Leafs_Pam
4-14-05, 6:41 PM
Hey Rusty, Thanks for the Invite!! :)
Since no one has started a Minor League Thread, I'm not sure if that means no one is interested in Minor League or they just haven't started anything on it. So, I don't know if anyone here knows about the ECHL. I'm going to start talk on the ECHL.
I relocated to S. California from the Bay Area (N. California) in September 2003. Even though I lived in the San Jose area, I was a Leafs fan not a Sharks fan. However, I did get to the point where I supported the Sharks as long as they did NOT play the Leafs.
Prior to relocating near San Diego, I never lived by a Minor League team that survived (the IHL S.F. Spiders didn't exist long enough for me to attend their games). My only Minor League experience was when I went to Toronto for Leafs games, going to Hamilton Bulldogs games on the nights the Leafs didn't play. I have to say I love hockey at every level. I even saw St. Mike's Majors (Juniors) once. That was back in 2001, when Mark Popovic was on the team and the same year the Ducks drafted him.
In Southern California, they have ECHL Hockey teams: Fresno Falcons, Bakersfield Condors, Long Beach Ice Dogs and San Diego Gulls. The Ice Dogs is the same Ice Dogs team that was in the IHL. Fresno is about 5-6 hours North of me. Bakersfield is about 3 hours North of me. Long Beach is about 2 hours Northwest of me. Next Season the Atlantic City, New Jersey team will be moved to Stockton California, which is about 90 minutes N.E. of San Jose (depends on the traffic), giving our Division a new team and our league a new Minor League Hockey Market. Probably to be really accurate, Fresno (affiliated with the Sharks) really is closer to Central California.
The ECHL is considered the 'Premier AA Hockey League'. 21 miles to the south of me there is an ECHL Team. The San Diego Gulls. With the blasted NHL Lockout, I was mighty grateful to have an ECHL team here. I became a season ticket holder with the Gulls for the 04/05 season, and renewed for next season.
The Gulls have been in existence in some form or other, in various Leagues, since they were founded in 1966. They were sold in 1974, and it seems as if they were sold a few times after that. So far, I haven't been able to get much history on them. They were in the WHL with their 'birth' in 1996. They moved to the WPHL (but I don't know what year that happened), then the IHL, then WCHL and now the ECHL. If any of you remember the IHL, you remember the IHL Long Beach Ice Dogs. That's where Khabibulin played in 1998/1999 (and I think, at least part of 1999/2000) when he was in Contract Dispute with the Phoenix Coyotes.
The Ice Dogs were at one time the IHL San Diego Gulls. In 1995 the IHL Gulls were sold. They moved to Los Angeles for 1 year and then moved to Long Beach. With the move from San Diego to Los Angeles they changed their name to the Ice Dogs, because the Gulls retained their name (like Hamilton Ontario did when the Bulldogs changed from the Baby Oilers to the Baby Habs). The current Gulls owner (a family owned team) bought a team in 1995 to give San Diego another team when the Gulls/Ice Dogs were sold and moved out.
I haven't been able to get a really clear picture of the WCHL yet. But it seems as if the WCHL was in existence beginning in 1995. The New Gulls team was in the WCHL at that point. When the IHL folded, some of the IHL teams joined the AHL. It seems as if some of the IHL teams completely folded. The S. Cal teams, along with several other teams located elsewhere, joined the WCHL instead of the AHL. After the 02/03 season, the WCHL folded into the ECHL, so the Gulls just completed their 2nd season in the ECHL.
In the 04/05 Season, for the first time a team outside the United States joined the ECHL. Victoria, B.C. Salmon Kings. They are an expansion team and had the usual bad expansion season. Mark Smith of the San Jose Sharks was on the Salmon Kings. Even though I am a Gulls fan, it was a thrill for me to have a Canadian team in the ECHL this season, and to have them in our Division was even better. It was even a nicer treat to close the season in San Diego with the final 2 games being with Victoria. Plus, it was nice to see Mark Smith again (I always liked him). :)
I attempted to get all the Gulls history from 1966 though the 02/03 season, but with all the ownership changes, and league changes, and the current Media person only with them a few years, I've only been able to get sketchy information on them prior to 1995. I am going to continue to try and find out their history in the WHL, WPHL, and IHL, but at this point, it doesn't look promising. I'm one of those people that like to know as much history about their team as possible. I have done the same with the Leafs back to their Arena days (beginning in the 1917/1918 season when the NHL was born).
I'm going to contact the Ice Dogs and attempt to get their history as the IHL's San Diego Gulls, but I don't know if they kept that history. I would like to get the Gulls history with the WHL and the WPHL too but I have no idea where to find that at. I'm going to look on hockeydb but I don't know if they will have the history of the team and the leagues or not.
If I lean anything else about the Gulls' history, I'll make updated posts.
The down side of this is, for the first time in Gulls history, they did not make the playoffs. That's really the pits since I don't have the Leafs either. The Season ended on April 9th. Yes, I have been in hockey withdrawal since April 10th. :cry: Last season, the Gulls ended with 108 points, the most in the League, so they won the Brabham Cup. The Brabham Cup is equivalent to the NHL's President's Trophy. (This year, the Pensacola Ice Pilots won the Brabham Cup. The Ice Pilots are affiliated with the Leafs and St. John's Leafs.)
They had a new coach this year. The other coach wanted to move up in the League, so he left after 8 succesful seasons. Another problem at this level is the ECHL teams can only have 4 Veteran Players. As well as the trade deadline, the teams in the ECHL make lots more trades during the regular season than the NHL does. They can have a completely new team from season to season. This season, other than the 4 veterans, they had an entirely new team this season from last season. On top of that, they had a 50% newer team at the end of the season than they did at the beginning of the 04/05 season. Plus, they had so many injuries the lineups were almost constantly changing. On top of that, the new Coach wasn't that good. At least right now he is not coach material. He used to play for the Gulls and was a good player, but not all players make good coaches.
Do any of you remember Willie O'Ree? He was the first Black Player in the League. I think he played for a while in Boston. He used to play for the Gulls and they have his Banner in the Rafters. Willie works for the Gulls now.
Since no one has started a Minor League Thread, I'm not sure if that means no one is interested in Minor League or they just haven't started anything on it. So, I don't know if anyone here knows about the ECHL. I'm going to start talk on the ECHL.
I relocated to S. California from the Bay Area (N. California) in September 2003. Even though I lived in the San Jose area, I was a Leafs fan not a Sharks fan. However, I did get to the point where I supported the Sharks as long as they did NOT play the Leafs.
Prior to relocating near San Diego, I never lived by a Minor League team that survived (the IHL S.F. Spiders didn't exist long enough for me to attend their games). My only Minor League experience was when I went to Toronto for Leafs games, going to Hamilton Bulldogs games on the nights the Leafs didn't play. I have to say I love hockey at every level. I even saw St. Mike's Majors (Juniors) once. That was back in 2001, when Mark Popovic was on the team and the same year the Ducks drafted him.
In Southern California, they have ECHL Hockey teams: Fresno Falcons, Bakersfield Condors, Long Beach Ice Dogs and San Diego Gulls. The Ice Dogs is the same Ice Dogs team that was in the IHL. Fresno is about 5-6 hours North of me. Bakersfield is about 3 hours North of me. Long Beach is about 2 hours Northwest of me. Next Season the Atlantic City, New Jersey team will be moved to Stockton California, which is about 90 minutes N.E. of San Jose (depends on the traffic), giving our Division a new team and our league a new Minor League Hockey Market. Probably to be really accurate, Fresno (affiliated with the Sharks) really is closer to Central California.
The ECHL is considered the 'Premier AA Hockey League'. 21 miles to the south of me there is an ECHL Team. The San Diego Gulls. With the blasted NHL Lockout, I was mighty grateful to have an ECHL team here. I became a season ticket holder with the Gulls for the 04/05 season, and renewed for next season.
The Gulls have been in existence in some form or other, in various Leagues, since they were founded in 1966. They were sold in 1974, and it seems as if they were sold a few times after that. So far, I haven't been able to get much history on them. They were in the WHL with their 'birth' in 1996. They moved to the WPHL (but I don't know what year that happened), then the IHL, then WCHL and now the ECHL. If any of you remember the IHL, you remember the IHL Long Beach Ice Dogs. That's where Khabibulin played in 1998/1999 (and I think, at least part of 1999/2000) when he was in Contract Dispute with the Phoenix Coyotes.
The Ice Dogs were at one time the IHL San Diego Gulls. In 1995 the IHL Gulls were sold. They moved to Los Angeles for 1 year and then moved to Long Beach. With the move from San Diego to Los Angeles they changed their name to the Ice Dogs, because the Gulls retained their name (like Hamilton Ontario did when the Bulldogs changed from the Baby Oilers to the Baby Habs). The current Gulls owner (a family owned team) bought a team in 1995 to give San Diego another team when the Gulls/Ice Dogs were sold and moved out.
I haven't been able to get a really clear picture of the WCHL yet. But it seems as if the WCHL was in existence beginning in 1995. The New Gulls team was in the WCHL at that point. When the IHL folded, some of the IHL teams joined the AHL. It seems as if some of the IHL teams completely folded. The S. Cal teams, along with several other teams located elsewhere, joined the WCHL instead of the AHL. After the 02/03 season, the WCHL folded into the ECHL, so the Gulls just completed their 2nd season in the ECHL.
In the 04/05 Season, for the first time a team outside the United States joined the ECHL. Victoria, B.C. Salmon Kings. They are an expansion team and had the usual bad expansion season. Mark Smith of the San Jose Sharks was on the Salmon Kings. Even though I am a Gulls fan, it was a thrill for me to have a Canadian team in the ECHL this season, and to have them in our Division was even better. It was even a nicer treat to close the season in San Diego with the final 2 games being with Victoria. Plus, it was nice to see Mark Smith again (I always liked him). :)
I attempted to get all the Gulls history from 1966 though the 02/03 season, but with all the ownership changes, and league changes, and the current Media person only with them a few years, I've only been able to get sketchy information on them prior to 1995. I am going to continue to try and find out their history in the WHL, WPHL, and IHL, but at this point, it doesn't look promising. I'm one of those people that like to know as much history about their team as possible. I have done the same with the Leafs back to their Arena days (beginning in the 1917/1918 season when the NHL was born).
I'm going to contact the Ice Dogs and attempt to get their history as the IHL's San Diego Gulls, but I don't know if they kept that history. I would like to get the Gulls history with the WHL and the WPHL too but I have no idea where to find that at. I'm going to look on hockeydb but I don't know if they will have the history of the team and the leagues or not.
If I lean anything else about the Gulls' history, I'll make updated posts.
The down side of this is, for the first time in Gulls history, they did not make the playoffs. That's really the pits since I don't have the Leafs either. The Season ended on April 9th. Yes, I have been in hockey withdrawal since April 10th. :cry: Last season, the Gulls ended with 108 points, the most in the League, so they won the Brabham Cup. The Brabham Cup is equivalent to the NHL's President's Trophy. (This year, the Pensacola Ice Pilots won the Brabham Cup. The Ice Pilots are affiliated with the Leafs and St. John's Leafs.)
They had a new coach this year. The other coach wanted to move up in the League, so he left after 8 succesful seasons. Another problem at this level is the ECHL teams can only have 4 Veteran Players. As well as the trade deadline, the teams in the ECHL make lots more trades during the regular season than the NHL does. They can have a completely new team from season to season. This season, other than the 4 veterans, they had an entirely new team this season from last season. On top of that, they had a 50% newer team at the end of the season than they did at the beginning of the 04/05 season. Plus, they had so many injuries the lineups were almost constantly changing. On top of that, the new Coach wasn't that good. At least right now he is not coach material. He used to play for the Gulls and was a good player, but not all players make good coaches.
Do any of you remember Willie O'Ree? He was the first Black Player in the League. I think he played for a while in Boston. He used to play for the Gulls and they have his Banner in the Rafters. Willie works for the Gulls now.