4 AHL Teams To Fold Midseason

This past week, the San Francisco Bulls of the ECHL folded up shop 40 games into the 2013-14 season. The ECHL began operations with five teams back in 1988-89 and crew to 31 by 2003-04 before settling back to the current 23. San Francisco was granted a franchise for the 2011-12 season and have now become the first team in ECHL history not to complete a full season.

Since this was an unprecedented event in ECHL history, we thought we’d take a step up the ladder and look at the American Hockey League. The history of the AHL dates back to 1936. In all that time, just four teams have ceased operations before completing a season. Two of those teams were the same franchise.

New Haven Eagles 1942-43

The New Haven franchise started out in the CAHL for 1926-27 and were an AHL original for the 1936-37 season. In 1942-43, the Eagles played 32 games before folding on January 17, 1943. They were set to play a 56 game regular season schedule that year. The Eagles finished with nine wins and five ties for 23 points.

It was a bitter end to a great coaching career for Eddie Powers. Powers coached the Boston Tigers to a Calder Cup championship in 1928-29. He followed that up with the 1936-37 Syracuse Stars also capturing the Calder. In a weird twist of fate, Powers died January 17, 1943, the same day that the Eagles played their final game. The Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy is handed out each season to the player in the Ontario Hockey League with the most points.

New Haven Eagles 1950-51

The Eagles franchise was revived for the 1945-46 season and spent four years between 1946-47 and 1949-50 as the Ramblers. The name was changed back to the Eagles for the 1950-51 and seemed to curse the team. On December 11, 1950, the Eagles folded again, this time for good. New Haven played 28 of 70 games, winning just five for ten points.

The head coach in New Haven at the time was Frank Beisler. Frank was a veteran of two NHL games, one in 1936-37 and one in 1939-40, both with the New York Americans. He played for the original Eagles from 1934-35 to 1937-38. Beisler won a Calder Cup as a player with the 1942-43 Buffalo Bisons, coached by Eddie Shore. Ironically, that was the year the original Eagles folded. In 1945-46, Frank won the Calder Cup as a head coach, also with Buffalo.

Baltimore Clippers 1974-75

The Clippers had been in the American Hockey League since 1962-63 when they called it quits on January 23, 1975. The team had played 46 of 76 games with 14 wins and 38 points. The reason for folding was unique. The Michigan Stags of the World Hockey Association relocated to Baltimore midseason and were then known as the Baltimore Blades. The Clippers basically gave up their arena and even their jerseys for the WHA franchise.

The Clippers returned to the AHL for the 1975-76 season. However, the following year, they made the ill-fated decision to join the Southern Hockey League. Baltimore had 47 games in the books in 1976-77 when the whole league folded.

Hampton Gulls 1977-78

The Gulls were in the AHL for just the 1977-78 season. The franchise was born in 1974-75 and played three years in the SHL before than league ceased operations. Hampton was 46 games into the 80 game season when they closed up shop on February 10, 1978. The Gulls had won 15 games and totalled 33 points.

Hampton was coached by the legendary John Brophy. Two of the six goalies that would make an appearance for the Gulls were Michel Plasse and Eddie Mio. Rod Langway played 30 games with the club in his first year of pro hockey. Langway spent the rest of the year in the WHA with the Birmingham Bulls. He went on to play 994 regular season games in the National Hockey League with the Montreal Canadiens and Washington Capitals. Rod won the Norris Trophy twice with the Capitals.

ECHL 80/200 Club Exclusive Membership

The ECHL feeds the American Hockey League which, in turn, feeds the National Hockey League. Among professional hockey leagues, the ECHL has something unique that none other has. In the League’s history, it has not one but two members of the 80/200 club.

Scoring 80 goals is a feat that has rarely been done at any level of professional hockey. The AHL has never had an 80 goal scorer. In fact, the AHL record for goals in a season is just 70 in 1988-89 by Stephan LeBeau.

The NHL has three players in the history of the league to attain the 80 goal plateau. Wayne Gretzky did it twice with 92 in 1981-82 and 87 in 1983-84. Brett Hull had 86 goals in 1990-91 and Mario Lemieux had 85 in 1988-89. It should be noted that Lemieux stands on an unreachable plateau after his 133 goal season in junior hockey playing for the Laval Voisins during the QMJHL 1983-84 season.

What makes Trevor Jobe and Bill McDougall unique is that they attained the 80 goal plateau while sitting more than 200 minutes in the penalty box.

Trevor Jobe

Jobe scored 85 goals, a league record, while sitting out 222 minutes in penalties in just 61 games during the 1992-93 season with the Nashville Knights. He added 76 assists that season for a total of 161 points, also an ECHL single season record. Trevor added 7 goals in the playoffs for a grand total of 92.

Trevor Jobe, who was a draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, had a few good seasons afterwards but never regained the Midas touch of that magic season. He continued to play professionally until the end of the 2004-05 seasons and never played at a higher level than a handful of games in the AHL.

In the Central Hockey League in 1996-97, Jobe had a swan song season of sorts. He played 57 games in Wichita, Kansas with the Thunder and four with the Columbus Cottonmouths. He combined for 61 goals and 73 assists for 134 points. He led the CHL in goals and points and placed second in assists behind Doug Lawrence of the Tulsa Oilers who set up 100 goals over 66 games.

Bill McDougall

Bill McDougall scored 80 goals exactly in just 57 games during the 1989-90 season with the Erie Panthers. He sat out 226 minutes while adding 68 assists for a 148 point season. This was McDougall’s first season in professional hockey and his only season in the ECHL. He also spent 11 games that season with the AHL’s Adirondack Red Wings, adding another 10 goals. Add in the 6 goals he attained between the two teams in the playoffs and that made for a 96 goal season.

Bill McDougall was never drafted but did manage to play 28 games in the NHL scattered over three seasons, one each with the Detroit Red Wings, Edmonton Oilers and Tampa Bay Lightning. Not quite returning to the 80 goal plateau, McDougall had a quite successful hockey career in the North American minor leagues as well as the European elite leagues.

In 1992-93, McDougall was an integral part of the Cape Breton Oilers winning the Calder Cup as playoff champions in the American Hockey League. His 42 goals and 88 points were second best on the team during the regular season and his goal total was good enough to tie him for sixth in the league. However, Bill exploded in the playoffs for an amazing 26 goals and 26 assists for 52 points over just 16 games. The George Burnett coached Oilers downed the Rochester Americans in the finals, 4-1.

In 1993-94, his last year of pro hockey in North America, McDougall won another championship. This time, Bill was with the Atlanta Knights of the IHL. Not a team offensive leader but still a major contributor, Bill gave back more than a point per game. Atlanta won the final series in six games over the Fort Wayne Komets.

 

Fort Wayne Komets Single Season Scoring Records

The Fort Wayne Komets began in 2012-13 as a franchise in the ECHL but the team’s history dates back to 1952. The team played in the IHL from 1952-53 to 1998-99. For the next decade, the Komets played in the UHL (later becoming the reincarnation of the IHL). For the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, Fort Wayne played in the Central Hockey League.

The individual single season scoring records of the Komets have stayed undisturbed since the 1978-79 season. Two records remain from the 1960’s.

Merv Dubchak - Goals

Merv Dubchak set the Fort Wayne record for goals in a season with 72 in 1965-66. He led the IHL that season but with just a one goal lead over Gary Schall of the Muskegon Mohawks. Schall was awarded the James Gatschene Memorial Trophy as the league’s most valuable player over Dubchak.

Merv played pro from 1963-64 to 1969-70, all with the Komets with exception of one game played in the Eastern Hockey League with the Philadelphia Ramblers in his rookie season. With Fort Wayne, Dubchak played in the IHL finals on three occasions. The team fell to the Toledo Blades in his rookie year. The following season, Fort Wayne defeated the Des Moines Oak Leafs for the championship. In 1966-67, it was once again the Toledo Blades spoiling the party for the Komets.

Dubchak played 437 career regular season games with the Fort Wayne Komets, scoring 321 goals and assisting on 218 for 539 points. He had three consecutive 50+ goal seasons between 1964-65 and 1966-67. He totalled more than 100 points twice, in 1964-65 and 1965-66.

Len Thornson – Assists, Points

Len Thornson was an amazing setup man during his 819 career regular season IHL games. In that time, he assisted on 826 goals for a more than 1 assist per game average over his entire IHL career. He also scored 426 goals for 1,252 points. Amazingly, he sat just 101 minutes in the penalty box over that time.

Len holds the Fort Wayne Komets record for assists in a season with 93 in 1966-67. He is also tied for the record for most points with 139, also set in 1966-67. That year he was awarded the James Gatschene Trophy as league MVP. It was the fifth of six times that he would win that award. His 139 points led the league and he won his third of three Leo Lamoureux Trophies.

Thornson played pro from 1952-53 to 1968-69 in the AHL, WHL, QHL and IHL. He played for the Komets from 1956-57 to 1968-69. In his final season, Len was also the head coach of the team.

Terry McDougall - Points

Terry McDougall tied Len Thornson’s record of 139 points in 1978-79. McDougall finished the season with 57 goals and 82 assists for 139 points over 79 games. He was awarded the Leo Lamoureux Trophy as the league’s scoring champion. He was also awarded the James Gatschene Trophy as MVP.

Terry played pro from 1973-74 to 1983-84, all in the IHL. He was a member of the Komets from 1975-76 to 1981-82. 1978-79 was the second of two times in his career that McDougall exceeded 100 points in a season. His 57 goals account for his only time exceeding the 50 goal plateau.

 

Idaho Steelheads Retired Numbers

The Idaho Steelheads are a relatively new franchise in the hockey world but have achieved great success in their decade and a half. The Steelheads began life in the West Coast Hockey League in 1997-98. After the demise of the WCHL, Idaho joined the ECHL for the 2003-04 season.  The Steelheads are affiliated with the Dallas Stars of the NHL and the Texas Stars of the AHL. The team plays out of the 5,000 seat CenturyLink Arena in Boise, Idaho.

The Steelheads have retired two jersey numbers to date. Number 4 is retired for Jeremy Mylamok and number 22 is retired in honour of Cal Ingraham.

Jeremy Mylymok

Mylymok played professional hockey from 1995-96 to 2005-06. The final six years of his career were spent with the Steelheads, three years in the WCHL and three in the ECHL. In his second last year with the club, Jeremy acted as player/assistant coach.

In his first year with Idaho, 2000-01, Mylymok totalled 63 points from the blue line while sitting 208 minutes in the penalty box. The Steelheads reached the WCHL finals and went the distance before bowing out to the San Diego Gulls in seven games. The Steelheads reached the finals again in 2001-02 before losing in six to the Fresno Falcons.

In the final year of the WCHL, 2002-03, Jeremy helped Idado to a first overall finish in the six team league with 52 wins and 108 points. However, the Steelheads were upset in the first round by the same Fresno Falcons from the year before. Fresno finished fourth in the WCHL during the regular season, 29 points behind Idaho.

The Steelheads were redeemed the following season, their first in the ECHL. The team took out the Florida Everblades in the finals, four games to one for their first of two Kelly Cup championships to date. It was the second pro championship for Mylymok, after winning a Turner Cup with the Chicago Wolves of the IHL in 1997-98. The Wolves beat the Detroit Vipers in seven games.

Cal Ingraham

Ingraham played the final four of his seven years of professional hockey with the Idaho Steelheads. He played pro from 1995-96 to 2001-02 with his first three years in the ECHL with the Tallahassee Sharks.

His stature was small at 5’5” and 160 lbs. but his scoring ability was large. In his four years with Idaho, Ingraham scored 175 goals and assisted on 206 for 381 points over 274 regular season games. Cal reached 50 or more goals and 100 or more points in the three years between 1998-99 and 2000-01. In the first year, his 50 goals placed him fourth in the WCHL and his 110 points placed him sixth. The following year, he finished third in the league with 52 goals and fifth with 101 points. In 2000-01, he tied for the league lead with 50 goals and placed third with 102 points.

In 2000-01, despite the Steelheads losing in the finals to the San Diego Gulls, Ingraham was an offensive force with nine goals, 14 assists for 23 points in 13 games.