There are going to be, unbelievably, 29 AHL teams this season, which means affiliate-sharing will be down to an all-time low, with only Buffalo and Florida double-teaming the Rochester Americans.

The AHL added three teams this season, all equally colourful in name: Lake Erie Monsters, Quad City Flames and the Rockford IceHogs.

There's been an awful lot of movement in the AHL the past few years, so it's a tad tricky to chart where these teams have come from. Rockford was a long-time UHL team, although it's my understanding that they're coming by way of the defunct Cincinnati Mighty Ducks (even though they'll now be the Blackhawks' affiliate club). The Flames were in Omaha the past two seasons, and the Monsters are a revival of the Utah Grizzlies, who folded in 2005.

A look at every AHL team and their NHL counterpart(s):

NHL Team(s)	AHL Affiliates	Lower Affiliates ('06-'07)
Anaheim	Portland Pirates	Augusta Lynx
Atlanta	Chicago Wolves	Gwinnett Gladiators
Boston	Providence Bruins	Johnstown Chiefs
Buffalo, Florida	Rochester Americans	Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs
Calgary	Quad City Flames	Las Vegas Wranglers
Carolina	Albany River Rats	Florida Everblades/Arizona Sundogs
Chicago	Rockford IceHogs	Pensacola Ice Pilots
Colorado	Lake Erie Monsters	Johnstown Chiefs/Arizona Sundogs
Columbus	Syracuse Crunch	Dayton Bombers/Youngstown SteelHounds
Dallas	Iowa Stars	Idaho Steelheads
Detroit	Grand Rapids Griffins	Muskegon Fury/Toledo Storm
Edmonton	Springfield Falcons	Stockton Thunder/Odessa Jackalopes
Los Angeles	Manchester Monarchs	Reading Royals
Minnesota	Houston Aeros	Texas Wildcatters/Austin Ice Bats
Montreal	Hamilton Bulldogs	Cincinnati Cyclones
Nashville	Milwaukee Admirals	Cincinnati Cyclones/New Mexico Scorpions
New Jersey	Lowell Devils	Trenton Devils
N.Y. Islanders	Bridgeport Sound Tigers	Utah Grizzlies
N.Y. Rangers	Hartford Wolf Pack	Charlotte Checkers/Mississippi RiverKings
Ottawa	Binghamton Senators	None
Philadelphia	Philadelphia Phantoms	Wheeling Nailers
Phoenix	San Antonio Rampage	Phoenix Roadrunners/Laredo Bucks
Pittsburgh	Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins	Wheeling Nailers
San Jose	Worcester Sharks	Fresno Falcons
St. Louis	Peoria Rivermen	Alaska Aces
Tampa Bay	Norfolk Admirals	Mississippi Sea Wolves
Toronto	Toronto Marlies	Columbia Inferno
Vancouver	Manitoba Moose	Victoria Salmon Kings
Washington	Hershey Bears	South Carolina Stingrays

I'm fairly certain I've said this before, but, as I'm sure Oilers fans can attest after last season, having an affiliate matters. You want to be able to control your farm system and have call-ups close whenever you need them, and it helps to have an AHL coach and GM who are onside with trying to develop prospects for the future. Minor-league coaching staff members are also often promoted to the big club, and there are some excellent hockey minds in the AHL (Randy Carlyle, for one, was coaching the Moose just two years ago.)

For some teams last season, the boost they got from their call-ups made a big difference in the standings, and I don't think that can be said for the teams without AHL affiliates of their own. A few NHL teams have even put their farm systems within the same city as the big team (Philadelphia and Toronto) in order to (a) save money and (b) facilitate quick call-ups.

Just a thought as we see the majority of camp hopefuls being reassigned to some of these new teams. If you want a really in-depth picture of teams' prospect systems and development, pay attention to the AHL.