The AHL's Syracuse Crunch has announced today that its new NHL affiliate will be the Anaheim Ducks. This is great news for the Ducks as they will have a place to develop their prospects and, at the same time, put a competitive product on the ice for the enjoyment of the Syracuse fans.

We welcome the Syracuse Crunch and its fans to the Anaheim Ducks' family

LINK

And thanks to Fire9701 for giving us the scoop also

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Courtesy Fire9701

Big welcome to the Crunch!

It'll be interesting to see what (if anything) the Crunch do with their uniforms/logos/etc.

I know the Anaheim policy is to pretty much leave the AHL affiliate to create their own identity....But I do hope they go with something a little less...."Columbus-esqe".

I cannot wait to see all the prospects develop right here in Syracuse. It will be a great time to watch hockey here and see the Ducks' system of play live.

I will keep everyone posted if I hear anything about jersey and or color schemes. I'm hoping they redesign personally. New affiliate, fresh start!

I understand that the Crunch will remain the logo for Syracuse, but that we will adopt the Duck colors....looking forward to next season already!!![size="3"][/size]

I'd be more than willing to volunteer a few design ideas if they needed some

That's good to hear about the logo. It's been the identity of the club for so long. They might have to tweak it a little to get the Jacket's colors out of it thought.

I can't wait to see an arena filled with Ducks colors.

It is interesting that Toyota sponsor's the Crunch, while Honda sponsor's the Ducks.

Welcome Crunch!

Welcome all crunch fans we are glad to have you on board and hopefully this is the begining of a very long good partnership!

Go ducks and go crunch!!

I'm hoping the primary home color will be orange instead of black. That would be awesome!

I heard that the Crunch will be adopting the Ducks color scheme but will be leaving the logo the same for the 2010-11 season. I am looking forward to having an NHL affiliate that is committed to developing talent at the AHL level. Columbus management did not have a clue and it shows by their performance at the NHL level. LET'S GO DUCKS !!!

this is great news. I wish they were a little closer, but still great news
GO CRUNCH!!

Hurrah! This is excellent news! It will be great to see the Ducks prospects develop together as one team rather than having them spread across the country.

to Crunch fans and to the Crunch organization. Here's to going forward and to an exciting new partnership!

Great news, finally we have a spot for our guys to develop without being spread out and moved around constantly.

However, no offense to the Crunch, but really? Syracuse NY? I was hoping for something closer to home. The rumors of Bako moving up a league to become an AHL franchise was sounding pretty good.

I dont know why, but whenever I hear or read Crunch, I think of Crush like the orange soda. So Orange for the jersey's would put that cherry on top. hahahahahah

Realistically, Bakersfield wasn't going to become an AHL franchise soon. A west coast AHL franchise is a pipe dream until more AHL franchises move west of the Rockies, which is something they haven't shown they want to do. The Kings and Sharks own their AHL franchises and they haven't shown any inclination to relocate their teams. The Ducks weren't going to be the lone franchise and they probably wouldn't want to foot the travel bill for all the other AHL teams to come play in California either.

ALLDUCKS has started following @SyracuseCrunch on Twitter and recommend that Duck fans do as well.

I welcome the affiliation with the Ducks! Looking forward to seeing what the new team will look like next season.

The logo will remain the same except that the Ducks colors will be incorporated. I am the artist for the Crunch and one of my first projects over the Summer will be to delete the Blue Jackets logos in the offices and in the players' lounge and replace them with Ducks logos.

I'm not sure I like the idea of orange jerseys on the Crunch… don't we have enough Orange in the 'Cuse already???

Another designer Welcome to AD!

I know what you mean. I've had to double check to make sure I write Crunch and not Crush. The connections with "orange" could be numerous.....Orange Crush, Orange County, Syracuse Orange (oh wait, that's taken ). Crunch is fine with me, but it's good to hear the colors will change. The current color scheme looks very Columbus (obviously).

Ha exactly!!! Glad I wasn't the only one. Go Crunch!!!!

I wouldn't mind seeing them make orange their primary color for the new scheme either. Something along the lines of what everyone was using here for a template for the third jerseys for the Ducks. Syracuse is the home of the Orange with Syracuse University being close by so it would be safe to say that the fans here wouldn't have a problem sporting an orange hockey jersey.

Welcome to Syracuse, Ducks Fans and Hockey Prospects!!! One thing you Ducks won't immediately recognize but you should know is that the Ownership and Management of the Crunch are a Top Notch Classy Group. It's to bad you weren't here in Syracuse to Witness the Outdoor Game Played at the NYS Fairgrounds Grand Stand in Feburary where 21,000+ attended to break the AHL attendance record. It was a Fabulous Show I have to tell you we are all looking forward to what Howard has up his sleeve for next Season. Word has circulated that they will put on a show in the Carrier Dome at SYR UNIV campus putting a 50k+ crowd possibility on ice. Experiencing a game at The Old Barn (Onondaga County War Memorial) is a Fabulous experience and a great place to watch hockey, even though we hope for a new facility someday I fear the feeling would diminish. The Players know that we know Hockey and we support them wildly at Games and in Community Events alike. Hope to see some West Coast Ducks Fans in Syracuse during our 2011-2012 Season. Go DUCKS!! Oh and GOOOOO SU Orange!!!!!!!!!!! Ok who has that Truck load of Ducks Jerseys headed this way???

I'd like to say that the fans in Anaheim will appreciate the type of operation that Howard Dolgon runs here in Syracuse. DrkShark just mentioned the Mirabito Outdoor Classic, an event that was truly spectacular. The Crunch office staff worked hard and long to put this together an they did an outstanding job. In the 16 years of Crunch hockey we've had some great events. Howard wants a winner and we look forward to winning with the Ducks.

At this moment I am listening to a local radio broadcast, "On the Block with Brent Axe". Howard is a guest and he's talking about the new affiliation. Fans are calling in to thank him for the move to the Ducks.

After the press conference I went into the arena area to see the work in progress on our new, bigger, better scoreboard. It'll make its debut tomorrow night and it's looking good!

GO Crunch, GO Ducks!

Howard just said on the air that our Crunch road jerseys will be black.

David McNab on the affiliation
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Great news for the Ducks. Not just because they have an AHL affiliate again, but I've heard nothing but good things about Syracuse and the fans. I think that kind of thing can really give the players a boost.

Excellent news! No more spreading talent and furthermore, I might get to see some of our prospects since Iowa I don't think played in Providence in their one year in existence so I might get to go down the street and see the Crunch vs the Providence Bruins and see how our guys look.

Very good news to hear. We're no longer devoid of an AHL affiliate! Woohoo!

Well, hopefully this is a move in the right direction. It will be a nice change to be a part of a decent organization for once. Nice site you guys have here and I'll be looking forward to some good hockey discussions.

If you don't already know, we have our own little disaster of a forum @ http://www.syracuse.com/forums/crunch/ , be forewarned there are numerous knuckle heads on there. Feel free to join in a check up on your "duck eggs"!

Welcome!

welcome.. its great to see all the crunch fans joining the site to update us on our new AHL affiliate!

Who knows the details on how this affiliation works? Obviously we control the coaching staff. Do we control the entire roster? All the personnel moves? Training staff etc?

Howard Dolgan (owner of the Crunch) will pay the Ducks a yearly franchise fee of $1 million. The Ducks will then provide all the coaches, trainers, and players. Howard runs a first class organization in Syracuse which has a great reputation in the AHL.

I believe the Ducks will control the majority of everything. I read that the Crunch weren't going to persue trying to sign any players this offseason, so that tells me that they want to let Anaheim build the foundation for the system that they have in mind for developing players. Which I think is a good move, especially in the first year of affiliation.

Very true, you won't have to worry about seeing anything like the situation in Iowa with Howard and the Crunch. The man is so passionate about hockey that he put a good chunk of his own money on the line to make sure that the outdoor game came to life here. When it comes to stand up acts and bringing forth what you promise the people, there aren't any organizations in the AHL that are better at giving it to you than the Crunch.

Unfortunately, and for reasons discussed elsewhere on this board, the Ducks will be missing the playoffs as well. The streak started in 05-06 will come to an end this year, but we hope that we can come out strong and, together with the Crunch, put a strong product on the ice for both leagues.

Watch today's announcement. There's no embed code so you'll have to go to the URL.

There where great interviews with both Howard Dolgon the Crunch owner and David Mcnabb on a local sports radio show i will post the link when it gets put up if anybody is interested. I believe i heard that the away jerseys will be black

Please do...

I should really start my own thread but everytime I do it doesnt appear. I wonder what I am doing wrong. So I am going to post it in here until I can figure it out.
Ducks Announce AHL Partnership with Syracuse..... http://ducks.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=522710&navid=DL|ANA|home


This is really good news. I am not up on my happennings with players who travel back and forth to the AHL and NHL. It does seem like a cluster bundle. What happens to the players that are still playing for Syracuse? Do they become property of the Ducks, do they just get let go and have to find new teams? I am sure that CBJ has players there that they still want to hold on to. I know the DUX has players that will go to the CRUNCH but Im sure there are roster limits just like the NHL. I am so very confused, and the artile says that we need to hire a new coaching staff. What, why? Did they stay with CBJ?

www.cinemarts.com/viewitem.aspx?id=951

Great to see an afiliation with a great AHL team!!!

They forgot to metion Bryzgalov and Lupul as other prospects the Ducks developed.

agree so many high picks, so little in results, brassard, filatov, voracek etc all rushed by clueless people

I´m very glad that we will have an own AHL Team next season...

Lets hope it will be a good relationchip

Murray happy Ducks landed Syracuse
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First, realize that these announced affiliations take effect for NEXT season. Right now, all players will stay where they are.

Then next season, the players who are under contract with the NHL team will stay property of the NHL team, and the team can put them where ever they want. So, Columbus will no doubt be putting their prospects in Springfield. Anaheim will put theirs in Syracuse. (There may be a few with "AHL Contracts", but I honestly doubt there are many, and don't know if those contracts are actually with the AHL teams, or with the NHL teams. I wouldn't worry about it....they are usually just roster fillers).

As for coaching, the usual arrangement is for the NHL club to hire the coaching staff. That guarantees that the AHL players get schooled in the style of play that the NHL club plays. And it's often the case that the GM for the AHL team is actually a front office guy from the NHL parent team. I would assume McNab would get that title in this case(?)

When you look at the whole arrangement on paper, you can see why NHL and AHL teams sometimes seem to have short and rocky marriages. What's best for the AHL team isn't always what's best for the NHL team, and vice versa. It takes some commitment on both sides to make these arrangements work.

Syracuse Crunch hopes Ducks feather the nest with wins
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Since there has been mention of this as a selling point, (not that selling is needed at this point) here is a gallery of the Crunch's greatest feat (so far)

http://photos.syracuse.com/4456/gallery/mi...ssic/index.html

The baby Ducks are in good hands with an "A" class organization.



By the way.....you guys need to update this : !!!

Oh and what teams are your guys spread across currently? Just wanted to check some of our team next year. I think Kyle Calder is one of your guys and we played against him tonight (Toronto Marlies)

Rampage, Moose, Marlies, and Heat... plus the Bakersfield Condors in the ECHL.

Yeah we need an Al dancing banana.

Yes, we'll have to get a gorilla. Thank God we never had a dancing chop.

The ducklings have been spread around the continent. I don't know where they all are, but from what I recall, in the AHL they're in Toronto (McDonald, Evans, Mikkelson and Sexton have been called up to Anaheim, Calder--not a prospect), San Antonio (Bickel, Sharp), Springfield (Lavasseur) and Manitoba (Salcido). In the ECHL, they're in Bakersfield. There are a couple in college: Palmieri (Notre Dame), Gardiner (Wisconsin). And there are some still in junior: Sbisa (Portland), Holland (Guelph), Deschamps (Mocton), McMillan (Kelowna), Clark (Brampton). And there are some over in Europe. There are more...

Here are a couple of sites with info on some of the prospects:

(Hf Spring 2010 analysis)

(Bakersfield Condors)

John DeGray is in Rochester, AHL.

on top of the ones mentioned you'll probably see Eric Regan, John De Gray(you should be seeing him soon he is currently on the americans roster), Mark Mitera, Shawn Weller!!!(aka The Captain), Logan Macmillan, maybe Matt McCue, If Timo Pielmeier isn't the starting goalie for you guys then that means he is in anaheim, Maxime Macenauer, and possibly Ryan Donally. Man Bakersfield has seen a lot of good duck players this year. =)