Former SLU player to run Thousand Islands professional hockey team

Disclaimer: This story has zero to do with the St. Lawrence men's hockey team, for the moment.

There is a new low-level men's professional hockey league preparing for its inaugural season in 2010. Its name: the Federal Hockey League.

League commissioner Don Kirnan compared it to baseball's New York Penn League, which is short-season Class A. The FHL will have no official affiliation with a professional franchise, although Kirnan's connections to NHL scouts and talent agents is deep.

"If we find a player with a light that has gone on and is playing at a good level, it doesn't take long," he said. "It's a league for college players that have graduated from college and they're looking to get into the pro levels."

There are four teams currently in the league — Rome/Syracuse, Danbury, Thousand Islands, Ottawa. They will anchor the "A" Level, according the league's press release. More information can be found here.

Kirnan said he expects the league to develop into 6-10 team very soon. He is also commissioner of the Empire Junior Hockey League, which started out with four teams and now has 20.

His daughter, Nicole Kirnan Hall, owns the Thousand Islands team, which has yet to announce its nickname. She played for St. Lawrence University and coached at the amateur and collegiate levels. She has a master's degree in Sports Management from Manhattanville College.

I will be speaking more with her tonight, hopefully, and a story will appear in tomorrow's Watertown Daily Times.

I suspect this could be a likely stop for some St. Lawrence players at some point, although we'll have to see at what level the league actually competes.