The Columbus trip is Here!  Report to Midway Airport, at 10:00a.m. on January 22, 1999.  Don will meet us at the Columbus Airport at 2:00  (EST) and take us to the Rink for our 3:30 p.m. ice time.
Give the King $200 now!
Room mate assignments were set up using San Jose as a model.  Trades are permitted  pending the King's approval.
We now have 8 rooms at the Holiday Inn OSU
328 West Lane Avenue Across from The Ohio State University
614-294-4848
The Chill van will be available for our use.  He has reserved  tickets for Friday's 7:30 game against the Johnstown Chiefs (11-14-4) and Saturday's game against the Huntington Blizzard. (15-14-3). 
Don will skate with us after the

much time in the minors. Oh, by the way, the player is Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Curtis Joseph, or "Cujo," as you may know him.
While the traditional system is still in place, the ECHL has done a lot to challenge its setup.
Over the eleven years the league has been in existence, it has sent morethan 100 players to the NHL. Keep in mind that these are players that may not have had a place to play at the age of 20-22. Every year, more AHL and IHL general managers make time in their busy schedules to scout ECHL games, and in Biloxi, Mississippi it was interesting to see the number of them excited about the all-star event.
Congratulations to the ECHL and to all the players involved. You did a great job and you truly are making an impact on the game of hockey!

The on-ice product was outstanding as well, and players such as Jaroslav Obsut of Augusta and Jason Elders of Mobile made sure of this. In Tuesday's skills competition, Obsut won the hardest shot competition, registering a 99.3 mph slap shot that could have won at the NHL level. And in Wednesday's game, Elders' two goals and two assists were good enough for MVP honors.
  Unlike the NHL, a new car was not presented to Elders for his accomplishment, but he may have received something even more valuable - exposure to higher-level teams in the AHL, IHL and NHL.  The ECHL has done wonders by providing minor league players with this added exposure. You see, while most ECHL players desire to climb the professional hockey ladder, their aspirations can be crippled under the traditional system of professional scouting.
In the traditional setup, only NHL teams have an in-house scouting staff and a bulk of their attention is focused on 17- and 18-year-old prospects in preparation for the league's annual draft. It has also been tradition for AHL and IHL teams to affiliate with NHL teams and rely
on them for players and the scouting of players. As a result, there has not been a significant need for AHL and IHL teams to carry a scouting staff of their own. With a system like this in place, late bloomers (players that develop after their draft age of 18) can very easily be overlooked.
I had the fortune of playing with one such player, who at the age of 22 had not been drafted, but had obviously developed substantially since his draft year. Fortunately, this player continued to play on teams with 18-year-old (draft eligible) players and NHL scouts had no option but to recognize his development. The player eventually signed as a free agent and, deservedly, never had to spend

ECHL All-Star Game all about exposure 1/15/99

Don Granato 's column  You can e-mail Don at
                 thechill@qn.net
It's showcase month for professional hockey as the NHL, AHL, IHL and the ECHL all host their annual all star games in January. While the NHL's "North America vs. The World" event is not until the 24th of the month, the ECHL got things going on a more modest level this week by hosting its game Wednesday evening, Jan. 13, in Biloxi, Miss.
The two day affair - which included a skills competition, board of governors meetings and the game itself - was well organized and very representative of the ECHL product. I was fortunate to attend all the events and left Biloxi excited to have been a part of the happenings.
You see, the ECHL is not just a minor hockey league; it is a minor professional sports league sensation. As a league, the ECHL is successfully introducing (and expanding on) the product of hockey to millions of fans that reside in non-traditional hockey markets. It is amazing to witness the growth and development of the league, and you can really see and feel it at events such as this.
Yes, I am a coach and general manager within the league, but I left Mississippi feeling much more like a fan than anything else. The host team, the Mississippi Sea Wolves, deserve a lot of credit for this. The Sea Wolves franchise had no problem creating an all-star atmosphere.  Packing more than 7,500 fans into the Gulf Coast Coliseum, the event was worthy of its nationally-televised broadcast aired on ESPN2.
Overall, it was nice to see the genuine enthusiasm the people of the South have acquired for the game of hockey.