The AHL is getting a new team for 2007-08, and it's going to be based in a familiar place: Cleveland, Ohio.

One year after the Barons bit the big one, the Lake Erie Monsters are coming to town as the Colorado Avalanche's affiliate, and today they named the club's inaugural coaching staff:

The Colorado Avalanche Hockey Club announced today the appointment of Joe Sacco and Sylvain Lefebvre to the respective head coach and assistant coach positions with the Lake Erie Monsters of the American Hockey League. The club will drop the puck on its inaugural campaign in Cleveland, Ohio next fall.

Colorado's been without its own affiliate for quite some time now, an arrangement which I think is in general going to go the way of the dodo. Teams really do need their own minor-league club to stash prospects and reserves, and the money-saving measure of not having an AHL team isn't going to fly in the future.

So, with that said, meet the Monsters.