Dupont Back in Fold

Kevin, the Rangers loaning Rissmiller to Grand Rapids, contractually, is the same as loaning him to the Wolf Pack, just an NHL team assigning a contracted player to a minor league club. Teams that have no single AHL affiliation do it all the time...find AHL teams that want their individual players and assign them to those teams. I think it was simply a situation that the Rangers felt that they had enough veterans in Hartford and wanted to open up some ice time at forward, and Grand Rapids was looking for a veteran up front, not that the Rangers didn't think Rissmiller could be a good player for the Wolf Pack. And I have to admit, I've never seen any European hockey games, but judging by the names you see on KHL rosters, and those of other European elite leagues, I would have to guess that the level of play in those leagues is slightly higher than in the AHL. I don't know about the depth of those European teams, though. They tend to have more stars than AHL teams do, but I don't know if they have the oomph up and down their lineups, and the key role players, that successful AHL squads do.

Hey Bob, great job with the blog I know it can sometimes be slow during the offseason but your keeping it very interesting. I have a couple of random questions though because my mind tends to wander during the offseason so I was hoping you could help. First, the recent aquisition of Jeremy Williams got me thinking about Patrick Rissmiller. So I was wondering if you could explain exactly how the whole "loan" process works? Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't he an all star last year? Why would we just give him away? I think he could have provided some much needed depth during that stretch of injuries and callups. My second question (which I know is completely hypothetical) is if last year's Hershey Bears (The Calder Cup champs) were to play the champions of the KHL, who do you think would win in a seven game series? The reason I ask is because I've heard people say that the AHl is the second best league in the world, but the KHL seems to be getting more and more NHL talent. So where do you rank the AHL in comparison to other foreign leagues like the KHL, Swedish Elite etc.?