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Best AHL teams in history?

Huselius

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Nov 9, 2015
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Title says it all. Which AHL teams throughout its history, have been the best teams which had at least one dominant regular season/Calder cup? Which season was it, and who was on the team? Was it a team of prospects, or a mix of youth and veterans?
 
Great idea for a thread, and Welcome to HF Huselius!.... I'll start with the Most Successful Franchise, which I believe is the Hershey Bears with 11 Calders, followed by the Cleveland Barons who won 9 from the 30's through the 60's. Cleveland had their own farm system, extensive Scouting, couldve competed & quite respectably in the NHL in the 50's..... Another great club & often overlooked or forgotten due to cantankerous owner Eddie Shores' lousy rep and the player revolt of the early 60's were the Springfield Indians; Winners of 3 Consecutive Calder Cups in 1960/61/62. This club was lead by the leagues leading scorer Bill Sweeney in each of those 3 Cup Winning Years, with additional firepower from the likes of Jim Anderson, Bruce Cline & Bill McCreary. You also had guys like Noel Price, Kent Douglas (who went on to win the Calder in Toronto), Floyd Smith and Brian Kilrea etc etc, all well known players and later Coaches, Scouts & GM's in a number of hockey circles...
 
It's a hard thing to judge, obviously, because if your players do too well they get called up and it hurts your team, . The OKC Barons (Oilers farm team) had a ridiculous roster talent wise with guys like Hall (who ended up being top 10 in scoring that year in the NHL), Eberle (who had already had a 70 point NHL season), RNH and Justin Schultz playing there in the lockout year and would have been an all-time team but then the lockout was over, all those guys were now playing for a depressing franchise and the team was pretty bad after all that.

Of recent teams the 11-12 Norfolk Admirals would be near the top. 113 points in a 76 game season, +93 goal differential, bull dozed the playoffs going 15-3 (including 8-0 in the last 2 rounds) after they went on a nutso run near the end of the season. 2009-10 Hershey Bears had 123 points, +144 goal differential and won the championship, which was their 2nd in a row. Pretty ridiculous stable of goaltending for a modern AHL team with Varlamov, Neuvirth and Holtby.
 
Ishdul said:
It's a hard thing to judge, obviously, because if your players do too well they get called up and it hurts your team, . The OKC Barons (Oilers farm team) had a ridiculous roster talent wise with guys like Hall (who ended up being top 10 in scoring that year in the NHL), Eberle (who had already had a 70 point NHL season), RNH and Justin Schultz playing there in the lockout year and would have been an all-time team but then the lockout was over, all those guys were now playing for a depressing franchise and the team was pretty bad after all that.

Of recent teams the 11-12 Norfolk Admirals would be near the top. 113 points in a 76 game season, +93 goal differential, bull dozed the playoffs going 15-3 (including 8-0 in the last 2 rounds) after they went on a nutso run near the end of the season. 2009-10 Hershey Bears had 123 points, +144 goal differential and won the championship, which was their 2nd in a row. Pretty ridiculous stable of goaltending for a modern AHL team with Varlamov, Neuvirth and Holtby.
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Neither of those teams are near the top of AHL teams off all-time.
 
2004–05 Philadelphia Phantoms are probably up there among the best.

Had Antero Niittymäki in goal, Joni Pitkänen, Dennis Seidenberg, Randy Jones and Freddy Meyer on defense, and on forward they had Umberger, Patrick Sharp & Jon Sim. And in the playoffs the team got help from 19-year olds Jeff Carter & Mike Richards and won the Calder Cup. Ben Eager & Josh Gratton were also on the team.
 
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1976 & 1977 Nova Scotia Voyageurs won back~back Calders, Montreal of course winning the Stanley
Cup in both of those years as well. Fair amount of turnover, player movement from 75/76~76/77.
 
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Ishdul said:
It's a hard thing to judge, obviously, because if your players do too well they get called up and it hurts your team, . The OKC Barons (Oilers farm team) had a ridiculous roster talent wise with guys like Hall (who ended up being top 10 in scoring that year in the NHL), Eberle (who had already had a 70 point NHL season), RNH and Justin Schultz playing there in the lockout year and would have been an all-time team but then the lockout was over, all those guys were now playing for a depressing franchise and the team was pretty bad after all that.

Of recent teams the 11-12 Norfolk Admirals would be near the top. 113 points in a 76 game season, +93 goal differential, bull dozed the playoffs going 15-3 (including 8-0 in the last 2 rounds) after they went on a nutso run near the end of the season. 2009-10 Hershey Bears had 123 points, +144 goal differential and won the championship, which was their 2nd in a row. Pretty ridiculous stable of goaltending for a modern AHL team with Varlamov, Neuvirth and Holtby.
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I understand it can be hard to judge. In this case I think the criteria for the team should have had its star players on their roster for most of the season plus playoffs.
 
I live close to Hershey and used to be a season ticket holder, so I can give a little insight about the 09-10 team. Set a league record with 60 wins and won something like 34 out of 40 home games that year.

Team was a mix of vets and prospects (not many high-profile prospects, but prospects nonetheless). Alex Giroux-Keith Aucoin-Andrew Gordon was the top line; Giroux and Aucoin were dynamic together and both put up over 100 points, while Gordon put up over 70. Chris Bourque had 70 points in 48 games (he was claimed by PIT in the preseason and reclaimed and reassigned by WSH in December). Kyle Wilson, Mathieu Perreault, and Francois Bouchard provided a lot of the secondary scoring, but even our grinders (Boyd Kane, Steve Pinizzotto, Jay Beagle) put up over .5 points per game.

On defense, Bryan Helmer was the captain and put up good numbers. Rookie John Carlson and sophomore Karl Alzner were solid defenders as well and, of course, have been mainstays in Washington for several years now.

Holtby and Neuvirth were the key goaltenders, and Neuvy was the starter the entire playoffs. Of course, they've been established NHL netminders for a while now too. Jason Bacashihua was also on the team throughout the regular season. (Varlamov only played a couple of games)

Hershey beat Bridgeport in 5, swept Albany, then beat Manchester in 6 to make it to the Final. They lost the first two games at home to Texas and I remember thinking it was over. The Bears went on to win all three games down in Texas to take the series lead (the AHL playoff set up is 2-3-2), then came home and beat the Stars 4-0 in game 6 to win the Cup.

Probably not the absolute best AHL team ever, but they sure were fun to watch, though.

Enjoying this thread- nice to see the AHL get some love, too!
 
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nutbar said:
I know they were in the IHL, but the other day I was thinking about the 1992-93 San Diego Gulls. For a minor league team they were pretty stacked and might have given the 1992-93 Sharks or Senators a run for their money. :laugh:

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0000771993.html

Somehow they lost in the finals though, to Fort Wayne.
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Not to get off topic but those numbers by Daniel Shank are eye-popping! 92 points and almost 500 PIM's?? Incredible really.
 
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Huselius said:
Title says it all. Which AHL teams throughout its history, have been the best teams which had at least one dominant regular season/Calder cup? Which season was it, and who was on the team? Was it a team of prospects, or a mix of youth and veterans?
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Probably some team from the 6 team era of the NHL. Only 120 jobs must have meant a lot of talent was buried in the AHL.
 
How about the Rochester Americans from 64-68. In those 4 seasons they were in the finals every year and won 3 Calders.

The roster included a lot of former NHLers. Some who had quite sucessful NHL careers. Included were at various times: Bronco Horwath, Stan Smrke, Ed litzenberger, Dick Gamble,Wally Boyer, Pete Stemkowski, Larry Hillman, Jim Pappin, Duane Rupp, Al Arbour, Gerry Cheevers, Gerry Ehman, Mike Walton, Brian Conacher, Larry Jeffrey, Darryl Sly, Don Cherry, Gary Smith, Eddie Joyal, Bryan Hextall.

Imlach ran an elevator between Toronto & Rochester
 
pappyline said:
Imlach ran an elevator between Toronto & Rochester
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Ya, the business side of that club was rather interesting to say the least. Originally the Pittsburgh Hornets franchise, moved to Rochester late 50's, local ownership falling short financially and so Frank Selke of the Montreal Canadiens & Conn Smythe of the Leafs invested owning a split majority share. An actual shared Habs/Leafs Farm Club but managed~coached by the Canadiens and that didnt last long as.... Toronto quickly realized that their players were not going to be a priority in Rochester under Montreal control. Toronto then buying out the Habs & installing their own Coach/GM. Remained that way until 66 when the Leafs sold their interest to a group that included their own Coach/GM, Punch Imlach....

Imlach, ever the shrewd horse trader & hedging his bets, also owned a huge piece of the WHL Vancouver Canucks and was part of an Expansion Franchise group for Vancouver. From 65 on, he deliberately buried NHL caliber players under Leaf contracts in Rochester & Vancouver (wouldnt promote them, wouldnt trade them despite demands) thinking that once he got in as an owner in Vancouver he'd be way ahead of the punitive Expansion Draft procedure, messing around trying to sign top end talent from the minors as here he's secretly stockpiled that talent & done so on the Leafs dime & without their knowledge.... Only Stafford Smythe & Harold Ballard did actually get wise to Punch's little scheme only by then, too late, as Imlach had sold off the cream of the roster to his WHL Canucks before bailing on Rochester himself. Imlach's NHL ownership aspirations were killed in retribution by the Leafs however, he did sell the Canucks & the player Contracts to the inbound 1970 ownership group for $950,000, making a huge profit on his original investments. It was thought he would accept the GM's job in Vancouver in 1970 as he knew all the players however he instead opted for Buffalo as we know....

^^^... this from memory, might be a bit off, heres more on the story... www.amerksboosterclub.com/saleoftheamerks.html
 
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Ishdul said:
It's a hard thing to judge, obviously, because if your players do too well they get called up and it hurts your team, . The OKC Barons (Oilers farm team) had a ridiculous roster talent wise with guys like Hall (who ended up being top 10 in scoring that year in the NHL), Eberle (who had already had a 70 point NHL season), RNH and Justin Schultz playing there in the lockout year and would have been an all-time team but then the lockout was over, all those guys were now playing for a depressing franchise and the team was pretty bad after all that.

Of recent teams the 11-12 Norfolk Admirals would be near the top. 113 points in a 76 game season, +93 goal differential, bull dozed the playoffs going 15-3 (including 8-0 in the last 2 rounds) after they went on a nutso run near the end of the season. 2009-10 Hershey Bears had 123 points, +144 goal differential and won the championship, which was their 2nd in a row. Pretty ridiculous stable of goaltending for a modern AHL team with Varlamov, Neuvirth and Holtby.
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Agree on Oklahoma and thought of the 04-05 Philadelphia phantoms layoff roster and how many of those players would go on to have pretty decent NHL careers.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0007932005.html
 
The AHL was a high quality league back in the Original Six era, before NHL expansion, and one franchise won nine (9) championships and went to the championship final fourteen (14) times between 1939-1966 and that is the...

BaronsCalderCup.jpg


Here are some of the NHLers I recognize (from the all-time drafts on the ATD Board here at HfBoards) that played for the Cleveland Barons in their heyday:

Andy Bathgate
Gary Bergman
Johnny Bower
Hy Buller
Bill Cook
Joe Cooper
Ab DeMarco
Bill Dineen
Cal Gardner
Bob Gracie
Ted Harris
Ott Heller
Wally Hergesheimer
Bill Hicke
Joe Jerwa
Tony Leswick
Alfie Moore
Gordon Pettinger
Poul Popiel
Babe Pratt
Dick Redmond
Tod Sloan
Ernie Wakely
Eddie Wares
 
It's hard to establish a best AHL team ever with such in-season roster turnover. Plus, does best team mean from an AHL perspective only or from a developing prospects/future NHL stars standpoint?

The 1998-99 Providence Bruins for instance, coached by Peter Laviolette, had 120 regular season points, a regular season goal differential of +98, and then went 15-4 in the Calder Cup playoffs.

Yet that roster was filled with players who never set the NHL on fire or were even NHL regulars.

The top performers were people like Randy Robitaille, Andre Savage, Peter Ferraro, Cameron Mann, John Grahame, etc.

All had long hockey careers, mostly in the minors or Europe, but despite the great team accomplishment, none could be considered an NHL star or sometimes even regular in the making.
 
Mayor Bee said:
Shank's unbelievable penalty minute numbers have a simple explanation: he was high strung as all hell. He rarely fought, but he'd do all sorts of weird crap to agitate opponents. Then he'd go too far and get a 10-minute misconduct tacked on, and next thing you know he's got 20+ minutes in penalties without ever dropping the gloves or thinking about dropping the gloves. It would be from something like drinking off the opposing goalie's water bottle after the goalie froze the puck.
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Shank sounds like an interesting character to say the least, I know nothing about him really. but had to be entertaining to put up the PIM's he did. You spend 500 minutes in the box/out of the game and still manage time to put up 90 pts, that's just impressive :)

Just curious - how did he not get more time in the NHL? Discipline issues? 24 pts in 57 games for Detroit (1989-90) is quite decent for a 22 year old.
 
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