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Well, nobody else was updating this thread, so I might as well. Most information shamelessly stolen from last year's OP. 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 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://www.nwhl.zone/ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFwEggLD91IcxpZvGqltJvw The NWHL is the first professional women’s hockey league in North America to pay its players. The inaugural season began October 11, 2015 with the Founding Four: Boston Pride, Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whale and New York Riveters. The Boston Pride became the first team in NWHL history to raise the Isobel Cup on March 12, 2016. 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. Rule changes for the 2016-17 Season tl:dr -- nothing important • Rule 46 (“Fighting”)/Rule 23 (“Game Misconducts”) Players who enter into a fight prior to, at, or immediately following the drop of the puck for a faceoff will be assessed an automatic game misconduct in addition to other penalties assessed. • During the regular season, any player who incurs his 10th fighting major shall be suspended automatically for one (1) game. For each subsequent fighting major up to 13, the player shall also be suspended automatically for one (1) game. • During the regular season, any player who incurs his 14th fighting major shall be suspended automatically for two (2) games. For each subsequent fighting major, the player shall also be suspended automatically for two (2) games. • In any instance where the opposing player was assessed an instigator penalty, the fighting major shall not count towards the player’s total for this rule. • Rule 82 (“Icing”) In addition to not being permitted to make player substitutions, the offending team on an icing violation also may not use its team time-out. • Rule 1.10 (“Ice Cleaning”) The ice cleaning procedures used during promotional timeouts will also be used prior to overtime during the regular season, replacing the “dry scrape.” Relocations - Lake Erie Monsters (CBJ) moved onto land and are now the Cleveland Monsters - Portland Pirates (FLA) relocated to Springfield, MA and are now the Springfield Thunderbirds - Springfield Falcons (ARZ) relocated to Tucson, AZ and are now the Tucson Roadrunners Affiliation Changes None this year. Expect changes next year. 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 2016-17: There's a team in China now. HC Kunlun Red Star. Maybe other stuff too, I dunno. Russia is far away 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. If anything is wrong, blame Infidel Castro.
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Oct 18, 2016 16:09
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Reserved, I guess
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Oct 18, 2016 16:10
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DJExile posted:Also totally gonna get out to a Monsters game sometime this year As always, let me know when. I'll get you tickets.
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Oct 18, 2016 19:55
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As far as AHL goes, there's the legit and overpriced AHL Live.
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Oct 18, 2016 22:11
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Infidel Castro posted:A full package of AHL Live costs more than my half-season ticket plan. Honestly, if the team you follow doesn't do HD and/or has a good jumbotron feed, don't even bother. Cleveland is by far the best production value, and it's still not as good as NHL.TV. I use the AHL Live feed to confirm goals/assists/etc for my position and it is like 60% quality of NHL.TV
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Oct 18, 2016 23:01
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I know you can buy individual games on AHL Live. Dunno about the CHL though.
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Oct 18, 2016 23:40
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Infidel Castro posted:Oh yeah, forgot to mention that this year the AHL instituted a new rule saying players will be suspended if they get into too many fights. After player accrues ten fighting penalties this season, they'll be subject to a one game suspension for each fight thereafter (so the 11th one would be the first suspension). It's in the OP.  I did update the AHL stuff, since that is what I'm familar with.
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Oct 21, 2016 02:30
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Yeah!
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Oct 23, 2016 02:04
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After being at an NHL game again after working for the AHL, I definitely noticed less announcements at the NHL game than at the AHL games. I don't know why there are more announcements. But, the announcements are explicitly laid out in a handout given to off-ice officials (such as myself). I prefer more announcements, to be honest.
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Oct 25, 2016 19:27
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I wonder if the Blackhawks will move the Ice Hogs to Chicago to fill that vacancy.
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Nov 30, 2016 22:15
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I just saw a video from a Euro league. The team has white helmets, but one guy had a yellow helmet with flames on it. Why?
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Dec 4, 2016 04:02
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Turdsdown Tom posted:can anybody explain why in the past two years the AHL got rid of like all the popular franchises in the northeast??????? West Coast movement
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Dec 24, 2016 06:06
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I'm legitimately amazed the puck moves at all. Whenever the ice is still wet after a Zamboni resurfacing, the ice stops dead when it hits a puddle.
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Jan 8, 2017 18:48
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If I was paying attention properly, the OT went all 5 minutes without a whistle. Always fun. Then 9 rounds of a shootout. 2 amazing saves in regulation from Korpisalo, Hannikainen undressed CHI's goalie in the shootout, and Bjorkstrand for the win. A fun night of hockey to get paid to watch. 
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Jan 29, 2017 05:50
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CBJSprague24 posted:Hockles, go find who schedules the TV broadcasts for the Monsters and kick them in the dick as hard as you can for scheduling now two Monsters TV games in direct competition with the CBJ. They only get like 5 TV games a season. Why not just get AHL Live! that costs more than NHL Game Center, and you only get 1 team, and it is literally just the arena feed, and only like 3 teams have HD cameras
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Feb 5, 2017 04:28
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DJExile posted:
The Walleyes' PA guy is filling in here tonight.
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Feb 11, 2017 00:15
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DJExile posted:Oh that's awesome Does he announce really fast? Because he did on Friday?
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Feb 13, 2017 10:00
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For those of you who care, and can't decipher his GDT posts, the Monsters ended the 1st period down 3-0, and came back to won 6-3. Milano had an amazing goal off the goalie's back/helmet from behind the goalline. It might be on Sportscenter Top 10 if they decide minor league hockey is good enough during March Madness.
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Mar 19, 2017 05:23
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Hockles posted:For those of you who care, and can't decipher his GDT posts, the Monsters ended the 1st period down 3-0, and came back to won 6-3. Milano had an amazing goal off the goalie's back/helmet from behind the goalline. It might be on Sportscenter Top 10 if they decide minor league hockey is good enough during March Madness. Basically this.... https://twitter.com/myregularface/status/847969522623672322
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Apr 1, 2017 01:35
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The AHL realigned (again), but no major changes from what I can tell. Also, they switched around the formatting of the regular season. From what I can see from the Monsters' format, they aren't playing teams 12 times anymore, and get to face the California teams now. However, they are going old-school MLB style and not playing any games outside of their conference.
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May 12, 2017 17:25
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Infidel Castro posted:That's odd, since Milwaukee will play Hershey and Wilkes-Barre next year, and we rarely get to play Eastern Conference teams Oh, I didn't delve deeper into the format. I just looked at the Monsters and thought it was the same for every team.
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May 12, 2017 22:13
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Mage_Boy posted:Planning an AHL filled vacation this year. Going to go visit my sister near Charlotte in March and go to the two Checkers/Pens games, then come back home that Friday just in time for the St. Patrick's day game in WBS. It's cool to see new teams, and to have an excuse to go visit my sister. (Plus it's a cheap vacation since she and her husband have a spare bedroom.) If you are in/near Cleveland want to go to a Monsters game, let me know.
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Aug 9, 2017 01:40
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