Oh.. and among other things, I ran across this little tidbit. Worcester Sharks may be relocating to Sacramento or Fresno, due to the ridiculous and completely unfair disadvantage of them being literally as far away across the entire country as possible (3000+ miles). It won't happen until 2015-16, but I agree this needs to happen.
Relocation?
Back in Oct. 2011, Darren Dreger of TSN/TSN.ca reported that eight NHL teams (San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Arizona, Colorado, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary) held preliminary discussions with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly about the possibility of an AHL West Coast division. The reasons for the initial discussions were some of the teams felt their players weren't being properly developed due to the AHL grind, limited practice schedules, and that most of the farm teams are thousands of miles away from their NHL counterpart (the distance between Worcester and San Jose is 3,091.7 miles).
On April 10 of this year, Craig Morgan of Fox Sports Arizona wrote a follow up article that said the West Coast division, which would be known as the Pacific Division, could begin play in the 2015-16 season pending a likely approval by the AHL. Bill Ballou of Telegram.com reported on April 16 that should the Pacific Division be formed and approved, San Jose would move Worcester closer to the Silicon Valley by putting the team in either Sacramento or Fresno.
YESSSS!!!!
I'd love it if they moved the AHL team to be closer to California. Dallas moved their minor league team to Austin, its great for moving players.
I'm excited about it because usually a minor league team generates more local interest in the sport. I'm all for growing the sport in Northern California . It kinda pisses me off LA has such great youth hockey but Northern California youth hockey is weak as hell given its population and popularity of Sharks. Some of it is just lame hockey programs and bad coaching, but for some reason youth hockey just isn't popular here.
That's a great point. More interest means more $$$ too for the team and all in all it's in everyone's best interest to make that move. I think you'd have more people want to see the games too for reasons like getting to see our prospects in action and root for their local team connected to the Sharks. It would make zero sense for the AHL to disapprove the move.
Oh.. and among other things, I ran across this little tidbit. Worcester Sharks may be relocating to Sacramento or Fresno, due to the ridiculous and completely unfair disadvantage of them being literally as far away across the entire country as possible (3000+ miles). It won't happen until 2015-16, but I agree this needs to happen.
Relocation?
Back in Oct. 2011, Darren Dreger of TSN/TSN.ca reported that eight NHL teams (San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Arizona, Colorado, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary) held preliminary discussions with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly about the possibility of an AHL West Coast division. The reasons for the initial discussions were some of the teams felt their players weren't being properly developed due to the AHL grind, limited practice schedules, and that most of the farm teams are thousands of miles away from their NHL counterpart (the distance between Worcester and San Jose is 3,091.7 miles).
On April 10 of this year, Craig Morgan of Fox Sports Arizona wrote a follow up article that said the West Coast division, which would be known as the Pacific Division, could begin play in the 2015-16 season pending a likely approval by the AHL. Bill Ballou of Telegram.com reported on April 16 that should the Pacific Division be formed and approved, San Jose would move Worcester closer to the Silicon Valley by putting the team in either Sacramento or Fresno.
YESSSS!!!!
I'd love it if they moved the AHL team to be closer to California. Dallas moved their minor league team to Austin, its great for moving players.
I'm excited about it because usually a minor league team generates more local interest in the sport. I'm all for growing the sport in Northern California . It kinda pisses me off LA has such great youth hockey but Northern California youth hockey is weak as hell given its population and popularity of Sharks. Some of it is just lame hockey programs and bad coaching, but for some reason youth hockey just isn't popular here.
Just to recap on the earlier information regarding our prospects, which in the coming months we'll see if they've progressed enough to make the team, here would be my ranking of the team's Top 20 prospects right now:
1. Freddie Hamilton, F
2. Mirco Mueller, D
3. Chris Tierney, F
4. Dylan Demelo, D
5. Barclay Goodrow, F
6. Eriah Hayes, F
7. Travis Oleksuk, F
8. Konrad Abeltshauser, D
9. Taylor Doherty, D
10. Daniil Tarasov, F
11. Ryan Carpenter, F
12. Joakim Ryan, D
13. Rylan Schwartz, F
14. Sean Kuraly, F
15. Gabryel Boudreau, F
16. Daniel O'Regan, F
17. Michael Brodzinski, D
18. Fredrik Bergvik, G
19. Petter Emmanuelsson, F
20. Tyler Fedun, D
I am deeply concerned for our defense next season. We have cap space to work with so my great hope is we are setting up to use that on a major acquisition. I feel our defense and goaltender will suffer immensely otherwise. Currently, we could potential have almost half the defensive depth being rookies next year... (See Below)
Hannan has become the Wallin of the Sharks... Although he has done much better than Wallin did. I understand the desire for toughness, but we lack tough players that have the speed and scoring touch on the bottom lines to evade the big hits. We also lack strong defensive depth.
Watched some of the prospect interviews and really like the attitude of Chris Tierney. Despite a monstrous season, the kid isn't satisfied and shows an extreme willingness to continually take his game to the next level. Sounds like he was in the coaches ear all of last year and this year at the development camp. When you watch his interview, the kid just looks all business and I actually like his seriousness.
Definitely expect him to play in Worcester this year and hope he can make the NHL jump soon. We will need that scoring depth he could provide if he makes that leap in his development.
Found some prospect highlight videos earlier, too, by the way and wanted to share:
. It kinda pisses me off LA has such great youth hockey but Northern California youth hockey is weak as hell given its population and popularity of Sharks. Some of it is just lame hockey programs and bad coaching, but for some reason youth hockey just isn't popular here.