BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – There was so much going on in the Hartford Wolf Pack, hockey universe, we’ll push off vacation time another week to give you bonus coverage of the off-season in professional hockey.
EXHIBITION GAMES
As Cantlon’s Corner reported back in July, the Wolf Pack will host a pair of exhibitions games at Trinity College Koeppel Community Ice Center against the intra-state and division rivals, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The games are on September 28th and 29th starting at 1:00 pm.
On Friday, the Sound Tigers will be the home team and on Saturday, it will be the Wolf Pack who will be hosting. In lieu of admission, for Saturday’s game, a suggested minimum $5 donation for the Ryan Gordon Scholarship fund, which has been a long Wolf Pack charitable endeavor honoring a young Wolf Pack fan who passed away in 2006.
The Wolf Pack open the regular season October 5th at home against the Providence Bruins.
The Rangers started their Traverse City tourney play against Dallas and lost 7-5 on Friday. They played and were winners over Minnesota on Saturday and were defeated 5-0 by host Detroit Sunday.
On September 11th they will play for 7th place against the St. Louis Blues.
The Rangers full training camp starts next Friday. They have an exhibition game in Bridgeport on Saturday, September 22nd against the Islanders at 7 pm.
The Wolf Pack training camp is likely to open the following Monday, on September 24th at the XL Center.
COACHES & PLAYER MOVEMENT
Ex-Pack, Tommy Thompson, was traded from Idaho (ECHL) to the Florida Everblades (ECHL) for defenseman Justin Kea.
Reid McNeill becomes the 76th AHL player to sign in Europe going from the Syracuse Crunch to Dornbirner EC (Austria-EBEL). 26 of the 30 teams from last season have lost at least one player.
Ex-Sound Tiger, Mathieu Gagnon, returns from Nottingham Panthers (England-EIHL) to Brampton Beast (ECHL).
A few more collegians head on to new spots.
After four years at Boston University (HE), John MacLeod departs for Hershey. Division III’s Aurora University (NCHA) sees Latvian Rihard Marenis return home to play with HK MOGO (Latvia-LHL).
Now thirty college players have signed in Europe and 198 Division I players have signed North American pro deals. There are now a total of 264 collegians who have signed for this season in North America and Europe.
Brett Oldaker, a former member of the CT Oilers (EJHL), departs the University of Pittsburgh (ACHA Division-1) to the Mentor (OH) Ice Breakers (FHL).
HOCKEY NEWS
This is a story (HERE) that requires a careful eye with the Rangers over the next several years in how this will play out as a nexus of politics and sports business intersect at MSG.
The New York Islanders set to embark on their first home season with games split between the Barclay Center in Brooklyn and at their renovated former home, Nassau Coliseum, as they are slated to begin in the spring of 2019 to build their new home at Belmont Park. Read more HERE.
NHL SEATTLE EXPANSION
The wheels are moving on a daily basis for a 32nd NHL franchise and eventually a 32nd AHL franchise.
Seattle Partners LLC announced seven local investors have been added to their ownership mix and the group is finalizing critical documents regarding the lease arrangement at the KeyArena, construction specs to meet NHL and NBA requirements and especially requirements in their respective CBA agreements.
After that, a final environmental impact study, that’s required by law and must have open public discussions before a final vote by the Seattle City Council on September 24th.
This will be required as the group prepares for a formal presentation before the NHL BOG tentatively scheduled for October 2nd.
More than likely, after the presentation there will be a committee vote taken and a recommendation on the application would be forwarded to the NHL Board of Governors (BOG) for a final vote. That would likely take place in a December timeframe for the next scheduled BOG meeting in Florida.
The last event at the KeyArena before the restoration/redesign work begins on the arena is an NBA exhibition game between the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings on October 5th. Currently, the WNBA Seattle Storm are in the Finals and Seattle University will be sidelined from the building during the renovations.
Once the ceremonial shovels are dug in then the project is off and running.
Seattle Partners LLC is also working on developing a brand new local practice facility for the NHL team. The group is also working on developing a team name with a logo and color scheme, plus they’re working on getting an AHL franchise in place. All these are requirements to earn admission to the NHL.
The most important piece is the $650 million dollar expansion fee divided by 30 teams roughly $20 million per team.
Former Whaler, Dave Tippett, was hired as a hockey advisor to the group and is working on these hockey aspects of the application.
Cantlon’s Corner has identified Tacoma, Washington as a likely primary choice city for their AHL franchise. Its arena, the Tacoma Dome, has undergone a complete makeover and sits about a half hour from Seattle, which would be perfect for player recalls.
The last team to play there was the defunct team and league, the West Coast Hockey League (WCHL) Tacoma Sabercats in 2002. They won a Taylor Cup title in 1999 and folded three years later in 2002. The league was absorbed into the ECHL in 2003 after eight years of existence.
Whether Seattle Partners LLC will just buy an AHL expansion franchise or look to find a defunct franchise in the AHL archives to purchase, or what direction they’ll go is unclear. Maybe, the new local investors or local investors might want to own the local AHL franchise?
All to be determined.
Read and listen and see some of the latest goings-on in the Pacific Northwest;
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