The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States
and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League. Since
the 2010–11 season, every team in the league had an affiliation agreement with an NHL team;
in the past, one or two NHL teams would not have an AHL affiliate and so assigned players
to AHL teams affiliated with other NHL teams. Twenty-seven AHL teams are located in the
United States and the remaining three are in Canada. The league offices are located
in Springfield, Massachusetts, and its current president is David Andrews.
The annual playoff champion is awarded the Calder Cup, named for Frank Calder, the first
President of the NHL. The current champions are the Texas Stars.
Formation and growth Predecessor leagues
The AHL traces its origins directly to two predecessor professional leagues: the Canadian-American
Hockey League, founded in 1926, and the first International Hockey League, established in
1929. Although the Can-Am League never operated with more than six teams, after the 1935–36
season it reduced down to just four member clubs – Springfield, Philadelphia, Providence,
and New Haven – for the first time in its history. At the same time, the then-rival
International Hockey League lost half of its eight members after the 1935–36 season,
also leaving it with just four member teams: Buffalo, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland.
1936–38 With both leagues down to the bare minimum
in membership, the governors of each recognized the need for action to assure their member
clubs' long-term survival. Their solution was to play an interlocking schedule. Styled
as the International-American Hockey League, the two older leagues' eight surviving clubs
began joint play in November 1936 as a new two-division "circuit of mutual convenience"
with the four Can-Am teams comprising the I-AHL East Division and the IHL quartet playing
as the West Division. The IHL also contributed its former championship trophy, the F. G.
"Teddy" Oke Trophy, which would go to the regular-season winners of the West Division
in the new I-AHL until 1952. A little more than a month into that first
season, the balance and symmetry of the new combined circuit suffered a setback when its
membership unexpectedly fell to seven teams. The West's Buffalo Bisons were forced to cease
operations on December 6, 1936, after playing just 11 games, because of what proved to be
insurmountable financial problems and lack of access to a suitable arena; the Bisons'
original arena, Peace Bridge Arena, had collapsed the previous season. The makeshift new I-AHL
played out the rest of its first season with just seven teams.
At the end of the 1936-37 season, a modified three-round playoff format was devised and
a new championship trophy, the Calder Cup, was established. The Syracuse Stars defeated
the Philadelphia Ramblers in the finals, three-games-to-one, to win the first-ever Calder Cup championship.
The Calder Cup continues on today as the AHL's playoff championship trophy.
Formal consolidation of the I-AHL
After two seasons of interlocking play, the governors of the two leagues' seven active
teams met in New York City on June 28, 1938, and agreed that it was time to formally consolidate.
Maurice Podoloff of New Haven, the former head of the Can-Am League, was elected the
I-AHL's first president. The former IHL president, John Chick of Windsor, Ontario, became vice-president
in charge of officials. The new I-AHL also added an eighth franchise
at the 1938 meeting to fill the void in its membership left by the loss of Buffalo two
years earlier with the admission of the then two-time defending EAHL champion Hershey Bears.
The Bears remain the only one of these eight original I-AHL/AHL franchises to have been
represented in the league without interruption since the 1938–39 season. The newly merged
circuit also increased its regular-season schedule for each team by six games from 48
to 54. Contraction, resurrection, and expansion
After the 1939-40 season the I-AHL renamed itself the American Hockey League. It generally
enjoyed both consistent success on the ice and relative financial stability over its
first three decades of operation. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, the cost of
doing business in professional ice hockey began to rise sharply with NHL expansion and
relocation and especially the 1972 formation of the twelve-team World Hockey Association.
With these events, the number of major-league teams competing for players rose from six
to thirty in just seven years. Player salaries at all levels shot up dramatically with the
increased demand and competition for their services.
To help compensate for this increased expense, many NHL clubs cut back on the number of players
they kept under contract for development, and players under AHL contracts could now
also demand much higher paychecks to remain with their clubs. As a result, within a period
of just three years from 1974 to 1977, half of the AHL's teams folded, paring the league
down to just six teams from twelve. The league seemingly bottomed out on the eve of the 1977–78
season with news that the Providence Reds – the last surviving uninterrupted franchise
from 1936–37 – had decided to cease operations after 51 years in Rhode Island.
The AHL appeared in serious danger of folding altogether if this dangerous downward trend
was not reversed. As these clouds appeared their darkest, however, two events in the
fall of 1977 helped reverse the trend and started the league back on the path to the
great health it enjoys today. The first of these was the decision of the NHL's Philadelphia
Flyers to return to the league as a team owner, and the second was the unexpected collapse
of the North American Hockey League just weeks before the start of the 1977–78 season.
The Flyers' new AHL franchise became the immediately successful Maine Mariners, which brought the
new AHL city of Portland, Maine both the regular-season and Calder Cup playoff titles in each of that
club's first two seasons of operation. The folding of the NAHL, meanwhile, suddenly left
two of its stronger teams, the Philadelphia Firebirds and Binghamton, New York-based Broome
Dusters, without a league to play in. The owners of the Dusters solved their problem
by buying the Reds franchise and moving it to Binghamton as the Binghamton Dusters, while
the Firebirds crossed over to the AHL from the NAHL. The Dusters and Firebirds, together
with the Hampton Gulls, boosted the AHL to nine member clubs as the 1977–78 season
opened. Hampton folded on February 10, 1978, but was replaced the next year by the New
Brunswick Hawks. The league continued to grow steadily over the years, reaching 20 clubs
by the 2000–01 season. Absorption of the IHL
In 2001–02, the AHL's membership jumped dramatically to 27 teams, mostly by the absorption
of teams in six cities – Milwaukee, Chicago, Houston, Salt Lake City, Winnipeg, and Grand
Rapids – from the International Hockey League. The IHL had established itself as the second
top-level minor league circuit in North America, but had folded in 2001 due to financial problems.
The Utah Grizzlies suspended operations after the 2004–05 season. The Chicago Wolves,
Houston Aeros, Milwaukee Admirals, and Grand Rapids Griffins have all won Calder Cup titles
since joining the AHL from the IHL. Chicago and Milwaukee have also made multiple trips
to the Calder Cup Finals, and Houston made their second Finals appearance in 2011. The
Manitoba Moose moved to St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador in 2011 and were renamed the
St. John's IceCaps after the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg as the second
incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets. One oddity caused by the AHL's 2001 expansion is that
the league now has two teams with the same nickname: the Milwaukee Admirals and the Norfolk
Admirals. The latter team transferred to the league from the mid-level ECHL in 2000.
Teams Current
Timeline
All-time teams
AHL All-Star Game The American Hockey League first held an All-Star
Game in the 1941–42 season. The event was not played again until the 1954–55 season,
and was then held annually until the 1959–60 season. In the 1994–95 season, the AHL revived
the events again, and has been played every season since. The skills competition was first
introduced for the 1995–96 season. The PlanetUSA team is made up of players born outside of
Canada and the Canada team is made up of players born within Canada.
AHL Outdoor Games
Since the 2009–10 season, at least one team in the AHL has hosted an outdoor ice hockey
game each year. The Syracuse Crunch was the first organization to put on an outdoor game
in the AHL on February 20, 2010, building a rink at the New York State Fairgrounds in
Syracuse, New York, and packing a record 21,508 fans in for the Mirabito Outdoor Classic against
the Binghamton Senators. The contest, which was also televised to an international audience
on NHL Network, was won by the Crunch, 2-1. The Connecticut Whale hosted the Whale Bowl—the
AHL's second outdoor game—on February 19, 2011, as part of a 10-day Whalers Hockey Fest
at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn. Attendance for Connecticut's game against
the Providence Bruins was announced at 21,673, the largest in AHL history to that point.
Providence won, 5-4, in a shootout. On January 6, 2012, the largest crowd in AHL
history saw the Adirondack Phantoms defeat the Hershey Bears, 4-3, in overtime before
45,653 fans at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the final event of the week-long
activities associated with the 2012 NHL Winter Classic, which also included a game between
the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers on Jan 2 and an alumni game between retired
players of those two clubs on December 31, 2011. The contest was the third outdoor game
in AHL history and it more than doubled the league's previous single-game attendance mark.
On January 21, 2012, the Steeltown Showdown between Ontario rivals the Toronto Marlies
and Hamilton Bulldogs was held at Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton, Ont., with the Marlies
winning 7-2 in front of 20,565 fans, the largest crowd ever for an AHL game in Canada. The
AHL game was preceded the previous night by a game between Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal
Canadiens alumni. Two outdoor games were announced for the 2012-13
AHL season, but a meeting between the Grand Rapids Griffins and Toronto Marlies at Comerica
Park in Detroit as part of the festivities surrounding the NHL Winter Classic was not
held because of the cancellation of the NHL Winter Classic. On January 20, 2013, the Hershey
Bears and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins met outdoors at Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey,
Pa. The Penguins earned a 2-1 overtime victory in front of 17,311 fans.
The Rochester Americans hosted an outdoor game in 2013-14, the Frozen Frontier, which
was held at Frontier Field in Rochester on December 13, 2013. The Americans took a 5-4
decision in a shootout against the Lake Erie Monsters before a standing-room crowd of 11,015
fans. A year after their originally scheduled date, the Griffins and Marlies played at Comerica
Park on December 30, 2013, and Toronto prevailed in a shootout, 4-3, becoming the first AHL
team ever with two outdoor wins. Attendance in Detroit was 20,337.
AHL Hall of Fame The formation of an American Hockey League
Hall of Fame was announced by the league on December 15, 2005, created to recognize, honor
and celebrate individuals for their outstanding achievements and contributions specifically
in the AHL. On January 5, 2006, the league announced that
Johnny Bower, Jack Butterfield, Jody Gage, Fred Glover, Willie Marshall, Frank Mathers
and Eddie Shore had been selected as the inaugural class of inductees. They were formally inducted
in a ceremony in Winnipeg, Manitoba on February 1, 2006.
Each year, a new class of inductees is enshrined during the AHL's All-Star Classic. Following
the 2014 ceremony, the AHL Hall of Fame's membership stands at 38.
Trophies and awards The following is a list of awards of the American
Hockey League. AHL Hall of Fame
hockeydb.com Individual awards
Les Cunningham Award - Most valuable player John B. Sollenberger Trophy - Top point scorer
Willie Marshall Award - Top goal scorer Dudley "Red" Garrett Memorial Award - Rookie
of the year Eddie Shore Award - Defenceman of the year
Aldege "Baz" Bastien Memorial Award - Best Goaltender
Harry "Hap" Holmes Memorial Award - Lowest Goals against average
Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award - Coach of the year
Fred T. Hunt Memorial Award - Sportsmanship / Perseverance
Yanick Dupre Memorial Award - Community Service Award
Jack A. Butterfield Trophy - MVP of the playoffs Team awards
Calder Cup - Playoffs champions Richard F. Canning Trophy - Eastern Conference
playoff champions Robert W. Clarke Trophy - Western Conference
playoff champions Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy - Regular season
champions, League Frank Mathers Trophy - Regular Season champions,
Eastern Conference Norman R. "Bud" Poile Trophy - Regular Season
champions, Western Conference Emile Francis Trophy - Regular Season champions,
Atlantic Division F. G. "Teddy" Oke Trophy - Regular Season
champions, East Division† Sam Pollock Trophy - Regular Season champions,
North Division John D. Chick Trophy - Regular Season champions,
West Division † Trophy predates American Hockey League,
established 1926–27 in the Canadian Professional Hockey League.
Other awards James C. Hendy Memorial Award - Executive
of the Year Thomas Ebright Memorial Award - Outstanding
career contributions James H. Ellery Memorial Awards - Outstanding
media coverage Ken McKenzie Award - Marketing Executive of
the Year Michael Condon Memorial Award - Outstanding
service, On-ice official See also
American Hockey Association List of AHL seasons
Minor league Professional Hockey Players' Association,
the collective bargaining union for AHL players Sports league attendances
References
Scott, Jon C.. Hockey Night in Dixie: Minor Pro Hockey in the American South. Heritage
House Publishing Company Ltd. pp. 137–201. ISBN 1-894974-21-2.
External links Official AHL website
Historic standings and statistics - at Internet Hockey Database