Icemen, meet the swordsmen.
The Jacksonville Icemen are teaming up with the Buffalo Sabres, announcing their new NHL affiliation with the Atlantic Division hockey club Monday inside the Community First Igloo.
The affiliation, which will take effect beginning with the 2023-24 season, links the Icemen with both Buffalo as well as the Sabres’ American Hockey League affiliates, the Rochester Americans. Specific terms and the duration of the agreement were not disclosed.
For the Icemen, one benefit is clear: The chance to connect with a Sabers farm system that’s now packed with prospects after years of early draft selections.
“We really want to bring the Kelly Cup back to our hometown of Jacksonville,” Icemen chief executive officer Andy Kaufmann said, “and we think this is a big step in getting us there.”
The full schedule: See all 72 games in the 2023-2024 Jacksonville Icemen ECHL schedule
FOUR YEARS, THREE NHL CLUBS
The Sabers became the third NHL team to sign an affiliation agreement in Icemen history, and the club’s third different NHL team in the past four seasons.
For their first four years, from 2017 to 2021, the Icemen were connected to the Winnipeg Jets and their American Hockey League affiliates, the Manitoba Moose. That deal ended after the 2021 season, in part because of the legal and logistical difficulties in assigning players across the Canada-United States border during the coronavirus pandemic.
For the past two seasons, the Icemen have been affiliated with the New York Rangers and the Hartford Wolf Pack, the Rangers’ AHL partners.
In effect, Jacksonville is swapping NHL and AHL teams with the Cincinnati Cyclones. The Cyclones had been affiliated with the Buffalo and Rochester franchises for the past six seasons; now, the Cyclones become the Rangers’ ECHL affiliate, while the Icemen start their partnership with Buffalo.
Kaufmann said he felt a connection with what he termed the “family organization” of the Sabers and Americans. Both franchises are owned by Pegula Sports and Entertainment under Terry and Kim Pegula, who also own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.
“It’s very much the same [atmosphere],” Kaufmann said. “We feel very much connected at all levels.”
The Icemen also have several other ties to Buffalo. Lauren Muni, the Icemen’s vice president of marketing, is a longtime Sabers backer because her father, Craig Muni, lined up for three seasons in defense for the NHL club in the mid-1990s.
The agreement also renews the Icemen’s links with the team’s original head coach, Jason Christie. Jacksonville’s coach from 2017 to the end of the 2020-21 season, Christie departed two years ago to take an assistant coaching role with the Sabres.
“There’s a trust level there from his experience,” Americans general manager Jason Karmanos said. “It obviously doesn’t take very long to figure out that this is a very well-run organization that’s having a lot of success.”
Current Icemen coach Nick Luukko, entering his third season, termed the arrangement “a really good fit for us.”
“We’re going to work with them and continue to make them better players, and hopefully we’ll get a couple of our guys called up to Rochester as well,” he said.
MEET THE SABRES
The Sabers have muddled through struggle in the NHL — 12 consecutive seasons missing the playoffs, no postseason series won since 2006-07 and no Stanley Cup titles in 53 years of hockey — but their player development system may soon turn the tide.
Earlier this month, Yahoo Sports Canada ranked the Sabers as the No. 1 prospect pool in the NHL. While premier hockey prospects infrequently log significant ECHL minutes on their path to the top, the system’s overall depth increases the chances that Jacksonville fans might get the chance to see a future NHL player at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.
“We feel that the development is best when you know you have a coaching staff paying attention to details and teaching our players, which certainly we’re very excited to work with Nick down here, and also a winning environment,” Karmanos said.
Buffalo’s process is already beginning to pay off, building around players like 20-year-old defenseman Owen Power, the No. 1 overall selection in the 2021 NHL Draft and a Calder Trophy finalist this spring.
For the just-completed 2022-2023 NHL season, Buffalo climbed above .500 in the Atlantic Division but missed out on the wild card, one point behind the Florida Panthers. Rochester finished as runner-up in the Eastern Conference of the AHL’s championship, the Calder Cup.
The Icemen advanced to the South Division final in the ECHL before losing to the Florida Everblades, the eventual league champions. Luukko is hopeful that their new New York connection can lift the Icemen to the next level.
“It’s going to be really good for our organization,” he said, “developing their players and working with their culture.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Icemen, Buffalo Sabers reach 2023-2024 affiliation deal