Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 1, 1993 TAG: 9307010043
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
\ The Roanoke Express has learned a quick lesson: When it comes to working relationships between the East Coast Hockey League and the NHL, it's every team for itself.
While most of the 18 other ECHL clubs already have secured at least one NHL affiliation - some have two - for the 1993-94 season, the expansion Express finds itself searching for a major-league working agreement.
"What's happened is a number of teams have one affiliation and have taken a second but just aren't announcing it," Express coach Frank Anzalone said. "Between that problem and the fact that a lot of Canadian teams don't want to affiliate in the States because of the exchange rate and medical coverage, it's shortened our options. Instead of there being the 10 possibilities it should have been, there are only four or five."
Anzalone and Express general manager Pierre Paiement met with officials from four NHL clubs during the weekend at the NHL draft in Quebec City. Neither would identify the four teams, but a source close to the club said the foursome consisted of the New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings.
"We had four interviews, and three of the four were really good," Anzalone said. "We're moving on it. I followed up three of the four interviews with letters on Monday. Now it's just a matter of the general managers giving us a final decision."
Paiement said he hoped to have an affiliation sewed up "in the next week to 10 days."
"We want to get it done as quickly as possible," Paiement said. "We know our fans would like it, plus it would give a little more momentum to hockey coming back to the Roanoke Civic Center."
Anzalone said the ECHL should have a rule that prohibits any team from securing a second affiliation until all other league clubs have at least one working agreement.
"It's just something the Roanoke Express will have to live with until the board of governors in this league addresses the situation in a forceful way," he said. "The NHL guys are not intense enough to acknowledge our loss. They say, `Hey, you can work it out.' "
ECHL Commissioner Pat Kelly agrees with Anzalone.
"If you don't get one [NHL affiliation], somebody else can have two. That's the part I'm not happy with," Kelly said. "I think everybody should get one. But the owners voted on this. That's the way they wanted it, I guess."
In other ECHL news:
\ LANCERLOT QUESTION: Paiement said he's keeping a close eye on the situation at the LancerLot Sports Complex, where reconstruction of the rink portion of the facility has yet to begin. The Express has plans to hold the bulk of its practices at the Vinton building, which was heavily damaged by the March blizzard.
LancerLot owner Henry Brabham said Wednesday that reconstruction won't begin until he receives an insurance settlement. Brabham estimated it would take approximately three months to rebuild, meaning construction will have to commence in the next couple weeks to get the building ready by October.
"Something is going to have to break soon in order to have time to rebuild and be ready by October," Brabham said.
Brabham said two other ECHL clubs - Knoxville and Greensboro - have inquired about using the LancerLot for their preseason training camps. Also, the ECHL's referee camp is scheduled for the Vinton building in early October.
\ ICE CHIPS: Anzalone left his New Jersey home Wednesday to attend a training camp in Canada. He said he would spend most of July panning camps for players. . . . ECHL expansion franchises in Huntington, W.Va., and Charleston, S.C., have yet to hire head coaches. . . . The ECHL's Huntsville, Ala., entry, which will play in a building named for a famous rocket scientist, will be known as the Blast.
by CNB