DES MOINES, Iowa (CP) - The Edmonton Oilers will use five American Hockey League clubs as their partial affiliates this season under agreements announced Friday.
The Oilers will send some of their prospects to the Hamilton Bulldogs (primary affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens), the Milwaukee Admirals (Nashville Predators), the Grand Rapids Griffins (Detroit Red Wings), the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (Pittsburgh Penguins) and the Iowa Stars (Dallas Stars).
Five teams... the hell? There are several (I think at least four?) completely unaffiliated teams in the AHL that I'm sure would have welcomed taking on the one year duty as Oilers affil even if the Oil are going to as they claim launch their own AHL affiliate next year. This just seems silly to me. Their previous affil, the Edmonton Roadrunners, closed down.
