After it was announced last week that the AHL was going to be beginning its season on February 5, the next thing in question was divisional alignment. It was announced on Monday after a Board of Governors Meeting that 28 of the 31 teams were going to be playing in the 2020-21 season, alongside the divisional alignment that was in question.

The Milwaukee Admirals (Nashville Predators), Springfield Thunderbirds (St. Louis Blues), and the Charlotte Checkers (Florida Panthers) have all opted out for the 2020-21 season. It is unclear where the players under contract to these teams will go, but it was reported by Tony Androckitis of InsideAHLHockey that Florida will share an affiliation this season with Tampa Bay in the Syracuse Crunch, while the Blues and Thunderbirds announced that they will share an affiliate with the Vancouver Canucks, the Utica Comets. As for the Nashville Predators and Milwaukee, it seems unclear where those players will play this season.

The Divisional Alignment

The AHL’s Pacific Division is going to be staying the same for the most part, while the Central Division loses Manitoba and Milwaukee. They do, however, bring back Cleveland, who has been playing in the North Division since it changed divisions. The North Division contains the four franchises in New York and the three in Pennsylvania. The Canadian Division is still pending provincial approval from the three provinces. The one that does look different is the three-team Atlantic Division with the teams based in Connecticut and Rhode Island. The schedule format will come out in the next couple of weeks, and it will be interesting to see what divisions play how many games as implied by Frank Seravalli’s tweet.

AHL schedule is not finalized yet, but will feature varying schedule lengths by division. Minimum is 24 games played per team.

Pacific division is aiming for 38-42 GP. Other divisions will range from high of 40 GP down to 24 GP.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) January 4, 2021

New Homes for 2020-21

With the new season, a couple of American Hockey League teams will have to play in a different location. The Binghamton Devils will be playing in Newark, most likely sharing the Prudential Center and the adjacent RWJBarnabas Health Hockey House with the parent Devils. The San Diego Gulls will be playing at the new Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena in Irvine, CA, which is the practice facility of the Anaheim Ducks. The Ontario Reign will be skating at the practice facility of the LA Kings, the Toyota Sports Center. The Providence Bruins will play at the 22.3 Acre, Nine Sheet New England Sports Center in Marlborough, MA, a location that has nine sheets of ice.

Christian Gardecki

A Native of Danbury, CT. Christian is one of the longest tenured Drive4Five writers, Christian Gardecki began writing for Drive4five In May of 2017. Christian covers Minor League Hockey and the Bridgeport Islanders for Drive4Five. Outside of Drive4Five, Christian was the captain of his High School Hockey team and currently attends Hofstra University with a major in journalism. Christian was the play by play broadcaster for the Danbury Westerners summer collegiate baseball team during their 2021 NECBL Championship. Christian also was the Public Address Announcer for the Danbury Hat Tricks Minor Pro Hockey team in the Federal Prospects Hockey League and NAHL Junior team from 2019-21.