Partly inspired by a story I’ve been inadvertently working on since July (see Saturday’s paper) and partly inspired this week by James Mirtle, I did some cutting and pasting and spreadsheeting with the AHL’s opening-day rosters this afternoon. It produced this here chart.
| Team | Players | Weight | W-rank | Height | H-rank | Age | A-rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABB | 27 | 197.04 | 22 | 72.89 | 22 | 24.26 | 16 |
| ADK | 26 | 200 | 12 | 73.65 | 2 | 24.16 | 20 |
| ALB | 23 | 196.7 | 26 | 72.87 | 23 | 24.46 | 10 |
| BIN | 25 | 200.12 | 11 | 73.36 | 8 | 23.22 | 28 |
| BPT | 25 | 203.08 | 5 | 73.12 | 16 | 23.56 | 25 |
| CHA | 24 | 199.46 | 15 | 72.75 | 25T | 24.31 | 13 |
| CHI | 31 | 197.39 | 21 | 73.29 | 11 | 25.03 | 4 |
| GR | 24 | 204.46 | 1 | 73.33 | 10 | 23.74 | 22 |
| HAM | 24 | 197.79 | 18 | 72.75 | 25T | 23.62 | 23 |
| HER | 31 | 199.81 | 13 | 72.9 | 21 | 25.60 | 2 |
| HFD | 24 | 203.21 | 4 | 73.79 | 1 | 24.66 | 7 |
| IOW | 25 | 200.28 | 10 | 73.4 | 7 | 25.17 | 3 |
| LE | 28 | 194.29 | 28 | 72.57 | 29 | 23.30 | 27 |
| MCR | 24 | 193.33 | 30 | 72.67 | 28 | 23.05 | 30 |
| MIL | 24 | 203 | 6 | 73.42 | 6 | 24.47 | 9 |
| NOR | 25 | 202.76 | 7 | 73.08 | 17 | 24.33 | 11 |
| OKC | 27 | 196.74 | 25 | 73.26 | 13 | 24.32 | 12 |
| POR | 23 | 196.87 | 24 | 72.74 | 27 | 23.51 | 26 |
| PRO | 24 | 193.54 | 29 | 72.46 | 30 | 23.15 | 29 |
| RCK | 25 | 197 | 23 | 73.28 | 12 | 24.29 | 15 |
| ROC | 25 | 194.44 | 27 | 73.16 | 14 | 24.30 | 14 |
| SA | 26 | 197.58 | 20 | 73.35 | 9 | 26.10 | 1 |
| SJ | 28 | 202.18 | 8 | 73.43 | 5 | 24.57 | 8 |
| SPR | 28 | 197.64 | 19 | 73 | 19 | 24.80 | 6 |
| SYR | 25 | 203.36 | 3 | 72.96 | 20 | 24.19 | 18 |
| TEX | 24 | 201.71 | 9 | 73.13 | 15 | 24.21 | 17 |
| TOR | 26 | 199.08 | 17 | 72.81 | 24 | 23.58 | 24 |
| UTI | 25 | 199.36 | 16 | 73.48 | 4 | 24.05 | 21 |
| WBS | 29 | 199.55 | 14 | 73.03 | 18 | 24.97 | 5 |
| WOR | 25 | 203.6 | 2 | 73.52 | 3 | 24.18 | 19 |
Weights in pounds, heights in inches, ages in years (days averaged, then divided by 365.25). Rosters downloaded from theahl.com around 11 a.m., some gaps filled in via official sources online elsewhere. That data used, except for Anders Lee’s birthdate (so, then, no promises for other data that I didn’t catch as incorrect). Heights didn’t translate well for some reason, so I had to retype each of them; apologies if I 72ed a 74 somewhere, as that could’ve switched a place.
I thought Bridgeport would rank younger. My working theory is “college”: It has five pure rookies who were born in 1989, and if you make a couple or three of them 20-year-olds, it moves closer to Manchester. With help from a few big guys, the team ranks among the biggest, on average, though middle of the height pack (though, again, a couple of inches’ typo could change some ordinals).
…..
An assist for Matt Donovan tonight in the Big Club’s season-opening win in the bonus round. Considering that last year’s first game was good enough to put Donovan on the bench, and that he picked things up in the second half in both of his pro seasons, gets him on the board, at least.
The first AHL game of the year was worth three points after the IceCaps came from 2-0 and 3-1 down to tie it before the Bruins won it in overtime. Blair Riley, though, was injured in a fight with Tyler Randell (they’d taken off their helmets, hence the extra minors). We saw him do something like that once here, take a shot, go off woozy, and practice within a day or two. Hopefully he’s OK. (And yes, the anthems were awesome. Please, game ops, play the Ode to Newfoundland when the Caps come in.)