CHL shuts down
Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 4:06 pm
It's now official: the Central Hockey League is no more, and the ECHL is taking in all of its remaining teams.
The Allen Americans, Brampton Beast, Missouri Mavericks, Quad City Mallards, Rapid City Rush, Tulsa Oilers and Wichita Thunder have all officially been admitted to the ECHL, leaving the CHL in ruins and growing the ECHL, widely regarded as North American pro hockey's top third-tier league, to 27 total teams.
The teams will join the ECHL as of the 2014-15 season, which begins in just 10 days on October 17. A new schedule from the league is expected this week.
These rumors have been swirling all offseason, and it's likely just the first step in a massive realignment of minor professional hockey in North America. There's word that the American Hockey League -- one step below the NHL -- is set to add a division on the Western half of the continent, which would leave some old AHL mainstay franchises behind in lower-tier leagues and promote some western franchises up a level.
In August, we attempted to reset the entire AHL/ECHL landscape with a hypothetical realignment based on the ECHL-CHL merger rumors and the expected western AHL growth.
The Allen Americans, Brampton Beast, Missouri Mavericks, Quad City Mallards, Rapid City Rush, Tulsa Oilers and Wichita Thunder have all officially been admitted to the ECHL, leaving the CHL in ruins and growing the ECHL, widely regarded as North American pro hockey's top third-tier league, to 27 total teams.
The teams will join the ECHL as of the 2014-15 season, which begins in just 10 days on October 17. A new schedule from the league is expected this week.
These rumors have been swirling all offseason, and it's likely just the first step in a massive realignment of minor professional hockey in North America. There's word that the American Hockey League -- one step below the NHL -- is set to add a division on the Western half of the continent, which would leave some old AHL mainstay franchises behind in lower-tier leagues and promote some western franchises up a level.
In August, we attempted to reset the entire AHL/ECHL landscape with a hypothetical realignment based on the ECHL-CHL merger rumors and the expected western AHL growth.