Affiliations like the reigning Kelly Cup champion Alaska Aces announced Tuesday with the NHL's St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild boost the ECHL club by virtue of both additions and subtractions.
The additions are players the Aces will receive from those NHL clubs or their American Hockey League farm teams. Those players are generally upgrades over the players they supplant in the Aces lineup.
But the subtraction side of the equation is of at least equal, and arguably greater, importance: Players under NHL or AHL contracts provide an ECHL club with substantial salary-cap relief.
A case in point was the Aces' run last spring to the franchise's third Kelly Cup in nine seasons.
Many of the Aces' players were under contract to either the NHL's Calgary Flames or the AHL's Abbotsford Heat, who were Alaska's affiliate organizations last season. Such players counted $525 per week against the ECHL salary cap of $12,000 a week, even though they earned substantially more under NHL or AHL deals and would have commanded much higher salaries had they played under ECHL contracts.
With the money the Aces saved against the cap, coach Rob Murray was able in midseason to entice free agents like veteran centers Jordan Morrison and Tyler Mosienko, key Cup contributors who were his second- and third-line centers.
"That's the big advantage,'' Murray said. "I was able to reach out and use that money to get Morrison here and to get Mosienko from overseas.''
Consider the postseason strength of the Aces' defensive corps. Six of those nine players, who helped hold opponents to just 1.71 goals per playoff game, were under either NHL or AHL contracts.
"It saves you money on the cap, and you get a good player without having to pay him $800 or $900 a week against the cap, which means you can go out and get (ECHL-contracted) players who want that much,'' said Aces managing partner Terry Parks. "That's the biggest benefit.''
An ECHL team can also save money against the cap and use it to sign high-caliber players who command higher salaries on ECHL deals by using rookies. A rookie's salary in the upcoming season, when the weekly salary cap rises to $12,200, is capped at $510 per week.
Murray worked throughout the summer to find a new affiliation for the Aces. The club's deal with Calgary expired after one season when the Flames moved their AHL franchise from Abbotsford, near Vancouver, British Columbia, to Glens Falls, N.Y. The distance between Anchorage and upstate New York, and the time it would take to shuttle players between those locations, made the affiliation untenable.
Murray said he forged the new affiliations, each for one season, in talks with Minnesota director of minor league operations Jim Mill and St. Louis assistant general manager Kevin McDonald. He said both were amenable to sharing affiliations.
"Really, it was just beating the pavement and beating on doors,'' Murray said.
St. Louis' AHL farm team is the Chicago Wild, and there are direct flights daily between Chicago and Anchorage. Minnesota's AHL affiliate is the Iowa Wild, and Des Moines is a short flight from Chicago or Minneapolis/St. Paul, where there are also direct flights available to Anchorage.
Murray and Aces assistant coach Louis Mass later this week will travel to Traverse City, Michigan, where both St. Louis and Minnesota will have teams competing in the annual Prospects Tournament. Murray and Mass will meet with front-office staff from the Blues and Wild and see some of the players who could end up in Anchorage. The identity of those players won't be known until after NHL and AHL training camps open and cuts are made.
Murray said his initial inquiries led him to think the Aces will get two or three forwards and a goaltender from St. Louis, where former NHLer Ty Conklin of Anchorage is the goaltending coach. Minnesota will grant the Aces perhaps one forward and one defenseman, Murray said.
The Aces were affiliated with St. Louis previously, most notably when they won their first Kelly Cup in 2005.
An affiliation isn't necessary to win a Kelly Cup, though. The Aces were no longer officially affiliated with the Blues in 2011 when they won the second Cup in franchise history, though in the playoffs they did receive defenseman Daryl Boyle from St. Louis' then-AHL affiliate in Peoria, Illinois.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@adn.com and check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog