Some final news and notes for the 1998-1999 AHL season...

Brandon Smith by Meredith Martini

Ordinarily, the Calder Cup is presented to the winning team's captain by the AHL President. This year, it was Vice-President Gordon Anziano who gave the Cup to Brandon Smith, as Anziano is stepping down into retirement after over thirty-one years with the league. Also leaving the AHL front office is Marketing Director Mike Humes, who has been hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets...

The Beast of New Haven failed to secure an affiliation before the AHL's deadline. The franchise will be inactive for at least next season while they attempt to find another affiliate...

The 1999-2000 season now stands with 19 teams with 20 NHL teams having an official affiliation with at least one team. The divisions remain more or less the same as last season. The changes are the addition of Louisville to the Mid-Atlantic Division, the addition of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to the Empire Division (replacing Adirondack), the subtraction of New Haven and the addition of Portland to the New England Division, and the subtraction of Portland and Fredericton and addition of Quebec City to the Atlantic Division...

The NHL teams that didn't land an AHL team continue to negotiate with other teams to place a few players here and there. Hershey is negotiating with the Islanders and Detroit (the Red Wings and Avalanche speaking to each other?!) to pick up a few players, while Nashville, Ottawa, Tampa and Chicago are also expected to look for a home for a player or two...

One Vancouver assistant coach already took a head coaching spot in the AHL, as Glen Hanlon took over Portland. Now the other does the same as Stan Smyl takes over in Syracuse, replacing Jack McIlhargey who moves up to take Smyl's spot with Vancouver...

Vancouver and Syracuse also rectified an earlier mistake and signed Reggie Savage to a contract. Savage was a fan favorite of the Crunch and letting him leave was an unpopular move...

Finally...

As you know, this is the final issue of LCS. This completes nearly four years of work for LCS for me, which is a mighty long time for a hobby. I find it ironic that I end with the AHL largely where I started it - writing about Steven King. The very first AHL article to appear in LCS was a profile of Steven King and lo, we've just completed a Calder Cup series wherein King was vitally important to the winning team and earned plenty of ink.

Steven King stands as one of the better stories I was able to write about, but just about every AHL player I've talked to, whether as an interview or just gabbing, has been well worth my time. A big thank you to all of them.

I would list my favorites but then we'd be here all day and I would leave someone out, so we'll settle for mentioning the Portland Pirates, my default favorite team because they were my favorite NHL team's farm club, and the Hershey Bears since I saw considerably more of them than any other team and they never made me sorry for that.

Hersheypark Arena security did make me sorry I spent time there; no thanks to the sexist morons who refused to acknowledge my press pass.

Thanks to Kevin Fischer for the photos he let us use and mehopes one day a team will wise up and hire him.

Thanks to Meredith Martini for her photos too.

Thanks to the team PR guys who let me talk to their players, and no thanks whatsoever to the ones who didn't, especially the ones who refused to allow me or my camera inside the arena.

Thanks to Syracuse and Philadelphia for two fun All-Star Games.

Thanks to the NHL teams for calling up many of the players I've gotten to know and letting them show what they can do.

Thanks to the readers, especially the ones who wrote back.

And...thanks to LCS for letting me write this column.

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