1. Future Talent

The American Hockey League is, by definition, the primary developmental league for the NHL; meaning, that each of the 30 teams is a sort of stockpile of talent. Many of those guys will one day be called upon to step into an NHL role once they have grown into a mature and more complete player. One of my friends, Jen, a Houston Aeros fan and fellow AHL enthusiast said it best:

The AHL offers, in my opinion, a truly valuable opportunity for hockey fans to see the future of the NHL. While not every guy goes on, 80-something percent of NHL players started out in the AHL, and that includes quite a few who are now popularly regarded as stars.

2. Development

As stated previously, the AHL is a developmental league. As a long time Peoria Rivermen fan, I can attest to this being one of the most rewarding aspects of AHL fandom. Many times, as a fan, you will be able to see a guy fresh from juniors or college, play in his very first professional game, all the way through his NHL career, witnessing all the trials and triumphs along the way. It is always satisfying to see your players succeed at the NHL level, but my own perspective, even more so when I have personally seen the turnovers and bad penalties take place. It makes the successes all the more sweet.

Adam Cracknell, who has played two seasons with the Peoria Rivermen, after scoring his first NHL goal.

3. Past talent

The AHL is a beautiful mix of budding young stars and many names from the past. For example, in the 2009-2010 season, Derek Armstrong, formerly of the Islanders, Senators, Rangers and Kings, played with the Rivermen for 46 games. On January 30, 2010, Armstrong scored four times, showing that his talent was far from rusty. This coming season, Jonathan Cheechoo, who scored 56 goals for the San Jose Shark in the 2005-2006 season is likely to be a member of the Rivermen team. As quoted in the Peoria Journal Star, Cheechoo said of the team, “The Peoria Rivermen are a pretty good team on paper right now, and I’ll be glad to go there and be a part of it.”

4. Proximity and Cost

From door to the door, it two hours and 46 minutes Scottrade Center in St. Louis to Carver Arena in Peoria. In a very real way, this make the Blues very lucky to have their team so close. On one hand, this eases the process of shipping players back and forth when injuries and call-ups happen. On the other, this proximity makes is easy for fans in the St. Louis area to take an interest in the Rivermen. And why not? With the most expensive single game tickets costing $27.50, the cost is certainly not prohibitive and hey, who doesn’t love a good road trip every once in awhile?

This looks like a really fun road trip to me!

5. Quality Hockey

Many NHL hockey fans seem to dismiss the AHL without much thought as an “inferior” product, “They aren’t even a real team anyway!” This attitude is a particularly sad one to have. The AHL is a real and very competitive league; they are professional athletes. Not only are they professionals, but due to the very nature of the situation, the players are at odds for an NHL roster position. As another friend of mine, Sarah, a Providence Bruins fan, said, “No one wants to stop at the AHL. The goal is The Show, the NHL, the big time, and a few in every AHL game will make it.” Every AHL game can be seen as an audition of sorts. Perform well and a player might get called up next time there is a necessity. Even barring a call up, success can, and usually is rewarded in other ways too; a shiny new contract or maybe even a little extra consideration when management is planning the NHL roster for the next season.

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You can find me on twitter here: @PietranJello

Let’s look at pretty things instead.

This brought to you by the ever fabulous Alex at Pucks and Pixels. If you are any kind of hockey fan at all, you will find something she’s done that you will love. Her work is the background of two computers and a phone of mine. Truly. Love her stuff.

What do I get?

I get why the hell they don’t want hockey in the desert. Dudes, I don’t even think the concept of ice exists anymore.

Well maybe it does. You know what I mean.

Anyway, clearly Blues news is as scarce as a person wearing a parka in the 113F degree heat (with 90-bajillion percent humidity). Minus, you know, Conks heading back to the Motor City. Poor guy.

We do, however, have stuff around to pass the time. Like this list right here. If you aren’t already following everyone on this list (besides Louie, who I refuse to follow on principle), you should fix that. Now. I’ll wait.

…..

Back? Excellent. I suppose I wasn’t waiting for much, given that there isn’t any other news. I promise. Ask Steph about what she’s linking at Game Time for the weekend. She’ll tell you.

As always, if someone buys the team, then we’ll have more to talk about, but until then, the countdown continues.

Seventy-nine days.

Let’s do some catching up. What have I missed?

The Cheechoo signing. That’s one thing.

And then there was the Ryan Reaves signing. Who didn’t see this one coming in light of the next thing?

So long, Cam. You were truly one of the nicest players I ever met, and your goal against Detroit in this game made me jump up and down for a solid three-point-seven minutes. I hope you enjoy your time back with New Jersey. I will miss you. WE will miss you.

Aaaand, well, we still don’t have an owner. With all the rumors flying around about who might or might not buy the team, I feel a little bit like I’m living in Eklund’s Twitter feed. I do not so much like this.

Whatever, tell me when the team’s sold.

*sigh*

Eighty-two days left.

I’ll fully admit it. I am totally a homer for American boys. I still cry a little bit inside remembering that stupid overtime goal in the Olympics (it HAD to be Crosby, didn’t it?), and will always treasure Zach Parise’s goal as one of the pinnacle moments in my hockey fandom.

Since we’re aware of this, I see absolutely no harm in showing you a montage of some pretty amazing American moments, without, of course, showing the Americans beating the Soviets at Lake Placid.

After the infamous #WhereIsOshie business, there was much speculation about whether or not the Mayor would get a huge contract as an RFA. The team made themselves very clear with the contract Osh got, and now he has a year to prove he’s worth that huge contract we all know he has the potential to get.

How do we know he has potential?

This is how.

Being that I’m out of town all week, and I’m not expecting anything huge to happen with the Blues, I’m giving you videos all week long. I know you’re excited.

Let’s get to it.

First off, my friend Tim posted some fabulously positive things about the Blues season over at Game Time today. I really like being able to look back at this season as a positive, and this post reminded me of why. I may or may not have read it with a giant grin on my face.

Also, today my friend Jeff posted about a letter season ticket holders got from John Davidson. While the letter itself is fascinating, and sounds just as hopeful as we should expect our GM to be, what I found the most interesting was this line right here:

When I think of the young skill on our roster (Berglund, D’Agostini, Halak, Oshie, Perron, Pietrangelo, Shattenkirk and Stewart) and combine them with our leaders (Backes, Jackman, McDonald, Steen and now Arnott, Langenbrunner and Nichol), I wish the season opened tomorrow.

JD, I wish the season opened tomorrow too.

The thing is, I find this one seemingly innocuous statement incredibly telling. Maybe it’s reading too much into things, but it speaks VOLUMES that Backes was listed as the first leader on the team.

I am one of many Blues fans who fully believe Backes deserves that C on his chest, and I certainly hope to see him wearing it for the rest of his tenure here. Granted, we do not know exactly what goes on in any locker room situation, and he may not be the man for the job. However, seeing him on the ice, how he stands up for his team when he needs to, I don’t see any man being better for the job.

My only hope is that they announce who the captain will be sooner rather than later. Regardless of who it is, give them the rest of the summer, training camp and preseason games, to be the leader. To be the OFFICIAL leader.

Oh man, I really want hockey here right now.

Are we living in an alternate reality here? We get not one, but TWO signings today? From outside our team.

What?

As reported by multiple sources, the Blues have signed one-year contracts with both Jamie Langenbrunner and Jason Arnott.

Wow. I think Twitter nearly exploded.

I’m not going to lie, after yesterday’s signings, I was fully prepared to take a step back from my computer and chalk the rest of the off-season up as time for the Blues management to fine tune their golf games. But this? This is best summed up by a very simple tweet.

What’s interesting is that just this morning Brad over at Game Time posted a rather heart-felt summation of the frustration many in Blues Nation have felt recently. I guess that’s the message Armstrong has been hearing in general. Thanks, Brad, for saying what so many were feeling.

I’m interested to see how this pans out. Again, I don’t consider myself a hockey analyst by any means, but I do know that my gut reaction was one of excitement rather than a “well, ok then.”

For more details on the signings, check out Jeremy Rutherford’s article. And for yet another well-written post about ownership, go see what Sean had to say at Game Time today.

I’ll post more details if any necessary ones come around.

Mental note. Keep my trap shut.

In the time it took me to say that there wasn’t much going on, there was stuff going on.

Welcome back Ben Bishop! Though his signing after the QO was all but certain, at least now it’s entirely sure that he’s coming back. Hopefully that means we’ll see more pictures like this and this. Well, that and we can see him just bend down and fill the entire goal.

I will refrain from going off on my goalie tangent again.

Also, the Blues picked up Scott Nichol, which might increase the average age of the team, but isn’t that what people have been screaming for? “Get a veteran presence on the team!” Ok then.

Whether all the signings and pickups this offseason are the right moves or not remains to be seen. I know there are people who think it’s not going to do any good, picking up guys who might be past their prime or aren’t an offensive force to be reckoned with, but guys? The team doesn’t have the money to go ahead and sign a name like Steven Stamkos or Brad Richards. They just don’t.

As far as I’m concerned, having a GM who’s going to do more than just “get us to the cap floor” is all right by me. By not stopping at the floor, like so many seem to think he should have done, Armstrong is showing that he’s at least trying to do SOMETHING. Something is better than nothing. At least he hasn’t given up on the team.

I will now step off my soap box.

Welcome to St Louis, Scott! Welcome back, Bish!!