Community embraces Growlers
There were some hard feelings in Newfoundland back in 2005 when the Maple Leafs uprooted their top farm team, the St. John’s Maple Leafs, and brought them to Toronto, rebranding them the Marlies.
The Leafs had been such a good fit. And the AHL team had been a success.
“Did it leave a hole? Absolutely,” says Glenn Stanford, then president the St. John’s Maple Leafs. “Was it hurtful at the time? Perhaps. But it was absolutely the right move because now everybody else is doing the same thing.”
The Leafs, it turns out, were ahead of the curve in terms of bringing their top feeder team closer to home. Montreal moved its top team to Laval. Ottawa moved its to Belleville. A whole West Coast division opened up for the NHL’s California-based teams.
St. John’s was caught in the crossfire of a changing business climate. Bringing the AHL Leafs home meant reduced costs. It meant being able to sell a big-city feel to quality minorleaguers who could help the young prospects develop. The Marlies have become a perennial powerhouse and finally won the Calder Cup this year.
Now, the Leafs are back in St. John’s, this time with an ECHL team, the Newfoundland Growlers, after a deal with the Orlando Solar Bears ended after five years.
And they’ve been welcomed back with open arms.
“The people here, they understand hockey, they know their hockey and they appreciate hockey,” says Stanford, now the governor and chief operating officer of the Growlers. “Having this relationship back is a blessing for us.
“They’re an Original Six team, the history they’ve had in our city for 15 years, it made for the perfect marriage, to be honest.”
The migration of AHL teams closer to their NHL-parent cities has left some traditional mi- nor-league markets looking around.
After the Leafs left Newfoundland — a province with a strong tradition in senior hockey — the QMJHL granted an expansion franchise (the St. John’s Fog Devils), which eventually relocated to Montreal. Then along came the St. John’s IceCaps, the top team of the Winnipeg Jets. They recently returned to Winnipeg, resuming life as the Manitoba Moose. The Canadiens temporarily moved the Hamilton Bulldogs to St. John’s — retaining the IceCaps name — before moving them again to Laval where they are now the Rocket.
After a year empty, St. John’s found the ECHL — the league below the AHL — to fill the Mile One Centre. Stanford said a working relationship with the Maple Leafs is “critical” to the success of the fledgling team.
“We’ve had a long-standing relationship from our St. John’s Maple Leafs days,” Stanford says. “If you’re going down the ECHL road and had to pick the No. 1 team you want to be affiliated with, certainly Toronto is on the top of that list.”
The Leafs will be responsible for the coaching, medical and equipment staffs, and about half the roster. They recently announced the hiring of Newfoundland native and exNHLer Ryane Clowe as the Growlers’ first coach.
About 10 players under contract to the Leafs or Marlies will play in St. John’s. GM Kyle Dubas has said many times that he views the ECHL as developmental league — as Double A is to baseball — not the goon league of its history.
The Growlers have the face of a Newfoundland dog — one that was the mascot of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during the First World War — as their logo. A growler is also a small iceberg, as well as a jug of beer.
They will compete in the North Division of the Eastern Conference of the 27-team league in their inaugural season.
They’ll also pay a travel subsidy to the visiting team, which tend to play two-game series in Newfoundland.
Affiliation with Leafs is ‘perfect marriage’ for new ECHL franchise