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Chevy hockey deal to be set
The deal would ‘salvage hockey’ at the Chevrolet Centre.
YOUNGS-TOWN — The city is finalizing a deal to have the Mahoning Valley Phantoms junior hockey team play about 20 of its home games this upcoming season at the Chevrolet Centre.
An announcement is expected in the next few days, said Mayor Jay Williams and Bruce Zoldan, owner of the Phantoms.
“I’m working with the mayor and Eric Ryan [the center’s executive director] to salvage hockey at the Chevrolet Centre this season,” Zoldan said.
The city-owned facility was going to be without a hockey team this season.
For the past three years, the Youngstown SteelHounds of the Central Hockey League played its home games at the center. But the league kicked the team out June 2 over a financial dispute.
Herb Washington, owner of Blue Line Hockey LLC, the SteelHounds’ parent company, met with Williams twice last month to discuss the future of hockey at the center.
Washington wouldn’t have any involvement in the operations of the Phantoms, a team in the junior “A” North American Hockey League with players ranging in age from 16 to 20.
The team plays its home games at the Ice Zone, which Zoldan owns, in Boardman.
But this decision doesn’t mean Washington’s days of owning a hockey team that plays at the Chevrolet Centre are over.
Officials with the city will meet with Washington and Zoldan and their representatives to evaluate the options for a hockey team at the center for the 2009-10 season, Williams said.
“Herb and I are researching a higher-level league [for 2009-10], but we haven’t come to a decision,” Zoldan said.
That decision would be made no later than Feb. 1, 2009, Zoldan said.
“Hopefully, Herb and I can bring a team that the community will be proud of,” he said.
The goal, Williams said, is to field a team for that season to play in the ECHL.
Formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League, each of its teams has a National Hockey League affiliation.
If an ECHL team doesn’t materialize, a team from a league similar to the ECHL would play at the center next season, the mayor said. If those two scenarios don’t work out, there would be a Youngstown team playing in the United States Hockey League, the highest level of junior hockey, Williams said.
The SteelHounds played 32 regular-season games during each of its three seasons at the center.
The Phantoms would play at least 20 of its 28 home games at the center and as many as 24, Zoldan said. Also, teams from the NAHL would participate in a hockey “showcase” of games during the Thanksgiving weekend at the center, he said.
Williams gave a wider range saying the Phantoms would play 16 to 26 regular-season games at the center.
“Phantom hockey is better than no hockey at all,” Williams said.
The Phantoms will have some top NHL prospects on its roster this season, Zoldan said. The team opens its season Oct. 24.
“People are going to be very, very surprised to see the speed and skill and the fights,” Zoldan said of the Phantoms. “They’re going to be very shocked by what they see. Those who give it a chance will be pleasantly surprised.”
skolnick@vindy.com