The 49ers are moving to Santa Clara, the A’s want to move to San Jose, and now San Francisco’s new minor league hockey team—the Bulls—is becoming . . . a farm club for the San Jose Sharks. See a pattern here?
The Bulls start play at the Cow Palace in October and they’re giddy about the agreement that affiliates them with the Sharks organization. As part of the deal, Stockton’s minor league club, the Thunder, becomes an affiliate of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers.
From Joe Eskenazi at SF Weekly:
The ECHL -- which used to stand for East Coast Hockey League and now simply stands for "ECHL" -- is two rungs below the National Hockey League. It is the equivalent of Double-A ball's position with regards to Major League Baseball. The Bulls' new American Hockey League affiliate -- one rung above the ECHL and one below the NHL -- will be the Worcester Sharks.
