It's a story right out of Slap Shot: The Norfolk Admirals won the AHL's Calder Cup last week, and now they're headed out of town.
Sort of.
The Tampa Bay Lightning, which had used Norfolk as its AHL affiliate for the last five seasons, announced Thursday that the Syracuse Crunch will be the team's new affiliate starting in the 2012-13 season. The Admirals, however, still plan to have an NHL affiliate next season, with the Anaheim Ducks (formerly affiliated with Syracuse) as the likely newcomers.
Tampa missed the playoffs in 2011-12, but the team's minor-league operations had a banner year. The Florida Everblades, a shared club affiliated with the Lightning and the Carolina Hurricanes, won the Kelly Cup, followed by Norfolk's Calder Cup victory over the Toronto Marlies. The Admirals won their last 28 games of the regular season before going 15-3 in the postseason, ending their run with the Lightning on a winning note with the first Calder Cup in the market's history (which also includes AHL stints for the Tidewater Wings, the Virginia Wings and the Hampton Gulls).
Tampa management was gracious towards the Norfolk organization in announcing the move, and the reality is that travel is easier from Syracuse to Tampa than it is from Norfolk to Tampa. Syracuse is also a more natural hockey market, with lots of local rivals in upstate New York. The AHL currently has teams in Albany, Binghamton, Rochester and Glens Falls in addition to the Crunch.
If Anaheim is indeed the new affiliate in Norfolk, the Ducks will find it relatively harder to bring players up, but the reality is that it won't be that much more difficult, given that a cross-country flight is still involved.
