Meet Your New Flyers ECHL Affiliate: The Greenville Road Warriors

by Travis Hughes on Aug 17, 2010 1:00 PM EDT in On the Farm

Did you know the Flyers had an ECHL affiliate last year?

Yes? Congrats -- you know some basically meaningless information.

No? Don't feel bad -- you didn't miss anything.

That affiliate in 2009-10, the Kalamazoo Wings, only housed two players from the Flyers organization on its roster last year -- David Sloane and Jeremy Duchesne, who played a combined 29 games with the K-Wings. Meanwhile, other Flyers prospects in the ECHL like Michael Teslak and Chris Zarb played for other teams.

Long story short: ECHL affiliates don't really matter all that much. So the news yesterday that the Flyers have a new affiliate in that league and the fact that it somehow found its way to the front page of philly.com, shows how slow news can be in hockey this time of the year.

But, nevertheless, the Flyers do have a new ECHL partner, and they're strange bedfellows to an extent. The Greenville (SC) Road Warriors will team up with the orange and black next season, but they're also the ECHL affiliate of the New York Rangers. That's right: Flyers and Rangers prospects, shooting for the Kelly Cup together in harmony.

The Road Warriors are a new team in the ECHL this season. The franchise is the longest running in the league, however, formerly known as the Johnstown Chiefs. Yes, that Johnstown, and yes, those Chiefs -- the team that inspired the movie Slap Shot. In 22 ECHL seasons, the Chiefs never won a division, conference or championship title.

Hockey has been played in Greenville in the recent past. The Grrrowl (yes, three R's) played in the ECHL from 1998 to 2006. They won the Kelly Cup in 2001-02.

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The Johnstown Chiefs were a minor league ice hockey team located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania that played in the ECHL. The team was founded in 1988 in the All-American Hockey League, and moved to the East Coast Hockey League (now just ‘ECHL’) when that league was formed

The in movies team was the Charlestown Chiefs and they were based on the Johnstown Jets. The Jets folded in 1977 so they don’t have any legacy teams who could claim lineage.

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by Mark D on Aug 17, 2010 1:30 PM EDT reply actions

Islander'd!

"Chris Pronger sneaked in the back door...banged it home."

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by Psy09 on Aug 17, 2010 1:34 PM EDT up reply actions

Johnstown Chiefs were an homage to the movie, right?

by Snevik on Aug 17, 2010 1:40 PM EDT up reply actions

Indirectly, yes. The owners of the old Jets still owned the rights to the name, so the owners of the new team had the town vote for the name. They voted for Chiefs, presumably due to the movie.

Somewhat humorously, Jody Shelley was a Johnstown Chief.

Honor is no substitute for victory.

by The Dark on Aug 17, 2010 1:43 PM EDT up reply actions

So then it was Jack, Steve, Jeff and…Jody HANSON?

Cheers,

Fezzy
http://fezzysworld.blogspot.com

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by Fezzlekway on Aug 17, 2010 1:53 PM EDT up reply actions

Jody “Killer” Shelley

Honor is no substitute for victory.

by The Dark on Aug 17, 2010 2:01 PM EDT up reply actions

Jody’s a killer…

Cheers,

Fezzy
http://fezzysworld.blogspot.com

by Fezzlekway on Aug 17, 2010 2:04 PM EDT reply actions

jody’s a mess

by fitzy first on Aug 17, 2010 3:07 PM EDT up reply actions

AHHHH WHAT A RUSH!

Columbus til I die, Columbus til I die. I know I am, I swear I am, Columbus til I die!
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by Andrew Tolliver on Aug 17, 2010 4:25 PM EDT reply actions

What happens if their home record is better than their road record? Will they change the team name to “Home Warriors”?

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by FlyerGuy18 on Aug 17, 2010 6:33 PM EDT reply actions

I love how the biggest news of the day is an ECHL team known as the Greenville Road Warriors (what the hell kinda name is that?) is replacing the Kalamazoo Wings (the team on which former Flyer legend David Sloane continued his illustrious career) as the Flyers affiliate.

Damn training camp really needs to start

by njh3293 on Aug 17, 2010 6:50 PM EDT reply actions

what the hell kinda name is that?

An awesome one?

by Michael4L on Aug 17, 2010 7:04 PM EDT up reply actions

These guys have some ties to the flyers. After they made it into the wwf, they became legion of doom

by hbcivicsi93 on Aug 18, 2010 8:11 AM EDT up reply actions

It’s not official until you replace the Wings in the Official Flyer’s Websites Section on the side of the homepage.

by tmurder on Aug 17, 2010 7:22 PM EDT reply actions

Good catch. Done.

Man-crushin' on Boucher since 1999
Broad Street Hockey - Makin' it look mean since 1967.

by Geoff Detweiler on Aug 17, 2010 7:31 PM EDT up reply actions

Bring Back the Mobile Mysticks please.

by The Fish on Aug 18, 2010 12:38 AM EDT reply actions

Was thinking about a trip for the family for an afternoon game but they’re still 5 1/2 hours away. The hurricanes are closer at 3hours

by hbcivicsi93 on Aug 18, 2010 8:14 AM EDT reply actions

That’s right: Flyers and Rangers prospects, shooting for the Kelly Cup together in harmony.

Should read:

That’s right: Flyers and Rangers prospects huddled in unholy quorum, shooting for the Kelly Cup together.

Fixed.

Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?

by mikefive on Aug 18, 2010 9:32 AM EDT reply actions

Long story short: ECHL affiliates don’t really matter all that much

When your favorite team is up 2-0 and fails to win the series, also blowing Game 7 big time at home, and against the eventual champions no less, you can take solace in the fact that your ECHL affiliate won their league championship.

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матовая Клими, Михал нуивирт ваш папа теперь
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by red army line on Aug 18, 2010 11:07 AM EDT reply actions