Wild, Monsters get early start on 2019-20 AHL season

By Jim den Hollander

Midwesthockey.info editor

When announcing the schedule for the upcoming season at Midwesthockey.info, the sidebar is generally, the subtractions, additions or moves in the team standings.

For the American Hockey League this summer is a rarity with no changes at all. The 31 teams will not only all be returning for the 2019-20 regular season, they will also all be staying in the same place.

There are six Midwest-based teams in the league again this season, five of them playing in the eight-team Central Division and one, the Cleveland Monsters, remaining in the North Division where they moved to last season.

In the Central are: the Chicago Wolves, top affiliate of the Las Vegas Golden Knights; Grand Rapids Griffins, long time affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings; Iowa Wild, top affiliate of the Minnesota Wild; Milwaukee Admirals, affiliate of the Nashville Predators and Rockford Ice Hogs, just down to the road from the Chicago BlackHawks, its NHL affiliate.

The Manitoba Moose could almost be an adopted Midwest team, the affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets, barely over the Canadian border in Winnipeg. They also compete in the Central Division along with a pair of Texas-based affiliates, the Texas Stars (Dallas Stars) and San Antonio Rampage (St. Louis Blues)

The Monsters are the AHL affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets. They  play in the North Division along with the Laval Rocket (Montreal Canadiens); Binghamton Devils (New Jersey Devils); Belleville Senators (Ottawa Senators); Utica Comets (Vancouver Canucks); Toronto Marlies (Toronto Maple Leafs); Syracuse Crunch (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Rochester Americans (Buffalo Sabres).

The earliest opening for the Midwest Region will be the Iowa Wild playing host to the Rockford Ice Hogs on Oct. 4 while the Chicago Wolves play its first home game Oct. 5 against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

The Monsters will also open on Oct. 4, but open on the road in Quebec against the Laval Rocket (Oct. 4-5) before playing its home opener against the Syracuse Crunch in the first of a weekend set against the Syracuse Crunch on Oct. 11.

After playing its first game in Chicago, the Griffins will return home to entertain the Milwaukee Admirals on Oct. 11.

Both the Admirals and the IceHogs will get their home schedule underway on Oct. 12, the Ads hosting the Rocket and the IceHogs hosting the Griffs.

Teams in the eight-team divisions will play a 76-game regular season schedule while the Pacific Division teams will play 68 games. The regular season schedule will wrap up on April 11 with the top four teams in each division advancing to the playoffs.

American Hockey League teams schedules are located at http://kmdjr15omhn2w5r191hex041-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/19-20_ahl_teams.pdf