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American Hockey League Ice Hockey Wiki WikiaSports Create a new wikiLog in Create an account Ice Hockey Wiki Edit this page History Share this article Article Discussion American Hockey Leagueedit this pageAn Ice Hockey Wiki article(Redirected from AHL)The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional hockey league in North America that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League (NHL) All 30 NHL teams have either exclusive or joint affiliation agreements with one or more of the AHLs 29 active clubs The League offices are located in Springfield Massachusetts The AHLs current president is David Andrews Until the early 1990s the headquarters were located in West Springfield Massachusetts along with charter member franchise the Springfield Indians The annual playoff champion is awarded the Calder Cup named for Frank Calder the first President (19171943) of the National Hockey League Contents show1 Predecessor leagues (19261936) 11 A circuit of mutual convenience (193638) 12 Formal consolidation of the IAHL (June 28 1938) 2 Member Teams 21 Eastern Conference 22 Western Conference 3 Calder Cup Champions 4 Former Member Teams 5 External links edit Predecessor leagues (19261936)The AHL traces its origins directly to two predecessor professional leagues the CanadianAmerican Hockey League (aka CanAm League) founded in 1926 and the first International Hockey League established in 1929 Although the CanAm League never operated with more than six teams for the first time in its history it dropped after the 193536 season to just four member cities Springfield Philadelphia Providence and New Haven At the same time the then rival International Hockey League lost half of its eight members after the 193536 season leaving it as well with just four clubs located in Buffalo Syracuse Pittsburgh and Cleveland edit A circuit of mutual convenience (193638)With both leagues down to the barest minimum in membership needed to operate the governors of each recognized the necessity to take proactive steps to assure the longterm survival of their member clubs To that end they all decided the logical solution to their common problem was for the two leagues to play an interlocking schedule with each other Styled as the InternationalAmerican Hockey League the two older leagues eight surviving clubs thus began joint play in November 1936 as a new two division circuit of mutual convenience with the four CanAm teams constituting the IAHL East Division and the IHLs quartet playing as the West Division In addition the IHL also contributed its former championship silver the F G Teddy Oke Trophy which would go to the regular season winners of the West Division in the new IAHL until 1952 (The Oke Trophy is now awarded to the regular season winners of the AHLs current seventeam East Division) A little more than a month into...