Thu., May 10, 2012

The Orlando Solar Bears Thursday welcomed the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Minnesota Wild and the American Hockey League’s (AHL) Houston Aeros as affiliates for the Solar Bears as they begin their “Out of Hibernation” season in October 2012.

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WILD, AEROS ANNOUNCE ECHL AFFILIATION WITH ORLANDO

ORLANDO --- Orlando Solar Bears partners Jason Siegel, Joe Haleski and Bob Ohrablo today joined Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to welcome the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Minnesota Wild and the American Hockey League’s (AHL) Houston Aeros as affiliates for the Solar Bears as they begin their “Out of Hibernation” season in October 2012.

Minnesota Wild Assistant to the General Manager Jim Mill, who also serves as the General Manager of the Houston Aeros, was on hand for the announcement.

“Central Florida has welcomed the Orlando Solar Bears back with open arms and we couldn’t think of a better atmosphere for our players to develop their skills in,” Mill said. “We pledge to work with the Solar Bears ownership to provide a championship caliber team and are excited to welcome Joe, Jason, Bob, and the Solar Bears fans into the Wild family.”

Mill took over the hockey operations for Houston in 2009 and in 2010-11 the Aeros advanced to the AHL Calder Cup finals. The Aeros went 35-25-5-11 record in 2011-12 and were the only team of the 2011 final four to qualify for the playoffs this season.

Ohrablo, who serves as the Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner for the Solar Bears, pointed to several reasons that the Solar Bears selected the Wild.

“We want to win,” Ohrablo exclaimed. “We strongly believe that affiliating with the Wild organization will provide us with a solid core of players from which we can build a competitive and exciting team for our fans.”

Minnesota had four players with ECHL experience skate in a NHL game with the Wild this season. Houston recalled a total of 19 players from the ECHL in 2011-12. Those players combined accounted for over in 400 ECHL games in their careers.

“This is a major step in building a winning organization here in Orlando,” explained Ohrablo. “We will now focus on securing our general manager/ head coach and begin to sign players in consultation with our hockey partners in Minnesota and Houston.”

“Houston and Minnesota used to be competitors of the IHL Orlando Solar Bears. Now we have all joined together in an effort to bring championships to our fans in all three markets,” added Mill.

The Orlando Solar Bears begin play in the ECHL at the Amway Center in October, 2012.  Ticket plan information is available at: www.orlandosolarbearshockey.com.  Full and partial season tickets plans range in price from $225-$1480 per season seat. 

Orlando Solar Bears merchandise can be purchased online at: http://shop.orlandosolarbearshockey.com/