The American Hockey League’s Board of Governors approved division alignment for the 2011-2012 season, and the Portland Pirates will remain in the league’s Atlantic Division.
Five teams will make up the Atlantic Division: Portland, Manchester, St. John’s, Worcester and Providence.
St. John’s (Newfoundland) is a new team affiliated with the Vancouver Canucks.
The AHL will have two conferences, Eastern and Western, and each will be comprised of three divisions.
The Eastern Conference will have the Atlantic, Northeast (Adirondack, Albany, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Springfield) and East (Binghamton, Hershey, Norfolk, Syracuse and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton).
In the Western Conference, there are the North (Rochester, Grand Rapids, Hamilton, Lake Erie, Toronto), Midwest (Charlotte, Chicago, Peoria, Milwaukee and Rockford) and West (Abbotsford, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Austin and Houston).
The Board of Governors also approved the playoff format for the 2011-2012 season.
Eight teams in each conference will qualify for the playoffs — the division winners will earn the top three seeds, and the next five teams will be seeded fourth through eighth on the basis of their regular-season record.
The conference quarterfinal series will be best-of-five series. The conference semifinals, conference finals and Calder Cup finals will be best-of-seven series.
Teams will be re-ordered after the first round so that the highest-remaining seed plays the lowest-remaining seed.
THE PHOENIX COYOTES, the new parent team of the Pirates, signed a pair of free agents over the weekend, days after the start of the NHL’s free-agent signing period.
Phoenix signed goaltender Curtis McElhinney and defenseman Tyler Eckford each to a one-year, two-way contract.
Originally drafted by New Jersey in 2004 (217th overall), the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Eckford played four games with the New Jersey Devils and 37 games with the Albany Devils in 2010-2011, scoring two goals and 10 assists, with 12 penalty minutes.
Originally drafted by the Calgary Flames in 2002 (176th overall), McElhinney played in 28 games with the Ottawa Senators and Anaheim Ducks last season, posting a record of 9-13-1 with two shutouts, a 2.99 goals-against average and a .903 saves percentage.
Terms of the contracts were not disclosed, per Phoenix Coyotes team policy.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
