Just 10 days before launching the ECHL season, the minor-league hockey circuit that includes the champion Alaska Aces swelled its ranks by 33 percent with Tuesday's addition of all seven active franchises from the Central Hockey League.
The ECHL's announcement of the long-rumored expansion, following Tuesday's meeting of the Board of Governors in Chicago, increases league membership to 28 teams, and requires restructuring divisions and the format for the Kelly Cup playoffs.
The ECHL said updates on those issues and scheduling would be "released at a later date,'' presumably before opening night on Oct. 17. The league's preseason schedule began Tuesday.
Aces managing member Terry Parks said Alaska's schedule "won't have one change.''
Parks said the Aces will play in the revamped seven-team Pacific Division, which will include the Bakersfield Condors, Colorado Eagles, Idaho Steelheads, Ontario Reign, Stockton Thunder and Utah Grizzlies.
The Aces were previously scheduled to play in a six-team Pacific Division. Colorado had been scheduled to play in the Midwest Division.
Parks said the ECHL will be restructured into four divisions, with the top four teams from each division qualifying for the Kelly Cup playoffs. The ECHL had five divisions last season.
Joining the ECHL are the Allen (Texas) Americans, Missouri Mavericks, Brampton (Ontario) Beast, Quad City (Illinois) Mallards, Rapid City (South Dakota) Rush, Tulsa (Oklahoma) Oilers and Wichita (Kansas) Thunder.
"These additions strengthen our base in the center of the country and give the ECHL, for the first time, a true national presence,'' ECHL Commissioner Brian McKenna said in a press release. "It expands our ability to act as a development league and more closely aligns our number of teams with both the American Hockey League and National Hockey League.
"There will be logistical challenges in the short term, however, in the long term, it is certainly in the best interest of the ECHL, the new members and minor-league hockey in general.''
The expansion raises questions about scheduling and qualifying for the playoffs.
For instance, Parks said the former Central clubs will play their previously announced schedules. That means they will not play established ECHL clubs, yet they can still qualify for the Kelly Cup playoffs, even though the ECHL is widely acknowledged to be one rung higher than the Central Hockey League on the ladder of North American professional hockey.
"There was no other way to do (expansion) this late in the season,'' Parks said of scheduling.
Also, the CHL plays a 66-game regular season compared to a 72-game regular season in the ECHL.
Membership in the Central Hockey League took a significant hit in the offseason, when three of 10 franchises faltered. The St. Charles (Missouri) Chill folded, and the Arizona Sundogs and Denver Cutthroats suspended operations.
The CHL franchises joining the ECHL include the top six teams in attendance last season, led by Missouri, which averaged 5,499 fans per home game. Wichita (5,089) and Tulsa (4,986) ranked second and third, respectively. By comparison, the Aces averaged 4,706 per home game last season, 12th on what was then a 22-team circuit.
The only new addition to the ECHL that did not average at least 4,216 fans per game was Brampton, a first-year franchise that averaged 2,233.
"We're not bringing in weak sisters, and that's a big deal, because it means stability,'' Parks said.
The ECHL's expansion gives the league its highest membership since the 2004-05 season, when it also featured 28 clubs.
The most teams in the ECHL's previous 26 seasons were 31 in 2003-04, when the league took on seven expansion teams, including the Anchorage Aces, from the now-defunct West Coast Hockey League. The Aces were rebranded as the Alaska Aces after Parks and several local businessmen bought the franchise out of bankruptcy.
Of the seven WCHL franchises that moved to the ECHL, three remain -- the Aces, the Idaho Steelheads and the Bakersfield Condors.
The Aces, with three Kelly Cups, and the Steelheads, with two, have won nearly half the league's championships -- five of 11 -- since they joined the ECHL.
Parks said the Central Hockey League mirrored the WCHL as a circuit badly in need of equilibrium.
"The Central league was like the WCHL before we joined the ECHL -- no structure,'' Parks said. "These guys are striving for structure.''
The ECHL has not been without stumbles. The Las Vegas Wranglers ceased operations after last season and the San Francisco Bulls folded in midseason last January. The Chicago franchise folded after one season in 2013, and the Victoria, British Columbia, franchise died in 2012.
Current Central players became free agents Tuesday because they signed contracts with a league that no longer exists. But Parks said ECHL teams have a gentleman's agreement not to poach free agents.
Reach reporter Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com and check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog