No longer affiliated with the Canes, the AHL’s Checkers now have two NHL parent clubs
Someone very familiar to the Charlotte Checkers will be helping to build the team’s roster this season, even if’s only temporary.
This week, the NHL’s newest club, the Seattle Kraken, announced it would temporarily affiliate itself with the Checkers this season as the AHL club emerges from a post-pandemic shutdown.
Seattle general manager Ron Francis — a well-known figure in North Carolina due to his long-time affiliation with the Carolina Hurricanes organization — confirmed this week that his new team has reached a deal with the Florida Panthers — Charlotte’s other parent club — and the Checkers to affiliate its minor league players in Charlotte of the AHL for one season.
Having an American Hockey League affiliate in close geographic proximity is generally preferred by NHL teams in order to facilitate rapid call-ups of minor league players during the season. But with the Kraken’s expected affiliate in California not yet operational, that won’t happen with the Kraken right away. The Kraken are awaiting completion of a planned arena in the Palm Springs area.
“I think the biggest thing when we looked at this was trying to find a location and an organization we could work with,” Francis said Monday. “We wanted to reach an agreement where we could kind of put all of our players in one spot rather than put three here and four there and spread it out.”
According to the Kraken, the team will place between eight and 12 players on the Checkers next season. As the secondary team in the deal, the Kraken have the option of adding an assistant coach to the Checkers while the Panthers — who signed a multiyear agreement with Charlotte last September — will be keeping head coach Geordie Kinnear.
Having the temporary affiliate in place was a near-term priority for the Kraken, with the team preparing to pick players in the July 21 expansion draft. A few days later, it has the No. 2 overall pick and third pick in rounds two through seven of the NHL entry draft.
Players from both drafts will form the bulk of those being sent to Charlotte, primarily those taken in the expansion draft who can’t crack the NHL team’s roster right away. While the Kraken will select 30 players — one from each NHL team except Vegas — only 23 can be on the active roster, with 20 dressing for games.
Entry draft players under age 20 and selected from major junior teams must be returned to those squads if they don’t make the Kraken’s roster. Players that age drafted and then signed out of Europe or the NCAA are eligible for AHL play if they don’t make the Kraken right away.
What the Kraken will lack in immediate proximity is partially offset in familiarity as the Checkers served as the AHL feeder squad for the Carolina Hurricanes back when Francis was that team’s GM. Much of his new Kraken management team, including assistant GM Ricky Olczyk and amateur scouting director Robert Kron, has already worked extensively with the Checkers’ current management group.
Francis said his familiarity with Checkers CEO and owner Michael Kahn should be helpful this coming season. With uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and whether the Canadian border would reopen, Francis said the Kraken was limited in its discussions on locations that may have been in closer proximity to Seattle.
The Checkers opted out of the 2020-21 season due to concerns about COVID-19 safety and logistics, delaying the first year of their affiliation agreement with Florida. The Panthers wound up in a sharing arrangement with the Tampa Bay Lightning at their AHL affiliate in Syracuse, New York.
But the Checkers announced last month they plan to resume play with a season opener on Oct. 22.
Said Kahn on Monday: “I’m very excited, of course, being with Florida. But working again with Ron Francis is exciting as well as we worked together many years with the Hurricanes.”
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
This story was originally published July 2, 2021 at 1:35 PM with the headline "No longer affiliated with the Canes, the AHL’s Checkers now have two NHL parent clubs."
