Published: October 03, 2009 12:48 am      

Mike Mastovich | Lack of affiliates creates a challenge

The ECHL media guide was delivered to the Johnstown Chiefs’ office on Thursday.

Right there on Page 24, the abbreviation “TBD” corresponded to the Chiefs on the list of NHL/AHL affiliates for each club in the 20-team league.

The Chiefs are the only team without an affiliate as they begin their 22nd season in the league. TBD – as in To Be Determined – probably means there won’t be an affiliate in Johnstown’s immediate future.

That’s a concern. But the situation isn’t as bleak as the last time Johnstown began a season without an affiliation.

There will be challenges, especially concerning the league salary cap. But former coach Ian Herbers had stocked up a group of 23 players, most of them solid skaters and others as potential prospects.

Goaltender Kris Mayotte is back after earning an all-star game starter role a year ago. So are 14 other returnees.

Those signings will ease the sting of losing not one, but two quality affiliates who supplied the Chiefs plenty of talent last year.

No affiliates might be good news for so-called “bubble” free-agent players or others who typically are released to make room for a contract player just sent down from the AHL.

“The advantages are that definitely we’re not going to be in a situation where we have good players and you get a player or a number of players sent down to us, and we have to release guys just because the big club sends players,” new Chiefs coach Jeff Flanagan said.

“I think that gives our guys a feeling that it’s all up to them on how much ice time they get, if they make the team or not, and how long they stay here.

“They can look at it and say, ‘If I play well and do everything the organization asks me to do, then I’m going to get an opportunity to play on the power play, play on the penalty kill, play on the top line.’

“Whereas, sometimes when you are affiliated, guys come down and players get bumped just because of the numbers. This gives the guys a real ownership of their own careers.”

It also means contract players such as Ray Macias, Wes O’Neill, or Ryan Garlock won’t be sent down to the Chiefs as they had been in recent years by Lake Erie or Syracuse. Even mainstay captain Randy Rowe is gone because he had an AHL opportunity with Lake Erie.

When the Chiefs lost their AHL deal with Lake Erie, Rowe was off to Charlotte, the new affiliate of Colorado-Lake Erie.

Affiliations also impact the salary cap. Currently, the ECHL weekly salary cap is $11,800 per team, with a minimum of $8,300 a week to be disbursed among the roster players.

ECHL teams only are responsible for as much as $525 a week for contract players. The parent team covers the rest. That means if a player earns $1,000 a week and is under contract with an AHL or NHL team, then the ECHL club only must pay $525 of that total against the salary cap.

Remember when former NHL all-star goaltender Arturs Irbe played for the Chiefs in 2003-04 during a contract squabble with the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes? Irbe’s salary was $2.7 million but the Chiefs only were responsible for the then-league weekly maximum of $500.

Minus an affiliation, the Chiefs must pick up the entire tab for their players unless an AHL club sends a prospect or two here.

Such a scenario certainly won’t benefit an already financially strapped club.

“On the disadvantage side, it’s a little tougher to manage the salary cap,” Flanagan said.

ECHL teams are permitted to carry

20 players on the active roster with others on the injured reserve.

When Johnstown’s training camp opens today at Cambria County War Memorial Arena, 35 players are expected to report.

“We’re pretty excited about the guys that we have,” Flanagan said.

It would be easy for longtime Chiefs followers to recall the 1995-96 season. That year the Chiefs lost an affiliation with the AHL’s Hershey Bears and made a go as an independent.

Also like this season, the Chiefs had lost their coach – in this instance Eddie Johnstone was fired at the end of the 1994-95 season.

Nick Fotiu wasn’t hired until mid-July and he didn’t have ample time to recruit.

Fotiu brought in mostly retreads from his old Nashville teams, including high-scoring Trevor Jobe, who was about as unpopular among Johnstown fans as any player could be.

Unlike this year though, Fotiu welcomed back only one player from the previous season, defenseman Steve Foster. With no strong nucleus, the Chiefs started slow and never recovered.

Even with Fotiu making solid acquisitions of 50-goal-scorer Donnie Parsons and future NHL goalie Peter Skudra, the Chiefs won only 21 games and missed the playoffs, starting a streak of four straight years without a postseason appearance.

Flanagan has a much better starting point than Fotiu did.

Players such as Mayotte, Mike Knight, Mike Bartlett, Jarrett Konkle, Greg Gallagher, Ryan Del Monte, Matt Robinson, David Schulz, Kyle Bushee, Andrew Saraurer and Sean Berkstresser each bring back experience from last year. Plus, Herbers and Flanagan added other prospects during the offseason.

Skating without an affiliate will present its challenges. But the Chiefs are on more solid footing than that “affiliate-less” 1995-96 team.



Mike Mastovich is a sports writer for The Tribune-Democrat.