Quote:
Originally Posted by Vulcan
One thing that makes our AHL team more indicative of the Flames future is that the AHL has changed. It is now more a prospect league than it was. They now have rules on how many vets can dress, so the young players get a chance. I'm not sure of the year it changed but 2001 could be the reasonable date as that was the year the IHL folded. Now a lot of the vets go overseas or down to the ECHL. It's maybe lowered the competitive level of the league, but the results for the NHL are better.
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As a fan (who admittedly has never seen an AHL game live), I definitely prefer the league to be more of a prospect/development league. I think it's much more exciting to watch guys with promising futures, even if that promise never works out, than to watch 30 year old journeymen. Knowing that most of the players are prospects also makes it a little easier to gauge stats of everyone, as are going up against more similar competition.