Thunder who were owned by the Calgary Flames have been sold to local ownership in Glens Falls so now there are no longer any ECHL teams that are NHL owned.  The Thunder are only 2 hours from Utica and might be a good spot for the Canucks to place their ECHL level players next season.  

Wouldn't that be great! Never understood Alaska at all. Joint use of resources more possible.

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  • 2 weeks later...

alaska clinging to a playoff spot,nice goal by mackenzie stewart on the weekend.they went 1-2 against rapid city.i hope they make the playoffs,they're usually on after the comets game because of the timezones.pavel laplante and danny moynihan look like decent prospects aswell. 

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Not really surprised by Alaska ceasing operations. It's such a loooooong way to travel. Some say the Canucks have some of the worst travel time in the NHL... imagine Alaska....

 

Kind of amazed they've survived for 15 years though.

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