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Komets

  • K’s send message with early signings
    General manager David Franke said the Komets “are trying to set a tone” with their first two player signings for next season, forward Matt Firman and defenseman Mathieu Gagnon.
  • K’s keep exclusive rights on 9 players
    The Komets have submitted their season-ending roster to the ECHL – the list was made public by the league Monday – and from it we can discern players that the Komets are likely parting ways with this offseason.
  • Winning with hard work
    Ken Hitchcock didn’t play hockey at a high level, and he’s won a Stanley Cup.
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Komets affiliated with NHL’s Ducks

AHL’s Admirals also part of agreement, team’s 1st since ’99

The Komets have ties with the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks’ coach, Bruce Boudreau, was formerly a coach and player with Fort Wayne. And Fort Wayne’s coach, Al Sims, is a former Anaheim assistant coach.

So it makes sense that the Komets’ most significant affiliation with a higher-level club since the 1990s would come with Anaheim.

“I think it’s great for our hockey team to have the affiliation and for them to have enough confidence in us to develop their prospects and turn them into good pros,” said Sims, whose team finalized an affiliation with the Ducks and the American Hockey League’s Norfolk Admirals on Wednesday. “I am looking forward to the relationship, and it should be lots of fun working with some of my old acquaintances within the Ducks’ organization.”

The Komets often had NHL affiliations in the original IHL, a AAA-level tier they left in 1999. In that final season, they had an affiliation with the NHL’s Florida Panthers, but they haven’t worked much with higher-level clubs since.

The Komets had informal working agreements with Kalamazoo of the higher-level IHL in 1999-2000 and with Norfolk in 2008-09. The Komets had an affiliation with the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets in 2010-11, but it didn’t bear much fruit for Fort Wayne.

Fort Wayne will place four players in Norfolk’s training camp, which begins Sept. 27, a day before the Komets open their camp. Those spots will go to Brandon Marino, Chris Auger, Jean-Michel Rizk and, if he re-signs, Frankie DeAngelis. Daniel Maggio is going to camp with Chicago of the AHL.

“I think this is good for us,” general manager David Franke said. “It’s kind of the way, as I found this summer, that probably 90 percent of the teams in the ECHL go, being affiliated. It’s a good thing for us, and it’s a great thing for our players because now we’ve got a direct pipeline to the American League. We will get some players, though I don’t know them right now.”

Also on Wednesday, the Komets added five players to their preseason roster – defensemen Chris Haltigin and Tim Buttery, and forwards Brayden Metz, Michael Hoban and Cory Park – giving them 21 players so far.

Notes: Single-game tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Sept. 12 at Memorial Coliseum’s ticket office and at www.ticketmaster.com. Adult prices range from $12 in the upper deck to $25 in the lower arena. For seniors and students, they are $10 to $20. And for kids, they are $7 to $15.

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