There’s going to be a lot more to talk about next week once this sale is 100% approved and finalized and signed, until then all we have are these little things that point to it being a done deal for those who still don’t believe.  The American Hockey League invited teams to Springfield, MA for their marketing meetings and one team is missing, the Rochester Americans.

Why is that?  There’s no reason any of the current Amerks staff would attend when they have no idea what they’ll be able to do once this sale is final or if they’ll even have jobs.  The Buffalo Sabres wouldn’t send anyone because they currently don’t have any control over an AHL team.  If there was any doubt this wasn’t going to happen or that it was going to be an affiliation and not a sale to the Sabres (or an affiliation with another NHL team) someone from the Amerks staff would be present.

If you follow @letsgoamerks on Twitter you likely caught the mention of June 28th being the possible date for an announcement.  Why that date?  It’s during The AHL’s board of governor meetings in Hilton Head.  As Kevin Oklobzija mentioned, current Amerks Owner Curt Styres and team President Lewis Staats have rooms booked.

Other than the sale, hopefully we’ll get some details about division/conference alignments that will include Rochester returning to the Eastern Conference.

So, who has the travel itinerary for Terry Pegula and or Ted Black following the NHL draft?

One question still unanswered is what happens to the current affiliation agreement between the Buffalo Sabres and Portland Pirates?  We have to imagine there’ll be a buyout of some sorts.  It’s also appearing as though the Florida Panthers will be the new NHL affiliate of the Pirates.

Stay tuned.. we have some posts ready to go about the future once everything is completed.