With the new season about to start, many of the team have been trimming and reassigning players to various leagues all over the world. Getting lost in the shuffle are several AHL tryout deals, or NHL contracted players that are getting sent preemptively to the ECHL for their training camps. This is true for most teams. The LA Kings are one of several that currently don't have an ECHL affiliate since Manchester folded in 2019. Since development of prospects is becoming increasingly important, the Kings should not only acquire and ECHL affiliate but sponsor and promote a new expansion to the league.
The first, and most important, reason the Kings should create or invest in an ECHL team is for the development of prospects. It’s hard enough to find a place to play some of these contracted players, with only so many roster spots in the AHL. Having a team would allow for the Kings to shuffle fringe AHL players back and forth, allowing them to get good, quality reps with the AHL team and then big mins and ample special teams work in the ECHL. This potential benefit would be even more impactful for goalies. The Kings this season have already assigned two goalies to two different ECHL teams. If they had their own team, the Kings could then control starts and usage, allowing the proper rest/growth as well as invest more heavily in skills coaches.
In the event they do promote a new expansion into the league, this would be a huge boost for the growth of California hockey. The NHL, and by extension the AHL, are in the business of winning. The ECHL is too, but with the talent pool so flush with different players leaving and coming from oversees, this team could field a team with relatively anyone and still be competitive. Assuming several of the spots are for Kings prospects and several more for established ECHL vets for the bulk of the scoring, that would leave the rest of the roster to be supplanted by whomever. It would be interesting to see several California players secure jobs, both from a fan perspective and a managerial perspective. It would promote sales and the hockey culture within the community. Trevor Moore is 100% worth the NHL roster spot he currently has but it is very cool seeing a Rancho Cucamonga player playing for his hometown team. I almost want the Kings to try to sign Collin Delia next year for the AHL for the same reason (and he would be a good 1A/1B goalie for the Reign). If precedent was needed for the Kings to verify that this is a viable solution, watching how Montreal manages its brand new ECHL team (Trois-Rivieres Lions) would help. They just sent down NHL contracted forward Arsen Khisamutdinov and AHL contract goalie Kevin Poulin.
Finally, the Kings would be helping to extend their brand throughout California with a cheaper, yet equally as fun, option to view games. Having a team based out of Santa Barbara, Fresno or even reviving the Long Beach Ice Dogs would be significant to the brand continuity. All of San Diego is Anaheim Duck's territory and all of Palm Desert is new Seattle’, and there probably is a higher growth of each respective fan base because of the NHL connection. Doing that to the middle of California would be a huge boost in local or semi local fans, which would help growth and generator profit for the team.
There are already a few West Coast teams to the North in the ECHL, so all that would have to happen is a few teams band together and create several expansion clubs at the same time. It happened four years ago with the AHL expansion to California. Might be a good idea for Arizona to do it as well or Texas in one of their biggest cities. We just must see what the future holds in the next 5 years with the ECHL becoming a true second tier developmental league versus what it has been used for in years previous. If this happens, hopefully the Kings are heavily involved.
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