By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – With his first contract nearing completion, Scott Howson, AHL President, Scott Howson is facing an insurrection from league owners. It has become severe enough that the NHL’s second-in-command, Bill Daly, has been brought into the fray to deal with the issue. An unknown number of teams apparently want to end the relationship with Howson and go in a yet undefined different direction.
The first report on this story came during a segment of The Insiders on Tuesday night’s TSN Montreal Canadiens – Philadelphia Flyers broadcast. Right off the bat, Darren Dreger, one of TSN’s top reporters, dropped the bombshell.
Howson was selected to replace AHL Hockey Hall Of Famer Dave Andrews (1994-2018), who has now retired to Phoenix and Cape Breton.
Several long-time top sources were equally as stunned and perplexed by the news, with only one offering an opinion. Unfortunately, at this point, facts and solid information are hard to come by.
“I’m puzzled by this,” the source, who asked to remain anonymous, stated. “He got the AHL through the pandemic, opened four brand new state-of-the-art arenas (Laval, Henderson, San Jose, and Coachella Valley), and the NHL has majority ownership (22 of 32 teams). I can only surmise that a block of independent owners are unhappy somehow. It’s perplexing. When Scotty played, he was a lawyer-like in every way back then; I can’t imagine that’s changed.
“Did he rub somebody the wrong way? I don’t know. I am in the dark on this as much as everybody. If Daly is involved, however, that’s significant.”
With the 2/3 majority ownership, the NHL has full veto power over the direction of the league.
There are no more independent teams. The last two were the Worcester (MA) Ice Cats in their first season under the late Roy Boe. They’re no longer in the AHL. Worcester is now an ECHL city. There’s the other, the long-gone 1991 New Haven Nighthawks. They have comprised of Quebec Nordiques (now the Colorado Avalanche), farmhands, and free agents.
Dual affiliations are a thing of the past too. The Charlotte Checkers were split by the Florida Panthers and Seattle Krakken last year while their new building in the California desert was being built. This was the first one since the ill-fated, two-year experiment known as “The Beast of New Haven” in the late 90s that was shared by both the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida.
The AHL had come a long way in 46 years since they nearly went out of business during the WHA-NHL war before they merged in the late 1970s.
The league was nearly scuttled when they almost fell out of the minor-league required range of having six teams to qualify as a minor league.
They put an expansion team, then a brand-new expansion team called the Maine Mariners, affiliated with the Flyers, in a location that saved the AHL, which had lost cities and players in the WHA-NHL war. Ironically, Portland, Maine, is no longer in the league but has a team called by the original name of the Maine Mariners, now in the ECHL.
The AHL absorbed six teams from the original IHL (International Hockey League) in 2000. It comprised Chicago, Grand Rapids, and Milwaukee (all still playing). Manitoba is the second edition of the Manitoba Moose. The Utah Grizzlies have dropped to the ECHL. Gone are the Houston (TX) Aeros, who became the Iowa Wild.
The minor league hockey scene went thru a boom-and-bust cycle in the early part of this century. The Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL) folded in 2001, and pieces went to the Central Hockey League. However, one city, Austin, TX, formerly the Ice Bats, survived in a new form as the Texas Stars.
They lost teams (with great logos) like the Amarillo (TX) Rattlers, El Paso (TX) Buzzards, San Angelo (TX) Outlaws, and the Lake Charles (LA) Ice Pirates.
The Central Hockey League (CHL) went out of existence in 2014. In the second creation of the league, only the Tulsa (OK) Oilers, Allen (TX) Americans, and Wichita (KS) Thunder have lived on in the ECHL. The West Coast Hockey League (WCHL) also quit the business in 2003. Only the Idaho (ID) Steelheads in the ECHL and the San Diego (CA) Gulls and Bakersfield (CA) Condors make up the AHL Pacific Division survived.
The United Hockey League (UHL) went out in 2007. Living on from that league in the AHL is Rockford Ice Hogs. Now in the ECHL are the famous Ft. Wayne (IN) Komets (in their fourth league) and Kalamazoo (MI) Wings, and the Quad City (IL) Storm are in the SPHL, the fourth league. So the city has been in.
The WHA-2 lasted one year (2003-2004), and only one city is still involved in hockey, Macon (GA), which has from Whoopee to Trax. The reborn Atlantic Coast Hockey League (ACHL) lasted one year (2002-03) and had two cities still in hockey Macon and the Knoxville (TN) Ice Bears (SPHL).
The AHL is married to the NHL with 32 teams like the NHL direct affiliates, and the ECHL is up to 28 cities and affiliates to the AHL.
The AHL has remained quiet. The only low-grade rumbling is the Nashville Predators, who are potentially looking to leave Milwaukee for a brand-new, closer-to-home arena built by the Predators in Sumner County, TN. It will encompass 100,000 square feet a half-hour from Nashville, and two other small arenas are already built in Bellevue, TN, and Antioch, TN.
