Link to NHL’s Senators gives Thunder a new look

The 25th anniversary season allows the Wichita Thunder to reflect on the hockey franchise’s history and move forward with an identity established over two leagues and three decades.

An affiliation with the NHL’s Ottawa Senators enables the Thunder to forge a reinvention based in tradition but guided by the high stakes of helping players reach the highest level.

The affiliation is the Thunder’s first and is unfamiliar territory to longtime personnel such as general manager Joel Lomurno, who has worked for the team since 1993-94, when the team won its first of back-to-back Central Hockey League titles.

New coach Malcolm Cameron is most responsible for the one-year agreement with the Senators. It will affect the Thunder, now in its third ECHL season, in all facets of the organization and leaves the ECHL with one team lacking an affiliation.

Wichita begins the season next Saturday at home against Tulsa.

“We’re one of the oldest minor-league hockey franchises in the country,” said Lomurno, the GM since 2008. “We’ve had our identity here, and it’s been mostly as a CHL team. But we’re an ECHL team now.… Yes, we’re going to maintain our identity.

“Having the Ottawa presence just adds to the luster of coming to see a game.”

Former coach Kevin McClelland, whose contract wasn’t renewed for this season, had working agreements, but not official affiliations, with NHL teams such as Tampa Bay and Philadelphia. Rarely, though, was a Thunder player promoted from Wichita, a Double-A franchise, to the Triple-A American Hockey League.

With the Senators, a chance exists that a Thunder player could advance from Wichita to the NHL within the same season. It happened to two players last season with Evansville, Ottawa’s former ECHL affiliate.

Mostly, though, Cameron is focusing on adding players who have the potential to advance, even if it doesn’t happen immediately. He’s stocked the roster with younger players without much ECHL experience but with the talent to play beyond Double-A.

“Usually younger means guys who are in a little bit better shape, a little bit better athletically,” Cameron said. “We’ve got a number of guys who were on NHL and American League one-way contracts last year. I think the speed difference will be one thing. We’re going to be super-aggressive and really structured in what we do.”

The Ottawa connection gives the Thunder several ways to improve the roster. Sometime this week, the Senators will send up to 10 – though possibly fewer – players from Triple-A Binghamton or from NHL camp to Wichita.

Ottawa-contracted players count nominally toward the salary cap, so the Thunder can and does use the remaining money to recruit and sign more sought-after players. Even players who aren’t contracted can be signed and promoted, and the added scouting presence increases that likelihood.

“We’ve got a good agreement with Ottawa,” Lomurno said. “We’re working with them on the travel back and forth. There are different things that apply to player equipment. Some of the players that come from up above will come with equipment from there, as well. Players will be moving up and down throughout the season, as well.”

The affiliation is new but already comfortable. Cameron speaks frequently with Ottawa front-office staff and uses the relationship to talk up his players. That won’t always be necessary, though, because Ottawa will send staff to Wichita frequently.

“We have the markings of the Ottawa Senators on everything we put out,” Lomurno said. “On and off the ice, lots of things will be noticeable. But overall, it’s the fans. The fans are really excited about the affiliation. From a front-office standpoint, we’re really excited because it puts us on a level playing field with the rest of the league.”

This story was originally published October 8, 2016 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Link to NHL’s Senators gives Thunder a new look."