Bruce Landon remembers the "old" AHL very well. He should, because he played in goal with the Springfield Kings back in the early 1970s.

He remembers the wonderful, noisy old barns with their chicken-wire fencing and bench doors that opened outward onto the ice. He remembers the veteran players who spent eight, 10 and 12 years in the same city. He remembers when an AHL team's marketing department consisted of the man who took the "Hockey Tonight" sign out of the closet and placed it outside the arena every weekend.

	“	The league has to keep the development rule. Otherwise, it'll become survival of the fittest and drive salaries back up. Really, it's almost mandatory. It's the only thing that keeps the field level where you have some larger-market teams, some NHL teams, and some teams like us that depend purely on their affiliates. ”
		— Bruce Landon, Springfield owner

Today, Landon and former Kings teammate Wayne LaChance own the Springfield Falcons. In less than a week, their franchise opens play in the brave new world that is the American Hockey League of 2001-2002. The expanded AHL, having added six teams from the defunct International Hockey League, is the emperor of the minors. Being the NHL's top developmental league is no longer a slogan, it's a fact.

This is good, almost everyone agrees, but there will be things to keep a close eye on during this first season.

For fans, the most important thing to watch is hockey. From that vantage point, Landon does not expect much at all to be different.

"From what I've seen so far," he said, "I don't think they'll notice much of a difference other than spotting a couple of players that might have been in the IHL, and seeing a couple of new teams. It is still a high-intensity, up-tempo, prone-to-mistakes younger league."

Some teams will be younger than others, though, and Landon thinks the key to making the new AHL work is holding fast to the rule that restricts the number of older players any one team can have in uniform. The rule has remained the same even though some large-market teams have suggested it be modified. As it stands now, the maximum number of veteran players an AHL team can dress for a game is six, plus one "exempt" player. A veteran is any player with more than 260 games of experience combined in the AHL, IHL, NHL or European Elite Leagues at the start of a season. If a player passes that plateau during the season, he is not counted as a veteran until the next season. Exempt players are those who have played in more than 500 AHL games. Even if a team has more than one such player, it can only have one exemption.

"The league has to keep the development rule, otherwise it'll become survival of the fittest and drive salaries back up," Landon said. "Really, it's almost mandatory. It's the only thing that keeps the field level where you have some larger-market teams, some NHL teams, and some teams like us that depend purely on their affiliates.

"In Springfield, we hope our young players are better than other teams' young players. A Houston, a Grand Rapids, they can only sign six free agents. They may sign the six best free agents available, but that's still only one-third of their roster."

The absorption of the IHL gives the American Hockey League teams in seven cities that also have franchises in at least one major sports league. Chicago, Houston, Milwaukee and Salt Lake City are major-league markets from the IHL. Cincinnati and Philadelphia already were in the AHL, and Cleveland became another when the Kentucky Thoroughblades relocated there during the offseason.

Compare that with the AHL of just 10 years ago when there was only one major-league market represented, Baltimore. In that AHL, Springfield was the fourth-largest city in a 14-team league. In today's AHL, Springfield is the 17th-largest city among 27.

Ten years is forever in minor league hockey, at least these days. The AHL has new cities, new faces, new teams and new challenges. Which, actually, sounds a lot like the old days, too.

Minor musings
The tradition continues in Albany, where the River Rats have only employed men from Massachusetts as their coaches through the years. It was Robbie Ftorek (Needham) for the first three years, then John Cunniff (South Boston) for five and now Bobby Carpenter (Peabody) takes over this season. ... The St. John's Maple Leafs may be the league's surprise team this season. The Leafs have not had a record over .500 over the past four seasons, but with brand-new Mile One Stadium opening up, and with the All-Star Classic being played there this season, it looks like Toronto is intent on putting a contending team on The Rock. ... St. Louis finally completed its purchase of the Worcester IceCats. The deal was completed after it appeared as though the Blues could get a better deal on the lease than Roy Boe's group had. Worcester is the defending regular-season points champ, but coach Don Granato knows it will be hard to duplicate the feat this season. "We know we'll have to be better. We just don't know how much better we'll have to be," he said. ... At least three of last season's award winners will not return to the AHL this season. League MVP Derek Armstrong did not re-sign with Hartford and went to Switzerland to play for Bern. Kent Hulst, the Fred Hunt Memorial Award winner for dedication to hockey, retired rather than risk further damage to his injured back. And the league's goalie of the year, Dwayne Roloson, signed as a free agent with Minnesota and is currently the team's No. 2 netminder. ... The new Manchester Monarchs are affiliated with Los Angeles Kings, but will have a Boston Bruins feel on the radio. Their color analysts are former player Rick Middleton and ex-coach Pat Burns.

AHL realignment, NHL affiliations
EASTERN CONFERENCE		WESTERN CONFERENCE
East Division		West Division
Albany	New Jersey	Chicago	Atlanta
Bridgeport	N.Y. Islanders	Grand Rapids	Ottawa
Harftord	N.Y. Rangers	Houston	Minnesota
Providence	Boston Bruins	Milwaukee	Nashville
Springfield	Phoenix	Utah	Dallas
North Division		Central Division
Lowell	Carolina	Cincinnati	Anaheim/Detroit
Manchester	Los Angeles	Cleveland	San Jose
Portland	Washington	Rochester	Buffalo
Worcester	St. Louis	Syracuse	Columbus
Canadian Division		South Division
Hamilton	Edmonton	Hersey	Colorado
Manitoba	Vancouver	Norfolk	Chicago
Quebec	Montreal	Philadelphia	Philadelphia
St. John	Calgary	Wilkes-Barre	Pittsburgh
St. John's	Toronto

Bill Ballou of the Worcester Telegram-Gazette is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.