Division Alignment in the AHL has changed for the 2016-17 season:

A slight change in what colour jersey the home team will wear. Before the Christmas break the home team will wear the light (white) jersey. After Christmas the dark jersey will be worn at home.

*

A big change in fighting is coming to the AHL. Players who fight prior to or immediately following the puck drop will be assessed a game misconduct in addition to other penalties.

During the regular season a player who gets in his 10th fight will be suspended automatically for one game, then each fight after that he will be suspended another game. If that player gets to 14 fights in total, he will be suspended for two games and then every fight after that will get a two game suspension.

If their opponent was assessed an instigator penalty, the fighting major will not count towards the player's fight total for this rule.

*

A new timeout rule; after a team ices the puck, they will not be permitted to make player substitutions (which hasn't changed from the previous season) and the team may not use its time-out either.

To see the details of these rules and a few others, click here.

*

As for that fighting rule, looking at the fighting major leaders from last year, the list below are the fighting major totals found at http://www.hockeyfights.com of the players who have 10 or more fighting majors. These aren't including the opponent instigator rule, but only 22 players would have been suspended at least one game for total number of fights.

This will likely bring down PIMs in total. If this rule moves up to the NHL, this could be a problem for those guys with high fighting totals. Not a big deal, the list below is who had 10+ fighting majors in the NHL. Nobody had more than 14, where they would start receiving 2 game suspensions per fight.

The icing rule is going to bring more offense to the game, leaving tired guys out on the ice after an icing and not having the chance to call time-outs is going to really hinder coaches from stalling, the players will learn to gain a break, from a broken stick, visor repair, injury, there are many ways to getting a break after an icing. Hopefully the referees stay on top of things and keep the faceoff rather quick.

***

Development camps are mostly underway, a few teams have yet to begin. Stay tuned to our Feature Story chart to look at the 30 in 30's, our writers breakdown their teams drafts as well as development camp information. HERE is a link to that chart to see the latest teams covered. Our calendar isn't locked in, but we will try to keep up with one team a day. July calendar is below.

***

Feel free to leave comments, questions or concerns below, have fun playing the game of Fantasy Hockey.

Paul Zwambag
@zwambag