Senators Article: AHL will consider rule changes at meetings
June 27, 2004

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Scott Lauber of Press Connects.com

AHL will consider rule changes at meetings

BY SCOTT LAUBER

Press & Sun-Bulletin

It's a summer of great uncertainty for the National Hockey League, considering the looming labor dispute and the growing potential for a lockout that could undermine the season.

But it's business as usual for the American Hockey League.

Regardless of whether the NHL can negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement by Sept. 15, the AHL's 28 clubs will play next season, and representatives from each team are descending upon Hilton Head, S.C., for the league's annual summer meetings that start today.

"All 28 teams are committed to operate, no matter what happens (to the NHL)," said Tom Mitchell, the Binghamton Senators' executive vice president who will participate in the four days of board meetings and, thanks to the locale, several rounds of golf.

The agenda is, in Mitchell's words, "quite lengthy." In addition to reviewing the divisional and playoff formats and devising a schedule format, there will be a discussion of several potential rules changes and a presentation by the NHL.

Mitchell will be joined by Peter Chiarelli, the Ottawa Senators' director of legal relations and right-hand man to general manager John Muckler. Chiarelli will arrive in Hilton Head after Sunday's conclusion of the NHL draft in Raleigh, N.C.

As in past seasons, the AHL might serve as a guinea pig for proposed rules changes before they are implemented in the NHL. Prominent among those new rules are widening the blue lines and preventing goalies from playing the puck behind their net.

A three-quarters majority vote of the AHL clubs is needed to implement a rules change.

"What will be accepted is probably what the NHL managers suggested last year," B-Sens coach John Paddock said. "The American League is traditionally a trial balloon for those things. It'll be interesting to see how those things come together. There's not one rule change that will make a difference. It's probably a plan of four or five."

In past years, a byproduct of the AHL's summer meeting has been a new divisional alignment, and the four New York teams will likely argue to be in the same division. Binghamton and Albany are currently in the Eastern Conference, while Syracuse and Rochester are in the West.

But with all 28 teams returning to the league, Mitchell isn't sure last season's divisions will be altered.

"There's generally a lot of discussion in that area," Mitchell said. "Naturally, the four New York teams would love to be in the same division, but while that might be good for us, it might not be good for the overall league."