When East Coast Hockey League announced on Sept. 10 at its preseason meetings in Columbia, South Carolina, that it had formally accepted the expansion applications of six active and three prospective WCHL teams, a new era in minor professional hockey was born. With the additions, the ECHL will expand to 40 teams in 19 states by the year 2004 - making it the largest minor pro league in North America.

With the coast-to-coast alignment, the re-titled ECHL might as well call itself North America's premier development hockey league. Whether the proposed name will fly is beside the point, it certainly fits.

Though falling short of a merger between the two leagues, the new alignment makes the ECHL-sponsored league the largest AA-level developmental league on the continent - easily surpassing both the established United Hockey League and Central Hockey League in both breadth and scope of talent and dwarfing the fledgling six-team Atlantic Coast Hockey League.

The expansion of the ECHL to the West Coast serves both as a fitting end to the WCHL (which will go dark after this season) as well as a new beginning. The more established ECHL is entering its 15th season with 27 teams in 14 states; the WCHL, which boasted nine active franchises at its peak in the 1997-98 season, opens its eighth season on Oct. 11.

San Diego Gulls Director of Public Relations Tera Black summed up the feelings of nearly everyone involved with the WCHL - from players to coaches, from front office personnel to fans - when she called the ECHL's move to the West Coast serving to "legitimate" everything the WCHL sought to accomplish.

"It's a huge thing for the West Coast Hockey League," said Black. "We've known we have a proven and established pool of talent for a number of years with a proven fan base. For the East Coast Hockey League to expand to the West Coast and recognize that, it legitimates everything we've done."

ECHL President and CEO Richard W. Adams cordially welcomed the league's newest members.

"The ECHL is excited to welcome these new members to the league," Adams said in a league release. "The members have strong ownership and play in excellent markets with solid track records of fan support. This expansion provides the ECHL with a national presence, strengthening the ECHL's position as the largest developmental league in professional hockey."

Seven WCHL teams are scheduled to join the new continental league next season: the Anchorage Aces, Bakersfield Condors, Fresno Falcons, Idaho Steelheads, Long Beach Ice Dogs, San Diego Gulls and the new Las Vegas Wranglers, who recently signed a lease to play at the new Orleans Arena starting in 2003-2004. Expansion franchises were awarded to groups in Reno, Nev., and Ontario, Calif. The Ontario team will be operated by CoachSports, the parent company of the Ice Dogs. The Reno franchise may actually play in a northern California city, according to sources within the WCHL.

Both the Reno and Ontario clubs are expected to hit the ice in the 2004-2005 season. The Orleans Arena is now under construction adjacent to the Orleans Hotel and Casino with a completion date of May 2003.

After this season, the ECHL will call all the shots in terms of roster makeup and salary caps, though individual clubs will still have voting privileges at annual general meetings.

With this to be the last Taylor Cup awarded - ECHL teams fight for the Kelly Cup - the road to the championship of the WCHL's eighth and last season will be just as special as was the first.

Though interleague this season has been left for individual teams to schedule (the Gulls are interested in filling open dates left by the folding of the ECHL's Dayton franchise), the Idaho Steelheads got the jump on the rest of the WCHL by scheduling two preseason games in Boise against the ECHL's Arkansas RiverBlades on Oct. 3 and 5.

In the first-ever meeting between teams from the WCHL and ECHL, the Steelheads earned a degree of respect the WCHL with a pair of 4-2 victories against the RiverBlades.

With the new alignment with the ECHL, WCHL teams should reap added benefits in terms of exposure, sponsorships, marketing opportunities and either direct or secondary affiliations with NHL teams that will help alleviate player salary expenditures. ECHL teams have extensive affiliation agreements with both the NHL and American Hockey League, the NHL's premier development league.

The Gulls have already taken the initiative by inking an affiliation agreement with the AHL Hershey Bears. San Diego head coach and general manager Steve Martinson called the agreement "significant" in enabling his club to sign highly skilled and desirable young players.

Hershey is the minor league affiliate of the NHL's Colorado Avalanche.

As part of the affiliation agreement, the Gulls contributed four of their offseason signings - defensemen Marc Busenburg, forwards Rob Voltera and Sandro Sbrocca and center Sylvain Deschatelets - to Hershey's training camp while 2001-2002 WCHL Rookie of the Year Mike Garrow, acquired after Colorado ceased operations Aug. 1, attended the Utah Grizzlies' AHL training camp.

Both Long Beach and Bakersfield have also made use of AHL connections.
The Ice Dogs received goaltender Brandon Boxma on assignment from the Manchester Monarchs while the Condors loaned defenseman Garret Stroshein to the Portland Pirates.

Boxma, a 6-foot, 180-pound, 21-year-old from Edson, Alberta, signed with the Monarchs after attending the Los Angeles Kings' training camp in El Segundo. Boxma earned a win in his only preseason appearance for the Kings against the San Jose Sharks on Sept. 28. Boxma replaced starter Felix Potvin and stopped 11 of 13 shots in 26 minutes of work.

It is the player pipeline, in particular, that should benefit the western teams the most. A total of 191 former ECHL players have advanced to the NHL along with coaches, officials and front office personnel. Last season, 82 ECHL alumni competed in the NHL, including 17 who made their debut. Twenty-five of the 30 NHL teams developed players with ECHL affiliates.

Along with the seven incoming WCHL teams, the ECHL is scheduled to welcome new markets in Beaumont, Texas and Gwinnett County, Georgia in 2003-04. The newest ECHL franchise debuts this season in Lexington, Kentucky (a relocation of the Macon Whoopee).

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10/05/02: WCHL's 2002-2003 Makeover starts at the top