• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

2019-20 Canes Miscellaneous News Thread

Sounds like the time for negotiations long passed already. The Canes didn't get offered what they wanted and moved on already.

I don't know the business dynamics the Checkers operate under. but they are going to take a hit on attendance and cross promotions opportunities once they lose the Canes affiliation. Chicago isn't THAT far away, not enough for the Checkers to try to leverage that.

I don't really care, the only people who are going to get hurt immediately are regular Checkers fans and the Checkers owner. AHL franchises survive this type of thing all the time though. As long as they have an NHL affiliate, the Checkers will be around, but this will hurt ticket sales for sure next season for them.
 
Last edited:
cmaleski2 said:
Sounds like the time for negotiations long passed already. The Canes didn't get offered what they wanted and moved on already.

I don't know the business dynamics the Checkers operate under. but they are going to take a hit on attendance and cross promotions opportunities once they lose the Canes affiliation. Chicago isn't THAT far away, not enough for the Checkers to try to leverage that.

I don't really care, the only people who are going to get hurt immediately are regular Checkers fans and the Checkers owner. AHL franchises survive this type of thing all the time though. As long as they have an NHL affiliate, the Checkers will be around, but this will hurt ticket sales for sure next season for them.
Click to expand...

We have friends who were Canes STM for years and moved to the Charlotte suburbs a few years ago. If we had a weekend where the Canes were away and Checkers home, we‘d get out there for a game or 2. And we went to 3 playoff games in 2018. So they’re going to lose the Canes fan caravan to Charlotte.

Having the AHL team in the Western Conference does present some logistical challenges, although not insurmountable and a little different from when Charlotte was inexplicably in the Western Conference. In those years, there were no teams in California. Abbotsford BC was the Western outlier and no one else was farther west than Dallas. Now there are 5 teams in California, soon to be 6 when Seattle starts and sets up in Palm Springs and 1 each in Colorado, Arizona and Nevada.
 
The fans of the Chicago Wolves have demonstrated that they can be dedicated enough to the jersey that they don't care who is supplying the players.

Thrashers, Canucks, Blues, Golden Knights, Canes. That is just 2011-2020. And the Canes will only be committing to 1 season to start.
 
Just to be clear, they play in the northwest suburbs of Rosemont, in sight of O’Hare.

And they clearly have a big enough fan base to support a TV contract. For 2019-20, they would have had 40 games broadcast on WPWR, channel 50.
 
Depaul BB played in that arena until 2017. Depaul's coach now is Dave Leitao who coached at Virginia but got fired there. He had a previous stint at Depaul before Virginia. And based on his record he will likely get fired by Depaul next year . Also Oliver Purnell went from Clemson to Depaul where he got fired.
 
OK ... I'll come clean a bit. My brother in law is a long time business partner in a separate venture with Mike Kahn who owns the Checkers. People seem to get a lot of things mangled about the relationship between the Hurricanes and the Checkers. They are two completely separate business entities that have a contract for minor league affiliation. That contract has a metric butt ton of stipulations about who provides what and who pays for those things, but in general the Checkers handle the business side 100% while the Canes MOSTLY handle the hockey administration side.

Since Dundon bought the Canes there have been a few cracks in the relationship with the Checkers that weren't present when Karmanos was owner. Karmanos was very hands off when it came to the affiliates' operations ... even fairly charitable when it came to supplementing the operations side when needed. Dundon, not so much. He provided personnel or funds required in the contract and nothing else ... while he demanded the control he was given in the contract, as is his right. There were some clashes over the transition and I don't think either the Kahns or Dundon are particularly fond of the other's point of view. The contract was up and negotiations were always going to be a problem with both sides wanting to better define the gray areas in their favor. From what I've been told, Dundon basically saw the writing on the wall and decided that the Hurricanes would be better served with an affiliate partner who needed less hand holding and who were more experienced in this whole process.

Enter Chicago. The Wolves have been around since the IHL, which was the last truly independent big time minor league in hockey. Thier ownership is stable, and they have been through the affiliate hoops forever ... having been with the Thrashers (with Waddell as GM), Canucks, Blues and Vegas. Their ownership group operates under a high professional standard and don't require much of their NHL partners. As noted above, they have their own regional radio and TV revenue, a large suburban Chicago fan base, a great building to play in ... it's a turn-key operation. From the NHL partner's perspective ... you pay the affiliate fee, you provide at least the minimum required number of players and personnel and you move on with your day. They don't need you to provide front office support, or help with marketing or basically anything else. Charlotte is a great market, it's close to Raleigh and the Kahns are good people. They just aren't really "hockey people" and they require a lot of involvement from the NHL partner. Chicago is a better fit right now for what Dundon wants to spend money on and as the owner ... that's his call. Fine.
 
jeffbear said:
The Wolves have been around since the IHL, which was the last truly independent big time minor league in hockey.
Click to expand...

The first pro hockey (actually, first hockey of any kind) I ever saw was the Dayton Gems. Versus Fort Wayne, if my increasingly decrepit memory serves.
 
went by Canes new practice rinks. It's enclosed so now they are working on the interiors. There is a 2nd story with offices so I guess Canes will use some of those. The rinks were covered in plastic so I guess maybe the concrete is the next layer? Not in construction but to me it looks like it could be ready by end of June. They don't need all of it ready to practice there as long as the building inspector signs off . They could do stuff like paint and landscaping while the Canes use it.

In case you are wondering I did go inside since there were a few unlocked doors. This was around 6 pm and 1 guy was still working but he did not see me.
 
Last edited:
HNIM said:
The first pro hockey (actually, first hockey of any kind) I ever saw was the Dayton Gems. Versus Fort Wayne, if my increasingly decrepit memory serves.
Click to expand...
The IHL was really quite good back in the day. Less prospects, so more predictable performances.
 
Grew up with the Muskegon Mohawks in that circuit, going to games & listening to a lot of others on the radio. HNIM's Dayton Gems, Fort Wayne Komets, Saginaw Gears, Flint Generals, Port Huron Flags, Toledo Goaldiggers, of course the Kalamazoo Wings..... good times. I can still hear the ol' PA guy from the LC Walker Arena, and remember the huge manual IHL Standings "scoreboard" they had in the corner where they'd hang the latest W L T numbers & double check where the Mohawks were in the standings (usually close to the top). I'd go to the stand right near that scoreboard & buy the latest Hockey News on my way in & grab a popcorn... That is how lifelong hockey fans are made.
 
Last edited:
Yeah ... back in the pre-Hurricanes 90s when I was spending a fair amount of time at my company's Orlando office we went to a bunch of Solar Bears games. That level of hockey was quite appealing, especially since most of the live hockey I'd seen at that point had been the ECHL ... which, let's face it, was kind of garbage.
 
First pro hockey games I saw were the Komets. Mom’s family is in Ft. Wayne. WOWO
 
My first Hockey game was the Ice Caps at Dorton Arena. I think they played the 1979 Flyers. I was NOT impressed. I didn't feel like anyone out there had any skill at all. It's the reason I had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to my first Hurricane's game in Greensboro. I was about five minutes in when I realized, THIS IS HOCKEY
 
HockeyPat said:
My first Hockey game was the Ice Caps at Dorton Arena. I think they played the 1979 Flyers. I was NOT impressed. I didn't feel like anyone out there had any skill at all. It's the reason I had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to my first Hurricane's game in Greensboro. I was about five minutes in when I realized, THIS IS HOCKEY
Click to expand...
Hoo boy, you would have been REALLY impressed with my first live hockey experience then. I had a suite mate who played for State's club team back in the mid-80s. They dragged all the way over to Hillsborough to play in the crappy old Daniel Boone rink with the holes in the boards and the level of play was ... no good. We used to pile in a van and go just to support our friends, and the beer was cheap ... which was nice. When the IceCaps came to town, THAT was a huge step up in class for me ... and the NHL was like some sort of alien experience. The second I saw an NHL game it was like ... oh, THAT's what it's supposed to look like.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top