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After three years of wandering the continent, Lightning prospects finally have a place to call their own. Thursday afternoon Lightning General Manager Jay Feaster finally made good on a two year old promise to secure the Lightning its own full affiliation in the American Hockey League. With the Basketball Hall of Fame as a backdrop, Feaster announced a three-year full affiliation deal with the Springfield Falcons, which served as the Lightning’s half-affiliate for two seasons from 2001-2003.

The announcement marks the end of months of speculation and consternation over Lightning prospect development which included rumors of deals which ranged from Hershey, PA to Salt Lake City, UT, with Des Moines, IA and a yet to be named destination for the dormant Louisville franchise in between.

"We are extremely pleased to be affiliating with one of the best-run franchises in the American Hockey League. I have known Bruce Landon for almost 15 years now and have had the pleasure of working both with him the past two years and against him for eight years in Hershey. He is one of the best owners and operators in the AHL and consistently runs a first-class operation," said Feaster, whose AHL ties as former General Manager of the Hershey Bears had failed him in his pursuit for a full affiliation for months.

Eight Was Enough

When the Lightning youngsters take the ice on opening night for the Falcons in the fall of 2004, the organization will finally see the end of over eight years of instability at the minor league level. Not since the 1995-1996 season when the team was affiliated with the Atlanta Knights of the International Hockey League has the Lightning held a full affiliation at the IHL or AHL levels in any city for longer than a single year.

In the time since, the team has seen its prospects hindered by a dysfunctional developmental apparatus, and for over a half a decade it has reaped more than its fair share of disappointment from dozens of draft picks who struggled at reaching their potential as a consequence. The two-year relationship between the Lightning and Adirondack Red Wings which lasted between 1996 and 1998 set the theme for the era as the coaches in Adirondack, whose paychecks were signed by the Detroit organization, hesitated to give much beyond paltry ice time to all but the veteran players who the Lightning sent there.

After a brief stint with the Cleveland Lumberjacks as a partial affiliate in 1997-1998 and as a full affiliate in 1998-1999, the Lightning appeared to have finally solved their minor league woes in the summer of 1999 when Bill Davidson, owner of the perennial Turner Cup contender Detroit Vipers of the IHL, purchased the team.

However, the shock of converting a team laden with IHL veterans into a team filled with youthful, inexperienced, and often overmatched young Lightning prospects proved a disaster in Detroit and when the IHL folded in the summer of 2000 so too did the Vipers. From 2000-2002 the Lightning were the secondary affiliate to the Phoenix Coyotes in Springfield and again felt themselves on the wrong end of affiliation favoritism at the hands of coaches Marc Potvin and Marty McSorley, the latter of whom is rumored to have had run ins with two of the Lightning’s key Russian prospects.

This season, the Lightning have been forced to utilize a more piecemeal approach sending as many as six prospects to the Hershey Bears, four to the Hamilton Bulldogs and a very lonely Gerard Dicaire to the Utah Grizzlies. With only ten contractually obligated spaces at the AHL level, the team has also been forced to send many key prospects like Evgeni Artukhin and Andreas Holmqvist down to the Pensacola Ice Pilots of the ECHL as well. Fortunately for these prospects the announcement of the Springfield Falcons as full affiliate for the next three years ensures the Lightning all of its prospects will receive all the developmental ice time they need under the watchful eye of a coach who is accountable to the organization and who can teach the Lightning’s exciting brand aggressive forechecking hockey.

The Shape of the 2004-2005 Falcons

In the aftermath of the announcement, one question leapt to the mind of many Falcons and Lightning fans alike. What will the 2004-2005 Springfield Falcons look like? Below is the best guess at the shape of the 2004-2005 Falcons.

Left Wing:

The Lightning could boast an impressive array of size, speed, skill and grit on the left wing of the Falcons. Pencil in Nikita Alexeev, who is currently recovering from shoulder surgery, on the first line. Alexeev still struggles to find consistency in his game, but there’s no doubt that at 6’5" 215 pounds with blazing speed, he is easily one of the most impressive young physical specimens in the game today.

Behind Alexeev, power forward prospect Adam Henrich is likely to come into Springfield on the heels of a third straight 30 goal season with Brampton of the OHL. Russian Superleague all-star and Team Russia EuroTour fixture Anton But, an impressive mix of speed and skill with a sniper’s ability to find the back of the net, could also find his way to North America.

Rounding out the group might be hard working veteran Dwayne Hay, who currently plays for the Lightning in Pensacola, and massive Harvard winger Dennis Packard from the ECAC. Defensive specialist Jimmie Olvestad could also be in the mix for the Falcons should he remain in the Lightning organization and, more to the point, should he choose to remain in North America.

Center:

A likely candidate for captain of the Falcons might be the diminutive AHL All-Star Eric Perrin, who has piled up numbers for the Hershey Bears so impressive that he stands head and shoulders above most of the league on them. Ryan Craig, a savvy player beyond his years who has played wing on Perrin’s line for much of the season, could return to center on the second line.

Another option could be the Lightning top prospect, Alex Polushin, who was well on his way to an impressive season for CSKA of the Russian Superleague this year before injuring his knee in a collision with a teammate in practice. Polushin can play both the wing and center and might provide the long-term replacement for Alex Svitov, who departed the Lightning organization in the Darryl Sydor deal. Rounding out the position current Ice Pilots fan favorite Jean-Francois Soucy, who has rattled the boards in Pensacola all season, adds speed, energy and grit to the lineup.

Right Wing:

The greatest strength of the Springfield Falcons next season might be at the right wing position where the team could boast two outstanding veteran scorers, a former SM-liiga MVP candidate, and another one of the most impressive young specimens in the sport. Topping the list is Shane Willis who currently leads the Hershey Bears in goals, despite the fact he spent over a month in Tampa with the big club.

Behind him is Sheldon Keefe, the proverbial junkyard dog, who blends maddening intensity with the scoring touch of a former OHL scoring champion with Barrie. Tiny speedster Eero Somervuori, currently playing solidly on a checking line in Hamilton, was amongst the league leaders in Finland in scoring for two years straight before coming to North America this season and adds even more potency to any potential Falcons lineup. Who wouldn’t like to see a line of Anton But, Alex Polushin, and Eero Somervuori together, other than Falcons opponents? 6’4" 245-pound Evgeni Artukhin might add even more size and muscle to a Falcons crash line which could also include Packard and Soucy. Out of the WHL, Medicine Hat winger Darren Reid will contribute toughness, character and an emerging scoring touch to the already impressive mix.

Defensemen:

Any discussion of a solid team at any level usually begins with experience on the backline, and the Falcons could have two key veterans in Darren Rumble and Pascal Trepanier, who currently leads all Hershey defensemen in scoring. Behind them, the Lightning is bristling with talented youth like puckmoving power play wizard Gerard Dicaire, who nearly made the team out of training camp, and Andreas Holmqvist who has all the necessary components to develop into a top-four NHL defenseman in his own right with good size, speed, skill and a booming right-handed point shot.

Ice Pilots veteran captain Jeremy Van Hoof is solid as a rock and has been deserving of a shot at the AHL for some time now, and the corps could be rounded out by rangy young defensemen Doug O’Brien of the P.E.I. Rocket of the QMJHL and Paul Ranger of the Oshawa Generals of the OHL.

Goaltending:

Starting goaltending for the Falcons is an issue the Lightning certainly will be forced to look into. Elitserian and SM-liiga veteran Fredrik Norrena is enjoying an outstanding season with Linkopings in Sweden, but the team may look for a more seasoned AHL veteran to fill the Falcons’ starting spot and serve as the Lightning’s emergency goaltender.

Brian Eklund is having an impressive season as Pensacola’s No. 1 goaltender and will almost certainly be in the mix having won the spot from disappointing former third round pick Evgeny Konstantinov whose lax work ethic may finally buy him a one way bus ticket out of the Lightning organization.

Eklund, 6’5”, will be but the first of many big goaltenders set to come through Springfield in the coming years with 6’4" Gerald Coleman of London of the OHL, 6’5" Joseph Pearce of Boston College in the Hockey East conference, and 6’6" Vasily Koshechkin of Lada Togliatti in Russia’s Superleague all in the pipeline.

Coaching:

There are some obvious candidates to take the role of head coach of the Falcons next season. Former Phantoms and Flyers head coach Bill Barber might relish the addition of Falcons Head Coach to his current title as Director of Player Development for the Lightning as might western pro scout Dirk Graham.

One name to watch that you might not know is current Pensacola Ice Pilots coach Todd Gordon. Hockey’s Future’s Timothy Bennett has learned that the Lightning intend to put Gordon on their short list for the Falcons job as he has impressed the team in the past three seasons grooming prospects from Van Hoof to Artukhin for the team’s ECHL affiliate.

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