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Are you a rabid hockey fan who needs more than the NHL to get his/her fill? Perhaps you live in some backwater poo poo hole like Saskatoon or Milwaukee and want to talk about your local team! Well buddy, this is the thread for you! This thread is for discussing North American minor leagues (AHL, ECHL), Junior leagues (WHL, OHL, QMJHL, USHL), as well as European leagues (KHL, SHL, etc.) and the new NWHL. This thread does not cover NCAA Hockey. If you wanna talk about that, the NCAA thread is here. National Women's Hockey League Website: http://nwhl.co/ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFwEggLD91IcxpZvGqltJvw This year is the NWHL's inaugural season, and it has the distinction of being the first women's hockey league to pay its players. As a result, pretty much all the top talent in women's hockey jumped ship from other leagues to make this the world's best women's hockey league. For now, the league only consists of four teams: the New York Riveters, Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whale, and Boston Pride. If the league succeeds, it might not be long before it expands out of the northeast U.S. to Canada and the Midwest. If you're interested, they even stream all league games for free on YouTube! American Hockey League http://www.theahl.com The American Hockey League (AHL) is the top-flight minor league in the US and Canada. Over 80% of the players currently in the NHL played in this league at one point. Sufficed to say, this is the league to watch if you want to see your team's future players. On top of being the top development league for the NHL, the AHL is often where proposed rule changes are tested to see how they work in practice. For example, the new 3-on-3 OT the NHL is using this season was implemented largely due to its success in the AHL last year. Rule changes for the 2015-16 Season - Overtime is now 5 minutes of 3-on-3 play. - Shootouts have been reduced from best-of-5 to best-of-3. - Coaches can challenge a call on the ice provided they still have their timeout. - The defending player taking a face-off is required to put his stick down first. Relocations - Manchester Monarchs (LA) relocated to Ontario, CA and are now the Ontario Reign - Worchester Sharks (SJ) relocated to San Jose, CA and are now the San Jose Barracuda - Adirondack Heat (CGY) relocated to Stockton, CA and are now the Stockton Heat - Oklahoma City Barons (EDM) relocated to Bakersfield, CA and are now the Bakersfield Condors - Norfolk Admirals (ANA) relocated to San Diego, CA and are now the San Diego Gulls - St. John's IceCaps (WPG) relocated to Winnipeg, MB and are now the Manitoba Moose - Hamilton Bulldogs (MTL) relocated to St. John's, NL and are now the St. John's IceCaps Affiliation Changes Portland Pirates are now affiliated with the Florida Panthers (prev. Arizona) San Antonio Rampage are now affiliated with the Colorado Avalanche (prev. Florida) Springfield Falcons are now affiliated with the Arizona Coyotes (prev. Columbus) Lake Erie Monsters are now affiliated with the Columbus Blue Jackets (prev. Colorado) Division Alignment (The thread title refers to the fact that the five teams in California only play 68 games this year, eight fewer than the rest of the league. The standings in the Pacific will be determined by points percentage as opposed to straight up points as a result. If you're thinking that's stupid/bullshit, that's because it is.) ECHL http://www.echl.com/ If the AHL is AAA Hockey, the ECHL would be AA. Few players who wind up in the ECHL have much chance of ever making the NHL, and those that do usually are backups and 4th liners. The ECHL used to stand for East Coast Hockey League until 2003, when it absorbed the remaining teams from the West Coast Hockey League. Prior to the 2014-15 season, it also absorbed the remaining Central Hockey League teams. As a result, the ECHL spans from Alaska to South Florida. The ECHL, however, is known for having the greatest logo in professional hockey. Canadian Hockey League The main prospect development league in North America, the CHL is composed of three leagues. Each league holds its own NHL-style playoffs with the winners of each league along with the host city playing in the prestigious Memorial Cup tournament. The CHL is considered a "major junior" league and is sometimes referred to this way. Players in the CHL are aged 16-20 (with an occasional 15 year old permitted in the OHL via "exceptional player status"). 20 year olds are considered "overage" and limited to 3 per team while teams may not play more than 4 15 or 16 year olds. Age for CHL purposes is based on the calendar year so for the 2013-2014 season, a 20 year old is any player born in 1993. This contrasts with the NHL where draft eligibility is determined by age on September 15. Each CHL league has an annual draft of bantam-aged players within their regions and the leagues hold a combined import draft for players from outside North America who may wish to play in the CHL. Teams are limited to 2 import players. WHL (Western Hockey League) The WHL includes 22 teams in four Canadian provinces and two American states. The WHL holds the CHL rights to players from the four western provinces, all three territories, the American Pacific Northwest and other designated states west of the Mississippi River. The winner of the WHL playoffs is awarded the Ed Chynoweth Cup. Official website: http://www.whl.ca/ OHL (Ontario Hockey League) The OHL is composed of 20 teams, located in the Canadian province of Ontario and the American states of Michigan and Pennsylvania. The winner of the OHL playoffs is awarded the J. Ross Robertson Cup. Official website: http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/ QMJHL (Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec) Also called "the Q", the QMJHL is the only CHL league with no American teams (although there used to be one in Maine). The QMJHL has 18 teams, based in Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The league has CHL rights to players from these provinces as well as Newfoundland and New England. The winner of the QMJHL playoffs is awarded the President's Cup. The league is known for high scores and a style of hockey which prioritises offense. Pity the goalies. Official website: http://theqmjhl.ca/ Kontinental Hockey League Russia is pretty into hockey. They've had aspirations to create a pan-Europe league to rival the NHL, but for now they have the KHL. Originating from the Russian Superleague, the league has expanded beyond Russia with teams in Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Ukraine and Finland. Prominent ex-NHLers include Alexander Radulov (CKSA Moscow) and Ilya Kovalchuk (SKA Saint Petersburg). Some Russian prospects take their time moving over to North America from the KHL. Changes for 2015-16: Spartak Moscow will return to the league prior to this season and Atlant Moscow Oblast will not participate in the league this season due to financial problems. HC Donbass, which suspended operations due to the rebellion in Ukraine and had hoped to rejoin the KHL this year, will play in the Ukranian PHL. Official website: http://en.khl.ru/ FAQ Sounds cool! How can I watch? The best way is in person. Minor hockey is cheap and you can probably get decent seats for $10-$15. Check your local team's Twitter or Facebook for additional promotions (e.g. my local WHL team has a limited number of seats on sale on Mondays for $5). But if you don't live near a team, or want to keep up with their away games, the best way to keep up for free is radio. Yes, that's still a thing. Most if not all of these teams have all their games broadcast by a local radio station, and radio is almost universally available to stream (legally!) for free online with no restrictions on location. Sure, this means you can't see the games to judge your team's precious prospects with your own eyes, but radio commentating is very thorough and hearing the players' names to know who has been involved in the play gives a pretty good idea of who has played well. Hockey Webcasts is a fairly comprehensive source to stream radio for almost every North American team from the NHL, AHL, ECHL, WHL, OHL, and QMJHL. If your team is missing, check the official league page or team website. The AHL, WHL, OHL and QMJHL all have sites like NHL Gamecenter Live where you can watch the games online. However, they are expensive and the quality tends to be pretty bad, with the video often just being a low-res feed of whatever goes up on the jumbotron. On occasion, games are televised locally in which case you might be able to find them on your favourite illegal streaming site. All KHL games are streamed through onhockey.ru, but they happen in the middle of the (North American) night and are in Russian, so that may or may not be your thing. Why can't my team's hot prospect play in the AHL if he doesn't make the NHL team? You can blame the NHL/CHL Agreement, a.k.a. why I didn't get to see Seth Jones play in Milwaukee. Somewhere around 60% of all NHL players played in the CHL, making it the main pool from which the NHL drafts its players. To prevent NHL teams from taking their best players and immediately sending them to one of their minor league affiliates, the NHL and CHL made an agreement. If a player was drafted from a CHL team, they have to either be 20 years old by Dec. 31 (i.e. overage) or have played four years in the CHL in order to play in the AHL. Otherwise, the player must be sent back to the CHL team that has their rights. Note that this only applies to players drafted from the CHL, not players drafted from European leagues or the NCAA, even if they go on to play in the CHL after the draft. Note: OP is work in progress, will add as I have time. Infidel Castro fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Feb 7, 2016 |
# ? Nov 5, 2015 19:19 |
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 19:03 |
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Reserved
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# ? Nov 5, 2015 19:19 |
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New thread, good OP, and praises sung of radio broadcasts.
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# ? Nov 5, 2015 21:22 |
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Hey, make a section for the NWHL.
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# ? Nov 5, 2015 21:40 |
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DollyDagger posted:Hey, make a section for the NWHL. I redid the AHL section since it had a lot of changes and that's the league I know best. The rest was basically copied over from last year's OP. I'll edit in new stuff as I can get it done. e: NWHL stuff is in. Infidel Castro fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Nov 5, 2015 |
# ? Nov 5, 2015 22:12 |
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nwhl has games one day a week and i'm pretty sure they're streaming them all for free but I keep forgetting to check
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# ? Nov 5, 2015 23:01 |
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Updated the OP with some KHL stuff. Also holy poo poo how did I never notice that the QMJHL's logo is a loving skate until now?
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# ? Nov 6, 2015 18:18 |
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Not sure if it mandates being included, but the Champions Hockey League is having it's second consecutive season under the current incarnation. It features the top teams from all the European leagues, except the KHL which has opted not to join. It's currently in the second round of the knock-out stage. The tournament airs on ONE World Sports in the US, and Sportsnet in Canada.
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# ? Nov 6, 2015 18:40 |
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Anyone been to a Gulls game yet? I wanna go, but not if the stadium blows.
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# ? Nov 7, 2015 01:34 |
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iwentdoodie posted:Anyone been to a Gulls game yet? I wanna go, but not if the stadium blows. I'm looking to go on the 13th or 14th so I shall report. But it's the old Sports Arena so it's probably eh.
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# ? Nov 7, 2015 07:23 |
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iwentdoodie posted:Anyone been to a Gulls game yet? I wanna go, but not if the stadium blows. I was so excited about them coming back but I been working 60 hour weeks and my wife is 8 months pregnant so no. Of course the stadium blows. It's horrible.
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# ? Nov 8, 2015 05:51 |
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In Best Name in the WHL news, Victoria Royals rookie goaltender Griffen Outhouse picked up a win today and is 3-0. He is 17 years old.
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# ? Nov 8, 2015 06:13 |
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toe knee hand posted:In Best Name in the WHL news, Victoria Royals rookie goaltender Griffen Outhouse picked up a win today and is 3-0. He is 17 years old. If there was ever a player the Flyers need to draft, he'd be it.
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# ? Nov 8, 2015 14:54 |
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The Texas Stars are probably going to give Jack Campbell some starts soon and I've got so much heartburn about it. Lagace is playing okay and certainly on a beter trajectory but he's not a reserve goalie by any means just yet.
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# ? Nov 9, 2015 06:51 |
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DJExile posted:The OHL's Flint Firebirds were down 3-1 to reigning Memorial champ Oshawa and came back to beat them. Their owner fired all the coaches immediately after the game because his son was on the team and he thought he wasn't getting enough playing time. The other players, including the owner's son, responded by going to his office, tossing their jerseys on the floor, and quitting. I don't have anything to add but want to note that I have read this and am still trying to process it.
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# ? Nov 9, 2015 12:10 |
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@OHLInsiders is reporting that Flint did a 180 and resigned Karpa and Gruden to 3-year contracts. Turns out it's hard to own a hockey team that doesn't have hockey players. Infidel Castro fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Nov 9, 2015 |
# ? Nov 9, 2015 20:24 |
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if you were a head coach why would you sign on for 3 years with this circus of a hockey team. I mean the way hockey works it's all one big old boys club. Those guys would have been working as coaches again in the OHL in less than a year.
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# ? Nov 9, 2015 21:01 |
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# ? Nov 10, 2015 18:14 |
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How's Auston Matthews doing these days
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# ? Nov 12, 2015 04:24 |
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DOOP posted:How's Auston Matthews doing these days He got injured and then the league went on break, so he hasn't played in about three weeks now.
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# ? Nov 12, 2015 17:51 |
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Hand Knit posted:He got injured and then the league went on break, so he hasn't played in about three weeks now. There was an interview with (an admittedly biased) Marc Crawford who said that before he was hurt he was the unquestioned best player in the league. He's going to be one hell of an NHLer. In unrelated news, for the first time that I can recall the highest ranked Canadian for the 2016 draft is pegged at 8th (depending on what nationality you view Jakob Chychrun as having I guess). No matter how you shake it this is going to be one hell of a draft for American players, it's great to see. http://www.tsn.ca/forwards-dominate-top-of-2016-nhl-prospect-race-1.391662
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# ? Nov 12, 2015 18:17 |
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Please stop sharing pictures of these jerseys so I can actually afford to buy one These fuckin things are going to go for like a grand now that the entire internet knows about them
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# ? Nov 12, 2015 18:53 |
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Someone who watches London games: who are Marner's linemates?
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# ? Nov 12, 2015 19:00 |
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Hand Knit posted:Someone who watches London games: who are Marner's linemates? I don't watch the games, but I read reports every so often and from what I understand they most often load up a line of Christian Dvorak and Matthew Tkachuk with him. They combined for 16 points against the Storm the other night.
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# ? Nov 12, 2015 19:25 |
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ThinkTank posted:I don't watch the games, but I read reports every so often and from what I understand they most often load up a line of Christian Dvorak and Matthew Tkachuk with him. They combined for 16 points against the Storm the other night. I was at that game. It was..a sight to see alright. Marner has some of the best vision and awareness I've seen in a player. Really amazing to watch.
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# ? Nov 12, 2015 21:33 |
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ThinkTank posted:I don't watch the games, but I read reports every so often and from what I understand they most often load up a line of Christian Dvorak and Matthew Tkachuk with him. They combined for 16 points against the Storm the other night. I saw Tkachuk had 30 points in 16 games so I figured it was worth an ask.
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# ? Nov 12, 2015 21:40 |
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the Gulls own, the stadium blows
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# ? Nov 13, 2015 00:15 |
So the WBS Pens are now 10-1 and undefeated at home. They managed to win tonight's game with a final score of 7-0 against their rival Hershey Bears. I think Pittsburgh has a pretty strong future in the net. I'm also glad I went to this game instead of watching the Pittsburgh game, since I'm happy instead of depressed.
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# ? Nov 14, 2015 04:46 |
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jarry is cool and good murray is probably in contention for the YOUNG GUNZ goalie squard with subban/hellebuyck/allen
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# ? Nov 14, 2015 04:51 |
fits posted:jarry is cool and good Yeah, Murray looked pretty good in the NHL preseason. He keeps his calm really well, which is a big thing in a goalie. I'm hoping Jarry started tomorrow, since he looked good in the last game I saw him play, and I don't want them to break Murray by giving him every back to back.
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# ? Nov 14, 2015 05:19 |
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Mackenzie Blackwood is probably going to be pretty good guys. Too bad NJ drafted him and he will share the Corey Schneider fate. Also good is that Barrie and Kingston appear to be good again.
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# ? Nov 14, 2015 05:29 |
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Furnaceface posted:Also good is that ...Kingston appear to be good again. Ahaha Haha Ha
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# ? Nov 14, 2015 15:19 |
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Mage, you in Wilkes-Barre? My family has had season tickets for the entire baby pens existence. I'm more of a Dennis Bonvie and Toby Petersen OG though.
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# ? Nov 15, 2015 01:37 |
ElwoodCuse posted:Mage, you in Wilkes-Barre? My family has had season tickets for the entire baby pens existence. I'm more of a Dennis Bonvie and Toby Petersen OG though. Live just north. Got 22 games this season. Team is 11-1 now. Currently on a 10 game streak.
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# ? Nov 15, 2015 03:51 |
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# ? Nov 15, 2015 03:52 |
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holy poo poo that game had to be fun as gently caress
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# ? Nov 15, 2015 23:49 |
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Another barnburner: Wilkes-Barre trailed Hartford 5-1 after 1, won 7-6 in overtime. 11 straight.
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# ? Nov 16, 2015 02:11 |
ElwoodCuse posted:Another barnburner: Wilkes-Barre trailed Hartford 5-1 after 1, won 7-6 in overtime. 11 straight. What's funny about that is WBS was on a 3 game strech. I expected them to lose the winning streak from being tired and having to travel after two days at home. I was actually amazed at how they managed to pull this off. That is now two games this past weekend that they have won by scoring 7 goals.
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# ? Nov 16, 2015 17:12 |
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 19:03 |
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Viktor Arvidsson has a point in every AHL game he's played this season and just matched the AHL's longest points streak of the season so far at 10. I'm thinking he kinda owns.
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# ? Nov 19, 2015 05:00 |