Baby Oilers Oklahoma bound.. Dubnyk/Pitton swapped

Post by Racki on February 9th, 2010

Baby Oilers Oklahoma bound.. Dubnyk/Pitton swapped

Posted By: Racki

Oilers AHL team to be moved to Oklahoma City

The Oilers have officially announced that the Oilers’ AHL franchise will move to Oklahoma City for the 2010-11 season.

Here is the details as per the Oilers’ official e-mail:

The Edmonton Oilers announced today the American Hockey League Board of Governors has approved the relocation of the Oilers’ inactive AHL franchise from Edmonton, Alberta to Oklahoma City for the 2010-11 hockey season.
Oklahoma City will become the home of the Oilers’ primary affiliate, the proving ground for the franchise’s top draft choices and prospects.

I’m sure Oklahomies will be lined up waiting to get a view at our last place AHL team. Apparently they do have a pretty strong hockey base there, however. Believe it or not, the OK Ford Center which used to house the Oklahoma City Blazers (formerly of the Central Hockey League, not to be confused with the Junior’s CHL – the Canadian Hockey League) and has a capacity greater than a lot of NHL arenas. It can hold 18,036 fans. As exciting as that previous factoid was, the AHL based team will not be playing in that arena (thanks to Gr8one for that info). Read more here.

UPDATE: Devan Dubnyk has also been recalled from Springfield, and Bryan Pitton reassigned to the Falcons, per the Oilers’ official e-mail.

Tags: ahl, dubnyk, falcons, Oilers, oklahoma, pitton, springfield

Oilers, Oklahoma City Barons | Racki February 9, 2010

22 Comments to “Baby Oilers Oklahoma bound.. Dubnyk/Pitton swapped”

By Horpensky, February 9, 2010 @ 3:33 pm Horpensky(Quote)

AHL franchise moving to Oaklahoma ehh… Does that mean no more Oilers in Edmonton?
By Racki, February 9, 2010 @ 3:35 pm Racki(Quote)

Why would that mean no more Oilers in Edmonton?

Springfield probably didn’t want any more to do with our failing team.
By Racki, February 9, 2010 @ 3:38 pm Racki(Quote)

Doobie recalled, Pitton back down, as well.
By Steve-O, February 9, 2010 @ 3:55 pm Steve-O(Quote)

Racki: Why would that mean no more Oilers in Edmonton?Springfield probably didn’t want any more to do with our failing team.

i believe it was a joke
By MetalOil, February 9, 2010 @ 3:57 pm MetalOil(Quote)

Well this is good news! Sometimes I have wondered how much having our AHL affiliate move every year or 2(or not even having one some years) has effected the development of our young players (especially our goaltenders).

Hopefully this is the beginning of a long & happy relationship. Reading comments from some of the local Oklahoma newspapers and there seems to be some genuine excitement for the new team.

Stability at last!!!
By OilFAN, February 9, 2010 @ 4:00 pm OilFAN(Quote)

Racki: Why would that mean no more Oilers in Edmonton?Springfield probably didn’t want any more to do with our failing team.

Owning an AHL franchise and having an agreement for your players to play for an AHL team are two different things. The Oilers own the dormant Edmonton Roadrunners franchise and have been looking for a place to locate the team for quite some time now. They made a three year agreement with Springfield for their prospect players to play for that team – with no ownership percentage in the venture. This move makes sense as they have a franchise valued at around $10 Million with no place to play.
By Racki, February 9, 2010 @ 4:09 pm Racki(Quote)

Steve-O:
i believe it was a joke

Ahhhh, in hindsight I see I missed the obvious joke. Dur.
By Racki, February 9, 2010 @ 4:12 pm Racki(Quote)

MetalOil: Well this is good news! Sometimes I have wondered how much having our AHL affiliate move every year or 2(or not even having one some years) has effected the development of our young players (especially our goaltenders).
Hopefully this is the beginning of a long & happy relationship. Reading comments from some of the local Oklahoma newspapers and there seems to besome genuine excitement for the new team.Stability at last!!!

You’d think it wouldn’t exactly be great for them, but at the same time, I wonder how much it really could affect them. I would say there are much more bigger factors involved (such as Edmonton calling up the large majority of players with any value there, and our top prospects not wanting to go there or not being eligible to go there, etc.). I think this year was a stinker because of the rash of injuries up here. They’ve taken things more seriously with their AHL team and did a lot to try and surround the team with strong career AHLers. Just again, when they lose their #1 goaltender (and option B is nowhere comparable) as well as top forward and others, top d-men (to injury and callups) then that spells trouble.
By zackman35, February 9, 2010 @ 4:32 pm zackman35(Quote)

Expect some concepts for jerseys done up by the end of next friday. I have a few days off and I’m thinking of whipping up a jersey for the possible team names of: Oilers, Oil Barons, Oil Kings and Hawks (not a big fan on the 89′ers).

EDIT: Cut that teams list down to the Oil Kings and Road Runners as they seem to be the most likely candidates as per an Oklahoma City (Slackers) message board.
By Racki, February 9, 2010 @ 5:14 pm Racki(Quote)

Oil Kings just strikes me as a confusing team name, considering we have the WHL franchise version here
By zackman35, February 9, 2010 @ 5:34 pm zackman35(Quote)

Racki: Oil Kings just strikes me as a confusing team name, considering we have the WHL franchise version here

Yeah me too, I don’t think they’ll be ending up with that name just for that fact. It’d be too confusing for a lot of people, especially if you’re not into hockey and or you reffer to the AHL team and some people would be like, WTF Eberle doesn’t play for the Oil Kings (WHL) he’s part of the Oilers AHL team.

http://images.scribblelive.com/2010/2/9/bacf649e-3aee-423a-a465-f3b5aa6d545c_400.jpg
By chucker, February 9, 2010 @ 6:56 pm chucker(Quote)

Nice to see. The old team their led the league in attendance. Should be a good fit for the Roadrunners. Beep, beep!!
By gr8one, February 9, 2010 @ 6:58 pm gr8one(Quote)

Racki, not sure if you were just stating it as an interesting piece of trivia, and yes what you say is true about the OK Ford Centers capacity, but the team will actually be playing in the city’s Cox Convention center which will have been remodeled and retrofitted with ice making equipment.

and M&O, I agree 100% with your sentiments regarding the lack of stability with our AHL team having an impact on development, when you look at how things have been run in that regard it really is a joke and I think it even reflects on the image of the whole franchise.

I too really hope that this turns out being long term and brings stability.
By Racki, February 9, 2010 @ 11:18 pm Racki(Quote)

Well so much for that tidbit. haha Thanks for ruining it for me! I thought that’s where they played because thats where their old CHL based team played. I’ll just have to delete that piece o’ info from above..
By gr8one, February 9, 2010 @ 11:29 pm gr8one(Quote)

Racki: Well so much for that tidbit. haha Thanks for ruining it for me! I thought that’s where they played because thats where their old CHL based team played. I’ll just have to delete that piece o’ info from above..

hehe, I think the only reason I noticed is when I saw the news on twitter I got curious and google imaged “oklahoma hockey arena” and was actually looking at the one in Tulsa thinking “holy shit, the AHL team is going to be playing in a nicer venue than most NHL teams, the kids are going to WANT to be sent down” lol…then I actually read the article and found out they will be playing in a much more suitable AHL facility.

If Hockey catches on in Oklahoma, they might want to think about relocating Phoenix or Atlanta to Tulsa, the arena is pretty awesome looking.

http://www.manhattanconstructiongroup.com/wp-content/gallery/20090204020256/2926_bok_center_final_d.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/BOK_Center_Grand_Ent.JPG
By Puritania, February 10, 2010 @ 4:22 am Puritania(Quote)

Roadrunners is a terrible name, I hated that name when they used it here. Might as well be the Oklahoma Tweety Birds. I vote for Oklahoma Blazers.
By Steve-O, February 10, 2010 @ 8:03 am Steve-O(Quote)

Puritania: Roadrunners is a terrible name, I hated that name when they used it here. Might as well be the Oklahoma Tweety Birds. I vote for Oklahoma Blazers.

Call them the Sooners and you’ll pack the building. Lots of confused people, but it would be packed.
By Racki, February 10, 2010 @ 9:01 am Racki(Quote)

They should name them the Oklahoma Raiders since if things go there the way they have this year for Springfield, the Oilers should be raiding them all year, recalling their best players.

I agree with Puritania on the Road Runners name though. But I would guess that they would be leaning towards that one.
By gr8one, February 10, 2010 @ 10:02 am gr8one(Quote)

I thought the Oklahoma Oilers was a no brainer, Oklahoma is very much an Oil state, much like Texas(they border each other) and it has a nice ring to it.

I loved when they were in Hamilton, those Oiler Jerseys with the Bulldogs were simply amazing, I’d love to own one except for the affiliation with the Habs is not something I could ever swallow.

Roadrunners is horrible.
By Bostonoiler, February 10, 2010 @ 11:37 am Bostonoiler(Quote)

I wish they were staying here…..
By OILERS for life, February 11, 2010 @ 8:52 pm OILERS for life(Quote)

Glad to hear that our young players have a good home now.
As for a team name, make it something to do with the Oil production that links our two citys.
Rough necks
Black Gold
Pipe liners
petro
or anything to do with oil, Just call them the Oilers I like that
By Racki, February 11, 2010 @ 9:07 pm Racki(Quote)

Yah I like the Roughnecks…. even just the Oilers would be good too, as you said. Why not?

Welcome to the site, btw!