Last season, the International Hockey League went big-city/coast-to-coast and drew 3.4 million. This season, it adds three more NHL parent teams (Florida, New York and Anaheim) and gains a new destination city - glittery Las Vegas.
The IHL goes to a no-overtime format (directly to shootouts) to get folks home at a family-oriented hour. It has 13 teams, up one from last season, 10 NHL affiliations and nine new coaches.Yup, this minor league is expecting big stuff from itself this season.
Salt Lake's Golden Eagles, entering their 25th season, play in the IHL's kickoff classic - their Wednesday-night game at the Phoenix Roadrunners is the league's official 1993-94 lidlifter.
Nobody else plays until Friday, when the Eagles have their home opener against Las Vegas in the Delta Center.
The Vegas Stars are one of the IHL's three independent teams. The others are defending Turner Cup champ Fort Wayne and the Milwaukee Admirals, who last season led the "I" in average attendance (9,117) in the Bradley Center. Two of those teams have new coaches - long-time minor-league player Bruce Boudreau in Fort Wayne and Butch Goring at Vegas.
Boudreau, a rookie coach, will have a veteran club with 12 returnees from a team that won 29 of its last 30 games last season - 12 in the playoffs.
Milwaukee returns coach Curt Fraser. Other returning coaches are Tim Bothwell in Phoenix, Gene Ubriaco in Atlanta and Dennis Desrosiers in Cincinnati.
New coaches include Salt Lake's Dave Farrish. The Eagles also have one of the league's new NHL affiliates, the New York Islanders, though technically, the Islers return to the IHL. They stocked the Indianapolis Checkers when that city joined the "I" with Salt Lake in 1984-85 after the Central League folded.
Another new coach will be familiar to long-time Eagle fans - Paul MacLean. He was a rookie for Salt Lake in 1980-81. MacLean will coach the Peoria Rivermen, the farm team of the St. Louis Blues.
Other newcomers: Indianapolis's Duane Sutter, Kansas City's Jim Wiley, San Diego's Harold Snepts, Cleveland's Rick Patterson, Kalamazoo's Ken Hitchcock.
The other new affiliates are the expansion clubs. The Florida Panthers will stock the Cincinnati Cyclones, and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim will loan about 10 players to San Diego. The Gulls, 92-93's runaway regular-season champs, return a number of their free-agent players to supplement the roster.
In 92-93, independent teams were the preseason favorites because they spent so freely for players. Independents did win three of the four divisions.
No predictions were made Monday in an IHL teleconference with coaches and media in each member city. Instead, most coaches figured their own teams would be improved. Indeed, there should be few weak sisters. Most clubs signed free agents because a new NHL trend is to provide fewer minor-league players.
The Eagles' Farrish, new to the Islander family, his players and the IHL, can't characterize his team yet.
Bothwell said the parent L.A. Kings worked closely with Phoenix this summer to make sure the Roadrunners are better than last season's last place.
Fraser said Midwest champ Milwaukee was, "Pleased with our performance last year but not satisfied with the results" - a 2-3-1 playoff mark. The Admirals signed more NHL/IHL veterans including Scott Gruhl and ex-Eagle Ken Sabourin.
Desrosiers says Cincinnati (11th of 12) should be, "The most-improved team in the league." It acquired goalie Pokey Reddick, AHL point champ Don Biggs (138) and 92-93's top Eagle scorer, Patrick Lebeau (100). The Cyclones also have ex-Eagles Rick Hayward and Paul Lawless.