Here is the schedule for the inaugural season of the Ontario Reign in 2015-16. West coast AHL hockey is here!
Some key things to note:
- Between Dec. 12, 2015 and Feb. 20, 2016, the Reign will not be leaving the state of California.
- They only have two sets of 3-in-3, the first one from Oct. 30 – Nov. 1 and their last one from Jan. 15-17.
- January is going to be a tough month for the Reign, where they play 14 games in 30 days, though the farthest they’ll have to travel is to San Jose. This also includes two 5-game homestands.
- The team will start and end their season on the road – opening against Edmonton’s affiliate and finishing with a two-game stand against Anaheim’s affiliate.
Ontario, like the other California teams, has a 68-game regular season schedule due to their increased travel burden. (The rest of the AHL plays 76 games.)/
As a reminder, the following teams are in the Reign’s division this year:
Bakersfield Condors (Edmonton Oilers)
San Antonio Rampage (Colorado Avalanche)
San Diego Gulls (Anaheim Ducks)
San Jose Barracuda (San Jose Sharks)
Stockton Heat (Calgary Flames)
Texas Stars (Dallas Stars)
Other teams that they’ll be seeing this year include the Manitoba Moose (Winnipeg Jets) and the Charlotte Checkers (Carolina Hurricanes).
Most of the guys on the Reign are familiar playing against guys in Anaheim’s, Calgary’s, San Jose’s, and Winnipeg’s organizations as the latter two were division opponents of the Manchester Monarchs. However, the Monarchs never (or at least not recently) played against Dallas’s, Carolina’s, Colorado’s (formerly Lake Erie Monsters — now Columbus’s affiliate) or Edmonton’s (formerly Oklahoma City Barons) AHL teams.
It will be fun to see if the AHL-Reign and Moose will continue their rivalry, despite only four games against each other (two in Winnipeg and two in Ontario) this season.
Speaking of rivals, there was always bad blood between the Norfolk Admirals (Anaheim) and Monarchs, even though they weren’t divisional opponents. This will be a great storyline to keep an eye on for the upcoming season, especially as the Ducks have recently promoted and traded some of their young players.
Also, welcome back to the Pacific, Colorado and Dallas. No one missed you.
There will be many prospects in LA’s system to watch, including Adrian Kempe, Kevin Gravel and Derek Forbort. For more information on those players, check out our Top 25 Under 25.
We’ll have more on the Reign as their season draws closer. Stay tuned.