FAQ: An AHL refresher course

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/05/2015 (3868 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After four years in St. John’s as the IceCaps, the Manitoba Moose are returning to Winnipeg. Answers to some frequently asked questions on this event, which was first revealed in March:

 

Home ice

The AHL team will play in the MTS Centre. A new dressing room is being constructed to house the Moose. With more practice time needed — Winnipeg now has two professional teams — renovations are also about to begin at the MTS Iceplex. They will include expanded facilities to provide comfort for both the Jets and Moose.

 

Schedule

Most AHL teams play 76 games per season. As was the case in earlier AHL days here, expect all home games to be played in pairs, with each opponent visiting for two games at a time. The AHL schedule won’t be out until August, but it’s not out of the question there could be some afternoon-evening doubleheaders this season at the MTS Centre with the Jets and Moose.

 

AHL alignment

The five teams in the league’s new Pacific Division will play fewer than 76 games but may have the Moose on their schedules. Winnipeg will not be part of that division, but likely belong to a mid-west division that will include old rivals Chicago, Milwaukee and Grand Rapids. A re-alignment is still in the works, with league meetings scheduled for next week and in July to finalize details. Nothing will be official on alignment and schedule until then, though it sounds likely the Moose will play some Pacific Division teams and few, if any, teams from the Eastern Conference. That makes an early IceCaps-Moose meeting sound unlikely

 

Tickets

Went on sale in a first, priority pre-sale, on Monday. The general public can buy tickets starting Friday. Package prices, either season tickets or 29- 20- or 11-game mini-packs will make the individual game price either $15, $20 or $25. The average ticket price will be $19.63, as compared to $22.40 when the Moose last played here in 2010-11. Full details are available at the relaunched team website, www.moosehockey.com.

 

Financial picture

Keep in mind that in St. John’s or Winnipeg, hockey operations (players, equipment, travel) cost X.

In Winnipeg, operating an AHL team won’t cause True North to have to build a new business operation. They have one running the NHL team, one that’s in many ways familiar with running an AHL team because that’s how they started.

An AHL team in Winnipeg will reduce some costs for True North. Though the assigning of players both up and down wouldn’t always be free — sometimes players would have to be assigned or recalled while one team or the other was on the road — the overall cost will go down because sometimes it won’t involve an expensive last-minute flight.

And it’ll be the same for scouting and monitoring the progress of the AHL team by the NHL team’s management and scouts. Those costs won’t go to zero but they will be reduced significantly by the mere playing of games at the MTS Centre.

As for revenue, there are some unknowns but clearly True North doesn’t need the same numbers out of the Moose that it used to, when the Moose were the primary tennant of the MTS Centre. The AHL team comes from outstanding numbers in St. John’s, where the first 120 games played at Mile One Centre were sellouts at 6,287. In 2010-11 Moose season, an average of 8,404 fans attended at the MTS Centre, second-best total in the league. The numbers were steady and in that range since the MTS Centre opened in 2004.

 

Personnel

Craig Heisinger will continue as GM of the AHL team. The Jets have hired Brad Andrews to be the Moose director of hockey operations, a position he held with the IceCaps and have appointed True North general counsel Dan Hursh as vice-president, business operations for the Moose.

Keith McCambridge, an assistant coach of the Manitoba Moose from 2009-2011 and the head coach of the IceCaps the last four seasons, returns to Winnipeg as the Moose head coach. Mark Morrison will continue as his assistant. Jets prospects like Connor Hellebuyck, JC Lipon, Scott Kosmachuk, Ryan Olsen, Axel Blomqvist, Joel Armia, Austen Brassard, Brenden Kichton, Julien Melchiori, Eric Comrie, Andrew Copp, Josh Morrissey, Nic Petan — not discounting their shot to make the NHL — are good possibilities on the Moose roster next season.

 

The Full Circle

It’s an amusing sidenote of history, but it came up again Monday that Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, as GM of the Chicago Wolves, used to be one of the Moose’s fiercest rivals.

And now he’s overseeing the Moose.

“After all those beatdowns he gave us as the GM of the Chicago Wolves it is kind of ironic,” True North chairman Mark Chipman joked Monday. “But hey, the business of hockey is very interesting, so I guess, ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, hire ’em,’ is the adage we’re going to go with from here.”

Cheveldayoff laughed about some of that rivalry history on Monday.

“We’ve had some good chuckles in the background for sure,” he said. “I’ve had the good fortune now of being a part of, potentially, three of the best franchises in the AHL; the Chicago Wolves, spent some time with the Rockford IceHogs and am really looking forward to this opportunity with the Manitoba Moose.”