Is the time coming for the AHL to split up?

Zack Fisch, the voice of the AHL’s most time-honored franchise, cannot wait to see new opposing crests in the coming campaign. When he answered an interview with Pucks and Recreation last month, he noted that his Hershey Bears will cross paths with the Grand Rapids Griffins for the first time since 2005-06.

It will be the kind of conference crossover you do not see much of in the minors anymore. In the prior century, when you had both the AHL and IHL, nonconference engagements were as commonplace as they have always been in the parent league.

When the IHL folded and sent its surviving franchises to president David Andrews’ circuit, there was some short-lived capitalization on the novelty. Many Eastern AHL teams swapped visits with former IHL clubs for the better part of the ’00s.

But lately, for many fan bases, Eastern-Western regular-season showdowns have been as conceivable as an American-National League baseball crossover was prior to 1997. You know, when Bud Selig and company started to recognize MLB as the singular entity that it is.

With the AHL’s recent spread to regions long devoid of Triple-A hockey, the conference-only schedules have tightened, with rare exceptions. Naturally, at this level, coastal clubs cannot afford many, if any journeys from one end of the continent to the other. Unlike Major League Baseball, minor-league hockey has an excuse for not letting every fan base see every team each year.

Still, there could be a little more variety, particularly for those in the Northeast and Midwest. Depending on how the makeup of the NHL shifts in the coming years, there may be a way to attain that, and Andrews would be shrewd to put it on the table.

The IHL as we knew it in the ’90s is never coming back. You will not see a second AHL-level league hovering around a 20-team membership from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Coast. But now that the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights are primed to debut this fall, with the Chicago Wolves as their affiliate, one tile in the groundwork is set for a separate, smaller Western-based league.

If a series of other factors take root, Andrews could create a setup similar to what Triple-A baseball operates. There, the geographic divide has the International League stretching from Pawtucket to Indianapolis. The Pacific Coast League covers the rest of the continent from Nashville westward, and the two circuits only intersect for the All-Star Game and national championship.

Hockey could similarly spring for one AHL that encompasses the East Coast, Quebec, Ontario, the Midwest and Manitoba. An associated league could then cover Texas, plus the entire Mountain and Pacific Time Zones.

The former could retain the Calder Cup as its playoff championship trophy, while the latter could resurrect the IHL’s Turner Cup. And there could still be a singular All-Star Classic using the same current format of divisional teams in a tournament of mini-games.

With only eight teams presently in the Western range, that is not an option for now, but the circumstances are liable to change. Assuming Vegas grows lasting legs as an NHL market, odds are the Golden Knights-Wolves alliance will break. The newest franchise will inevitably want what more of their peers are pursuing and attaining by the year.

Since the AHL’s mass transplant to California in 2015, the Arizona Coyotes have brought their affiliate to their home state in Tucson. Last month, the ECHL’s Colorado Eagles management expressed a desire to upgrade their brand and become the Avalanche’s new Triple-A team.

If that comes to fruition, the Knights could, hypothetically speaking, elevate another ECHL brand back to the AHL level. The Utah Grizzlies would be a sensible candidate to plug a hole on the higher-level hockey map. In fact, Salt Lake City was one spot where Vegas management considered planting its AHL partner before, at least for now, settling on the existing Wolves franchise.

Then there is the Pacific Northwest. The Vancouver Canucks will surely want to tug their top development base out of Utica before long. In addition, the NHL might reestablish an even number of member clubs by expanding to Seattle or Portland. A team in one of those cities could easily make the other its AHL satellite.

Those are a lot of variables that are anyone’s guess. But together, they could ultimately entail adding three or four more teams to the AHL’s Pacific Division territory.

An arrangement with 32 NHL teams and one Triple-A affiliate for all, with roughly 20 teams comprising the AHL and the other dozen the AHL West would be sensible. With two minor leagues, the addition of a few independent teams could work as well.

As formerly independent IHL tenants who have retained their identity since their inception, the Wolves are proof of that. Having a few unaffiliated franchises to pad one league or another could give quality, contract-less NHL aspirants a viable option to keep their careers home in North America.

With more Western teams in their own league, prospects could also enjoy a more consistent, balanced schedule. In this year’s AHL slate, released this past Tuesday, 24 teams will again play 76 games. The six non-Texas Pacific Division tenants will again play a mere 68, predominantly against one another.

The Bakersfield Condors, just to name one example, will trade one-off visits with Chicago, Iowa and Rockford, plus a pair of two-game sets with Manitoba. Otherwise, they will stay within the Pacific.

Further east, the Cleveland Monsters will swing through the Pacific on an aggregate 14 road games over three separate road trips. They will not, however, cross paths with the Eastern Conference the same way the Central Division rival Griffins will with Hershey and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

The way the AHL is comprised, the Western Conference makes sense for Cleveland and Grand Rapids. But for all of the long-carried on, and eventually answered, complaints from fans of their respective Columbus and Detroit parents clubs about being Eastern Time Zone teams in the Western Conference, the Monsters and Griffins have not seen much beyond Lake Erie.

Since the 2001 AHL-IHL merger, Cleveland and Grand Rapids have never faced any New England teams. Milwaukee and Chicago both have, as did Rockford upon joining in 2007, though not in recent memory.

Conversely, the relatively isolated Charlotte Checkers face all four New England franchises a combined 28 times in 2017-18. That includes a whopping eight-game season series with both Hartford and Springfield.

Per a series of queries on Google Maps, the distance and costs for travel from Grand Rapids to an Atlantic Division city is roughly the same as leaving Charlotte for the same destination. From Cleveland, it is generally a shorter journey and cheaper flight.

Delete the rivals west of the Mississippi River, and the Griffins and Monsters would have numerous openings and few excuses not to fill them with more Eastern exploration.

AHL diehards must concede that they will never see every Triple-A team as long as they live in one market. That does not mean those living in the Midwest and the regions that were once all of the AHL’s range cannot see everyone east of the Mississippi.

Four divisions of five teams apiece could make that easier. At worst, nonconference rivals could rotate to ensure at least one visit to and from everybody over a given two- or three-year span. (That in itself would more or less emulate MLB’s current nonconference rotation.)

For some teams, this makeup would save a little mileage and money. For others, it would save the fans a little matchup monotony.

It would all depend on whether the West grows healthy enough to thrive on its own. That, and whether Andrews and company would have the good sense to make it happen if and when the puck hits their tape.