Goodbyes and Affiliation News

There has been lots of little bits and pieces of news over the last few days. Since I'm feeling oddly productive today (I never feel like this on a Monday), I thought I'd do a round-up of everything that's been going on.

First, some Goodbyes.

Two more players have left for the Elite Ice Hockey League. Both Mike Bayrack and Mike Hoffman have signed with the Belfast Giants (All the logos in the EIHL are super hideous for some reason). I'm not going to miss Hoffman, he played for one game before signing with the Syracuse Crunch. I will miss Mike Bayrack though.

He's was probably one of the most experienced hockey players in the entire ECHL last season (he should hit 1,000 regular season games while playing for the Giants).  He was a great presence on the ice, and he was a pretty nice dude.

Eric Lampe has also signed an agreement with the Syracuse Crunch (they love poaching our players I guess). I don't blame him for opting for an AHL contract, and I don't blame the Crunch for signing him. He was one of the best players  in the playoffs, and deserves to get noticed. I just wish one of our affiliates had done the noticing.

Now, on to affiliations!

This of course means it's spreadsheet time!

As you can see, the Greenville Road Warriors have announced two new affiliations. They'll be receiving players from the Rangers and Flyers. This leaves the Canadiens and the Wild as the last two NHL teams without an ECHL affiliate (that had one last season at least). I'm still holding to my belief that the Wild will sign with Bakersfield (the only team without an affiliate). My best guess is that the Canadiens will sign with Kalamazoo Wings. It makes sense location wise, and really, what player wouldn't want to wear these awesome jerseys (and helmets) during warm-ups?