Some AHL stuff

I can't pretend to write about the AHL as proficiently as Dave from Sidearm Delivery, but I've got some AHL stuff on my mind today.

The free agency period is winding down, the qualifying offers have expired, and arbitration is set to begin on Thursday. I've been keeping an eye on the situation in Buffalo because of their insanely high number of arbitration filers and their insanely low number of guys signed to this point.

However, I'd much rather be them than be Edmonton. Buffalo will tidy their house eventually, but Edmonton is in a really rough spot right now. After reading a post at Covered In Oil (tip of hat also to Lowetide) , I caught wind of the fact that Edmonton doesn't have an AHL affiliate. That's right. Their top prospects have nowhere to go. Last season, after they forced their former AHL affiliate Toronto/Edmonton Roadrunners to cease operations, they had no choice but to have a partial hand in two different AHL clubs. They shared the Iowa Stars with Dallas and they also shared the Hamilton Bulldogs with Montréal, which made things very confusing for everyone.
Dallas and Montréal have both declined to share their affiliates for the upcoming year, which has left the Oilers in the cold. There is some speculation that they will do some eleventh hour negotiations with Phoenix to share the San Antonio Rampage or perhaps with Nashville to share the Milwaukee Admirals.

To make matters even worse, the Oilers only other minor league affiliate, Greenville Grrrowwwwwl of the ECHL, was kicked out of their league because the owners could no longer keep the team afloat. As of today, the Oilers have absolutely no place to put any of their prospects.

This will be really fun to see how this pans out.