AHL President/CEO David Andrews' State Of The League Address 2019

SPRINGFIELD, Mass -- The American Hockey League's (AHL) 2019 AHL All-Star Classic in Springfield, Mass. Sunday and Monday saw some of the top prospects in hockey take center stage for a skills competition and 3-on-3 tournament on live television across the United States and Canada.

But between Sunday night's skills competition and Monday night's all-star challenge (the three-on-three tournament), AHL President/CEO David Andrews spoke with credentialed media in his annual state of the league address.

The short, short story?

"Things are humming along," Andrews said, noting before he spoke that it could be a boring discussion.

A 25-minute, prepared with notes address followed by a 30-minute Q-and-A with reporters yielded quite a bit of information. There's quite a bit to digest here, so it's broken down into sub-sections with the topics brought on through the nearly 1-hour of information on a variety of topics affecting the AHL.

STATE OF THE LEAGUE

Last year was a record year for revenue "by far" Andrews said Monday. Both in terms of ticket sales and corporate revenue. "This year we are right along the same line. We are pretty much exactly even in per game revenue across the league," he added, noting that corporate revenues are also up over last year.

Andrews said the AHL has had a "very strong launch" in Colorado with the Eagles - the league's 31st team that began play this season after previously being an ECHL franchise. That transition to the AHL has been really positive and the relationship with the Avalanche has been great. Seamless addition to our league that has really helped to strengthen us.

About 450 recalls to the NHL as of a few weeks ago. That represents about 270 players who have gone up to play in the NHL so far this season. Usually by the end of the year, that number is about 350-360 different players - according to Andrews - who go up to play in the NHL. "We've seen a lot a guys go up for the first time and really make an impression in the NHL this year."

Some more numbers from Andrews: "In terms of our role with the NHL as a player development league, if you look last year I think we had 6,000-some man games played last year in the NHL by AHL recalled players. Those are guys who start the year on AHL rosters. You do the math (1200-some odd games in NHL) is about five guys in every game that are recalled from AHL. You can see how important we have become in terms of the NHL product and their ability to ice competitive teams night after night. And the opportunities for our players which is important. I think that's why we see the energy we see game in and game out. It's why we see the kind of young guys here this week that are energetic, incredibly talented and very appreciative of being in our league because they know it's an opportunity."

Two-Referee System & NHL-AHL Officiating Agreement

This is the first season with full 2-referee system in the AHL. "It's taken us awhile to get here. It's a big project. We looked over the last few years we've have gone from about 800 assignments in a season to about 4600 assignments and all those guys have to actually assigned, traveled, expensed and hopefully show up," Andrews said.

Unfortunately, the AHL won't be able to claim that all their games this season ran with a two referee system. "We have already had three games where we had an official get injured the night before and we couldn't get a replacement. Some teams are more difficult to find a replacement and get them there in time. We'll be at least three games shy of two full referees." Still, a vast improvement over the long term. And a step in the right direction.

The officiating agreement with the NHL expires this year. The AHL and NHL have had an officiating development contract for over 30 years, and according to Andrews it usually runs 3-4 years each time. "We are in discussions now to extend that agreement. I think both the NHL and ourselves are happy with how it works. It's a very complex agreement and we're hoping to simplify it, which would be good. Every official in the NHL now has come through our program now, so it works."

AHL's CBA Set to Expire This Year

The AHL is also in the last year of its current collective bargaining agreement (CBA). "We are preparing to negotiate probably beginning within the next month or so for a new agreement which would go in effect in October. There's a process we go through. We have a negotiating committee - as do the players," Andrews said.

Andrews expects the two sides meeting at the end of the regular season. When they are not in formal sessions with negotiating committees, Andrews plans to meet with the players association on a 1-on-1 basis to help move the process along. "We haven't exchanged notes yet, but I don't think there are really any incredibly hot buttons for either side, at least not that I'm aware of."

According to Andrews, they solved one of the biggest issues in the last CBA which was making sure our players were adaquately compensated in the playoffs which had been a challenge. "The relationship is really good between our players association and ourselves and we work hard to make sure our players are well taken care of. I would expect that by August we will have an agreement in place."

The AHL's Scheduling Development

Andrews mentioned the progress over the years in terms of the AHL's scheduling development. "[Sunday], we approved a new conference and divisional alignment which isn't new at all. It's the same as this year, so it was easy to get through." Andrews added they are going to be getting the schedule process started even earlier this year because they don't have any changes in membership. "I don't think it will come out any sooner than it has in the past because we finally got it out in early July which is about how much time it's going to take us."

While pleased to have the Pacific Division teams playing the same amount of games, 68, the rest of the league plays a 76-game schedule. "That's a discussion point. Over the last number of years, we've had a few attempts to try to get to a unified schedule and a unified number of games. We have not been able to get enough momentum to approve a fixed number of games for all of our teams," Andrews said.

He seemed to think that at some point they will, but  "I don't know during my tenure or not. I thought when we first went through, it wasn't going to take us too long. But we're not there and I'd say we're still probably a ways away from that happening." He went on to say there isn't a lot of angst about the 76-game teams and the 68-game teams from a competitive perspective. "It hasn't been issue for our teams, our coaches, and our board. I think it's been more of a fan perspective than anything else." Over past 2-3 years, the Pacific Division teams played pretty much the same amount of games after Christmas as teams in the other three divisions, according to Andrews.

The AHL likely won't ever have a schedule that sees all teams play each other in a season, but Andrews hinted there might be more inter-conference play between teams from the midwest and the Eastern Conference.

"I think we are going to see more of that coming along.  We have some work to do on that but it's an interesting equation working with all the teams and finding common ground on who wants to play who how many times and when they want to play them. It's complicated."

I have a number in my head. 72. That last part I'm having trouble with is negotiating that with 31 teams. Some day, we'll hopefully get to a 72-game schedule. To arrive at a decision like that, we need a 3/4 vote our constitution requires 75% of our teams to vote for it and we are a ways away from that.

Seattle Expansion And How It Relates To The AHL

The NHL approved expansion to 32 teams, beginning in 2021 with Seattle. The AHL subsequent expansion sounds like more of a when than if.

"We are in conversations with Seattle relative to addressing their needs in the AHL when the time comes. We don't have anything to announce specifically, I think the 2021 team start in Seattle is helpful to them and to us in providing more time. I will expect that they will own a team and operate a team in the AHL and it will probably be in the west coast."

Let the speculation begin on where the 32nd team will play!

We've been looking at a lot of different options. I think the one thing I would be pretty sure of is that if they had the opportunity they want to stay on the west coast somewhere but that could be anywhere from southern California to Colorado to Washington state if they had a place there. They haven't made up their mind. They haven't even finished their due diligence on what the opportunities might be. I think they will own their own team.

In other west coast hockey news, the AHL's 2020 All-Star Classic will be held on the west coast for the first time in league history in Ontario, California.

W-B/Scranton Penguins vs. LCCCA

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and their lease agremeent with the Luzerne County Convention Center Authority at the Mohegan Sun Arena is set to expire on June 30 and the talks are on-going to come to a new agreement to keep the Pittsburgh Penguins' AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre.

Is there any concern from the league about the lease negotiations?

"Not at all. Maybe there should be?" I know that there's a lease negotiation going on. I've been in this a long time. Every team in our league goes through lease negotiations, and anytime you're in a negotiation like that there's a concern that you're not going to reach a deal depending on how far apart you are in the provisional stages of any negotiation. If they're far apart, then you begin to get nervous about what the future holds."

For now, at least, the league is simply aware  and not involved.

"I don't know that we have ever had a team go away simply because of a lease issue. I would hope that that's going to work out. It hasn't been brought to our attention as something we should be - I mean I'm aware of it - but we are not involved in it. We're not mediating or facilitating. I expect it will get worked out."

For more on that, I wrote about it in the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

AHL Affiliation Extensions

On the affiliation newsfront, some North Division teams extended their agreements recently.

"The extension of the Utica agreement with the Vancouver Canucks was really important to Syracuse, Binghamton, the fans in Utica and to the league and because they've been a terrific fan based. Having that accomplished, and having Syracuse extend their agreement with Tampa Bay also was good. On the affiliation agreement front, there were times years ago that was a very challenging part of my job was to help ensure our affiliate agreements."

AHL Stat-Tracking Expansion?

By now, I'm sure you've seen that the NHL is going to have more technology for real-time player and puck tracking and perhaps saw the TV-test during NHL All-Star Weekend.

The AHL, Andrews says, will be following suit at least in some capacity in the near future as well.

"Our board of governors tend to be fairly protective of some of the player development information that is being collected. For example, time on ice. I think that will change in time. We are trying to find a consistent time on ice platform to use for the league in the future."

Whether the AHL wil have that done for next year or not, Andrews was not sure.

"Ideally, it will connected to our whole platform with HockeyTech, our website and our real-time scoring and stats. We are investigating that. We are going to have to convince our general managers and NHL general managers that more of that information should be public. And I think we'll be successful doing that. I mean when you look at where the NHL is going, it's going to be hard for us not to go there."

"The whole technology player and puck tracking is interesting stuff and I would be making it up if I told we had a plan. We are watching carefully what's happening with the NHL. We're also watching what's happening with gaming and their relationship with sports betting. We don't know where we fit in to that, but we want to be close to it and we're fortunate that our relationship with the NHL is set so that we can stay close to it and get the information we need in terms of where they are heading. Some of that will need to be collectively bargained as well. Player tracking and those things are something we'll want to discuss with our players as the NHL has. From what I've read and seen over the last little while, it seems as though the players association, the NHLPA and the NHL are really cooperating quite well in this area. I'm not sure what the end game looks like with all of that but it will be interesting to see how it impacts us and how it impacts fans. I think the idea is the more you get engaged with all of the data the more engaged you'll become as a fan and more interested in the sport."

Andrews said he wanted to educate himself more on that kind of stuff.

AHLTV

Speaking of HockeyTech, the AHL partnered with them in the creation of their new streaming service for this season AHLTV. How has that been received by fans so far this season?

"Outstanding. It's been great. The feedback has been terrific," Andrews said, explaining they spent the better part of a year and a half, almost two years in researching what their options were going to be and doing their due process of understanding where the fans were with AHL Live as a product.

"We had a product that wasn't great and highly priced. It's not a great combination for anything," Andrews said, noting that if you actually went back and watched AHL Live last season - it was pretty good.

"We had improved the bandwidth in our buildings, improved our cameras and technology. This is all good change. I don't think it was a terrible product, but our fans thought it was," Andrews said, adding, "We probably got more negative feedback from fans on our streaming than we did on our officiating. And I;m not even kidding."

Moving to the new platform with AHLTV in the league's new partnership with HockeyTech has been great for two reasons according to Andrews. The technology itself, and owning the service to be able to set their own price points.

"Someone was speaking at our board meeting about the fact that in the sports bar the other night here the NHL All-Star events were on one big screen and Springfield's road game in Providence was on the other big screen and you really couldn't tell the difference," Andrews said. "It was our streaming property versus NBC Television and it was a real good high quality product."

"And our pricing is really good for our fans. AHLTV, we actually own it. It's ours. It's our business model - we set our price points. We pay HockeyTech for the back end service and the technology, and they run it - we pay a fee for that - and then we price it as we see fit and hope we can make it work."

Andrews said viewership is up by more than triple and the revenue is just about as much and "we've reduced the price by 2/3 or something like that."