The Defunct: All American Hockey League

August 1, 2019

Minor professional hockey is quite an ever-changing landscape in North America. Many leagues and teams that once saw fans attend by the hundreds or even thousands have now faded into hockey history books. Some haven't been around in decades, while others are a fairly recent memory. On here, we talk about even just one of these leagues and/or teams. They are... The Defunct.

Today on The Defunct, we are going to be turning the clock to 2008. That's right, we aren't going too far back in the hockey history books. We will be talking about one of the last leagues in minor professional hockey to outright fold. Here on this day, we'll be taking a look back at the All American Hockey League.



All American Hockey League
Year Began: 2008
Year Folded: 2011
# of Teams: 5 (2008-2009); 7 (2009-2010); 6 (2010-2011)
Headquartered: Battle Creek, Michigan, United States
Former names: All American Hockey Association (AAHA; 2008-2009)Higher Affiliations: ECHL, CHL, IHL
Lower Affiliations: GMHL, NorPac, UJHL

2008-2009: Unstable Beginnings...
On September 25, 2008, two teams from the recently folded Mid-Atlantic Hockey League, the Battle Creek Revolution, and the Chi-Town Shooters, as well as two teams from the never launched Midwest Hockey League, the Evansville IceMen, and the Motor City Gamblers, joined together to form the All American Hockey Association. The AAHA, unlike Single-A pro hockey leagues today, had affiliations with multiple professional and junior teams in multiple different leagues.

On January 5, 2009, the Detroit Dragons, renamed from the Motor City Gamblers prior to the beginning of the season, folded citing poor ownership and bad finances. Due to this, the Chicago Blaze, who was originally going to be an expansion team in 2009-2010, entered the league early to fill the void left by the Dragons. The Blaze would take over the road schedule of the now-folded Dragons.

At the end of the inaugural season, the Chi-Town Shooters were in First Place with a record of 30-11-0. On April 5, 2009, Chi-Town would go on to beat the Battle Creek Revolution 3-2 in a best-of-five series and win the Champions Cup.

Even during this first season, the AAHA was having massive problems: Players being unpaid, try-out contracts given to unqualified players and actual contracts with the amount of only $1 being offered to players.

2009-2010: New Name, Same Issues
On April 14, 2009, the AAHA Board of Directors announced that the leagues' format had been changed from an Association to a League, resulting into the new league being renamed the All American Hockey League.

The newly renamed AAHL also added two teams to the league, the Detroit Hitmen and the Madison Ice Muskies. Detroit began to play in the market and arena that had a void left in it by the Dragons the previous season. The Ice Muskies joined as a merger with the still not launched Midwest Hockey League, which also brought along all MWHL personal as well.

On December 11, 2009, the Chicago Blaze folded citing a lack of owners. Less than a week later on December 17, 2009, the Detroit Hitmen relocated mid-season to Muskegon and became the West Michigan Blizzard. Finally, on January 16, 2010, the Madison Ice Muskies ceased operations citing neglect by team owners

The 2009-2010 AAHL season came to an end when the Evansville IceMen (3rd Place) defeated the West Michigan Blizzard (4th Place) four games to one in a best-of-seven series on April 15, 2010, for the Rod Davidson Cup, which was renamed from the Champions Cup and named after the league commissioner.

2010-2011: Expansion, Confusion, Total Collapse
Celebration for the new Cup champion Evansville IceMen came in the form of a disbanding of the team, but a move to the new International Hockey League, same branding and all. Back in February, the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the IHL made it official that the team would be relocating to Evansville, thus would end the IceMen of the AAHL.

August of 2010 would bring massive changes to the teams playing in the AAHL. The Queen City Storm, Lapeer Loggers, and Troy Bruins joined the AAHL as expansion teams, the Chi-Town Shooters left the league in hopes of joining a junior league, and the Madison Ice Muskies were reinstated for play. Unfortunately for the Ice Muskies, they would never play in Madison again and would move to Wooster, Ohio as the Wooster Korn Kings before the season began. In September, the West Michigan Blizzard relocated from Muskegon to Dyer, Indiana and renamed as the Indiana Blizzard.

During the season, the Wooster Korn Kings were taken over by the AAHL and ceased operations immediately on November 17, just a few weeks after they had moved to Wooster. Then on December 29, the Indiana Blizzard ceased operations and the Chi-Town Shooters returned to the league to play in the arena and use their dates and players.

A few days after the Blizzard left and the Shooters returned on January 4, the Lapeer Loggers were taken over by the league and a few days after that the Queen City Storm and Troy Bruins ceased operations. The AAHL then decided to combine the Loggers, Storm, and Bruins into a new team, the Michigan Moose. This new team would be coached by Rod Davidson himself and would play at Revolution Ice Arena in Battle Creek, which was also home to the Battle Creek Revolution.

Due to all of the franchise instability, the AAHL was left with three teams remaining, Battle Creek, Chi-Town, and the Michigan Moose. The league decided to end the season and go straight into the playoffs, where the Battle Creek Revolution and the Chi-Town Shooters would play the final games in AAHL history. The Battle Creek Revolution would win the final Rod Davidson Cup over the Shooters three games to two in their best-of-five series, with the final game being played on February 19 in Dyer, Indiana.

The All American Hockey League would announce that the league has suspended operations on June 16, 2011. Only two teams remained at that time, as the Michigan Moose ceased operations back in February. That was the official end of the AAHL after three seasons of professional hockey in the Great Lakes/Midwest region.

What happened here?
I think what this question should be asking is "What didn't happen here?", and I can tell you what didn't happen here and that was a good and stable league.
Let's list all the causes of the AAHL becoming defunct:

-Had a history of paying players too little or paying them nothing at all

-Only one team made it a full three seasons in the league and nearly all of leagues teams either folded or relocated, many of them while the season was still in progress

-Playing in small towns and cities in a start-up low-level minor professional hockey league during a time of national economic recession with low amounts of money being spent on entertainment

Overall this was a disaster of a league and a horrible decision to even begin the league at all during a time when people had a hard time just filling up their gas tanks.

Aftermath: Fates of the AAHL Markets
So what ended up happening to the teams and markets that once tried to make the AAHL a fruitful venture?

Let's start with the Evansville IceMen and the Evansville market, the IceMen would end up in the Central Hockey League from the IHL-CHL Merger and then to the ECHL after the CHL-ECHL merger. The IceMen franchise has since moved from Evansville to Jacksonville, Florida and still remain as the Jacksonville IceMen. Evansville still has pro hockey, though, as they are currently home to the Evansville Thunderbolts of the Southern Professional Hockey League.

Next, let's take a look at the Battle Creek Revolution and that market, unfortunately for the Revolution, they wouldn't see another game after the AAHL folded. However, Battle Creek had NA3HL junior hockey around with the West Michigan Wolves up until 2017. Good news has arrived though, as the Federal Prospects Hockey League recently announced that the Battle Creek Rumble Bees will be joining the league for 2019-2020, bringing pro hockey back to the Cereal City.

The markets that represented Chi-Town/Indiana, Madison, West Michigan, Wooster, Detroit, Chicago, and Queen City markets have all hosted junior hockey since the fall of the AAHL, with Madison and Muskegon (West Michigan) currently in the United States Hockey League, Fraser (Detroit) is currently in the NA3HL. Wooster and Chi-Town/Indiana both currently have teams in the USPHL. A reminder that these are for the specific communities and arenas, not the general areas in the case of Chicago and Detroit.

Unfortunately for the fans in Lapeer, Michigan, their ice arena, the Polar Palace Arena, shut down its doors for good back in April of 2019.

Epilogue
The All American Hockey League had issues from the very start of their first season, this along with the national economic climate and the size of the markets and just general lack of stability, caused the league to crumble in just three seasons. They are one of the most recent pro leagues to crumble and become defunct. As I say, minor pro hockey is an ever-changing landscape, but no one wants to lose their team and/or league they have supported. For most markets from the AAHL's shortcomings, the communities there still have hockey to support, luckily. I hope they continue to support them and I hope the list of defunct leagues doesn't grow for a very long time.

-Marc aka The Prospector

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