Bloomington Bison joining ECHL in 2024-25

[No Fun Shogun]

... And your expectations for Bloomington vs. Toledo are ... ?

Clearly a Bison sweep en route to a perfect season capped off by their first of seventeen consecutive Kelly Cup championships, of course.

 

[JMCx4]

now the question needs to be asked how many independent signings before the contracted assignments from the Rangers/Hartford and the "unofficial" assignments from CAR/CHI become available/known

Partial answer revealed, with the rest left as a homework exercise for the class ...

BISON ROSTER TAKES SHAPE
Friday, October 4th

Bloomington, Ill. – New York Rangers Assistant General Manager and Hartford Wolf Pack General Manager Ryan Martin announced today that the Wolf Pack has released seven players from their professional tryout agreements (PTO) and will report to the Bloomington Bison. Additionally, the New York Rangers have reassigned goaltender Hugo Ollas from the Wolf Pack to the Bison. ...


Read more at: Bloomington Bison | BISON ROSTER TAKES SHAPE

 

[JMCx4]

From: Bloomington Bison > Team News & Info

BARBASHEV LOANED TO BISON
Sunday, October 6th

Bloomington, Ill. – New York Rangers Assistant General Manager and Hartford Wolf Pack General Manager Ryan Martin announced today that the Wolf Pack has loaned forward Maxim Barbashev to the Bloomington Bison.

Barbashev, 20, split the 2023-24 season between the Shawinigan Cataractes and the Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL. He recorded two goals and seven assists (nine points) in 15 games with the Cataractes. Following his trade on Nov. 21, 2023, Barbashev appeared in 44 games with the Oceanic and scored 12 goals and 14 assists (26 points). ...

Read more at: Bloomington Bison | BARBASHEV LOANED TO BISON

 

[VaCaps Fan]

Ready for preseason?

 

[Northerner]

I really like the color scheme but I'm underwhelmed by the jerseys.

 

[JMCx4]

 

[JMCx4]

Saturday night's final score in the Bison first game (preseason) was Indy Fuel 4 - Bloomington Bison 2. Indy played a physical game from the opening puck drop, and it took the Bison a whole period to recover from the shock. They eventually erased a 2-0 Fuel lead in the 2nd period. The teams played - and battled - evenly after the game was tied, until Indy scored on a surprising redirect of a shot from the point then ended any chance of a 2nd Bison comeback with an ENG. As a first game for Bloomington, I'd say they made a good showing & offered local fans some promise for future success.

Pretty sparse crowd, but enthusiastic & increasingly vocal as the game progressed & the score tightened. I guess the $10 ticket marketing didn't capture wide attention around town, but the concession stands did run out of some items (which I reckon was a reflection of GMA management's prediction of crowd size). My two photos below give some sense of the attendance early in the game. The majority of the attendees - which included goodly numbers of Indy fans as well as Peoria Rivermen thrill seekers - were sitting on the penalty box side of the ice where The JMCs had our seats. But the occupied seats on both sides were mostly between the bluelines (not nearly filling those sections), with just smatterings of fans sitting elsewhere around the bowl. Hopefully the team's Opening Weekend promo will bring a significantly higher attendance.

One more observation: The rink had several sponsor marks under the ice surface, but the boards were snow white all around. Hopefully the dashers will be filled with business partner logos by October 19th, the Bison's regular season home opener. I was surprised that the team was able to debut its inflatable team intro tunnel on Saturday (final image below), but their mascot was in attendance only in the form of a blurry outline with a big red question mark as shown regularly on the video boards during the preseason game. Another debut for BLM fans to look forward to.

 

[VaCaps Fan]

You buy any merch?

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Not too surprising that a preseason game didn't draw too well. The real tests will game two on Sunday and the next weekend of home games. Have little to no doubt that opening night will draw well, but my memory of the ECHL is the Express and they had a packed opening night and then a very sparse second night, so you could tell trouble was brewing borderline immediately (I think a lot of that was a few thousand folks being flabberghasted at Sears Centre parking rates and deciding to never go back).

I'll likely be late to the home opener as I'll be at the Michigan/Illinois game and then hauling ass back to hopefully miss as little of the Bison opener as possible.