Report: Charlotte Checkers minor-league hockey team to be Florida Panthers’ affiliate
The Charlotte Checkers’ new NHL parent club will be the Florida Panthers, according to reports Thursday from the Miami area.
The website Florida Hockey Now, which follows the Panthers, said Florida’s top farm team is expected to be in Charlotte in the 2020-21 season but added that no official announcement has been made.
Checkers’ spokesman Paul Branecky said, “There’s no comment from us right now.”
There was no immediate response from the Panthers organization.
The change in affiliations for Charlotte’s AHL franchise has been expected for several months, following reports that the Checkers’ parent club, the Carolina Hurricanes, would link up with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves in the 2020-21 season.
The change in affiliations would be part of a domino effect in the NHL and AHL:
▪ The NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, whose AHL affiliate was in Chicago, wanted their top minor-league team closer to home. So they purchased the San Antonio franchise (which was affiliated with the NHL’s St. Louis Blues) and moved it to Henderson, Nevada.
▪ That left St. Louis without a location for its AHL team, and it left Chicago without an AHL franchise. The Blues decided to place their AHL team in Springfield, Mass., which had been the Florida Panthers’ AHL site.
▪ According to several reports, the Hurricanes plan to move their AHL team to Chicago. Carolina general manager Don Waddell has ties with the Chicago franchise’s ownership.
▪ That left the Florida Panthers without a location for their AHL team — and Charlotte without an NHL parent club.
When it is all finished, Henderson will have a new AHL franchise; while Chicago, Springfield and, apparently, Charlotte will have new NHL parent clubs. San Antonio will be left without an AHL franchise.
Checkers’ fans would be trading one highly ranked farm system for another.
In a recent poll by a group of hockey writers, the Hurricanes’ farm system was ranked second of 31 NHL teams, while the Panthers were 10th.
Panthers’ goalkeeper Spencer Knight, who is expected to play in the AHL whenever the 2020-21 season starts, is considered among the best prospects at his position. Another top Panthers’ farmhand is defenseman Chase Priskie, who started the 2019-20 season with the Checkers before being traded.
One big question is when the 2020-21 season will begin.
The AHL shut down operations in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The league announced in late July that the earliest it will begin play is Dec. 4. But since minor-league franchises depend heavily on gate receipts, a key factor in resuming play will be the ability of fans to attend games.
The Carolina Hurricanes and the Checkers had a successful partnership. Charlotte won the AHL championship in the 2018-19 season, reached the second round of the playoffs a year earlier and was among the league’s hottest teams when play was halted in March.
Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle
