What does it mean for an NHL team to have an ECHL affiliate?

The New York Islanders have just signed an affiliate in the ECHL (the Utah Grizzlies). What does this mean? Does it mean that every player on the Grizzlies belongs to the Islanders organization. how does it all work? What are the positives about this? I dont understand how the AHL works as well as the ECHL.

The ECHL and AHL are farm teams, feeder leagues to the NHL. This is a similar arrangement to what MLB has with their A-AAA farm clubs. The roster spots are filled with players in the parent club's organization and the players are coached and trained to hopefully have a chance at a position with the big club.

Not all teams have exclusive arrangements with minor league affiliates (some teams share affiliates with other NHL teams), but there are advantages to doing so. Most importantly, exclusive affiliations provide the parent club with the opportunity to institute a similar system of play and control personnel movement and ice time.

To properly evaluate a prospects skillsets and maturity level, you need to be able to see the player play in different situations. Without an exclusive affiliation, you are sharing roster spots and ice time with other NHL squads that have their own prospects to worry about.

Furthermore, if the parent club gets hit with an injury bug, the callups would be far more effective if they understood the system they were being thrown into. Exclusive farm team arrangements come with coaches and directions of the big club's choosing, thereby enabling a smooth transition for the player being called up, as well as his new teammates.

I think it varies from relationship to relationship. I know that our Houston Aeros of the AHL have a contract w/ the Minnesota Wild, to the point now that they have adopted the Wild's color scheme and actually have a small wild logo on one of their shoulder epaulets. Periodically the Wild will send players back and forth, in fact Manny Fernandez came up through the Aeros organization.

its similar to major league baseball's minor league system. teams sign affiliates so that they can work their younger players into games without having to throw them directly into the nhl. the echl and ahl have been around for years and many great players come out thru these farm systems. as a devils fan i know that scotty gomez was a former lowell devil for many years before coming up to the new jersey devils where he shind