PENGUINS

The Hoffmanns overwhelmingly impressed at their introductory press conference on Thursday. From Mario Lemieux's involvement, plans for Hill District development, arena upgrades, investing in whatever it takes to build a winning team, they said all the right things.

The one moment that was cause for a little pause came just at the end.

Earlier in the press conference, the Hoffmanns were asked if they plan to retain their ECHL team, the Florida Everblades, and Penguins governor Geoff Hoffmann confirmed that they have no plans to sell Florida.

"We're going to keep it," he said. "We're going through all those discussions right now, and we'll have some more clarity on what happens at the East Coast level, I think, in the next couple of weeks."

When he's talking about "what happens," he's talking about who will be affiliated with the Penguins. The Everblades are currently without an NHL affiliate after the Blues switched affiliations this summer, and the Penguins' deal with the Nailers is up this summer.

So, at the very end, I circled back around and asked a follow-up: Do you want the Everblades to be the Penguins' affiliate? David Hoffmann, the Penguins' alternate governor and Geoff's father, answered himself.

"100%," he said. "I think they would run me out of Naples (Florida) if they're not," he said. "We already have people wearing Penguins jerseys at our camps, so I think there's a high expectation level that's going to happen. We want to."

With all due respect to the people of south Florida, I don't think it matters too much to the Penguins what they want down there. But if the Hoffmanns want to do what's best for the Pittsburgh Penguins, they would retain Wheeling as an affiliate for a 30th consecutive year, the longest such streak between any NHL and ECHL team.

A couple of thoughts on why:

• There's no doubting that the Everblades are a well-run organization. They draw well, and they've won four of the last five championships. One would think that would say a lot about the prospects they're developing down there, but does it? The Everblades were the oldest team in the league last season with an average age of 27.9. For comparisons sake, the Nailers were the youngest team in the league at 24.8. Titles are nice, but it'd be preferable to develop future NHL players -- which the Nailers have done more than any other team in the league -- than it would be to have players pushing 30 dominating a developmental league.

• The Penguins are extraordinarily lucky to have all of their affiliates within driving distance of each other, something that isn't commonplace across the NHL. That makes it incredibly easy to move players up and down. With the ECHL team, obviously much of the movement is between there and the AHL team, which is doable the day of a game if needed between Wilkes-Barre and Wheeling.

• To add to the point about player movement, Wilkes-Barre doesn't have a major airport. It has limited routes, and so flying players back and forth from south Florida to its small airport would be more of a problem (and pretty costly, too).

• The Penguins' front office likes having Wheeling down the road from Pittsburgh for a lot of reasons. It's easy for the development staff and other hockey operations staff -- including Dubas himself -- to make trips down there to keep an eye on prospects at that level, which is important given how passionate Dubas and Jason Spezza are about using the ECHL as a legitimate development spot.

• Having Wheeling this close to Pittsburgh comes in handy for the rare occasion that a player is needed too close to game time to get someone in from Wilkes-Barre, too, as was the case this season with Taylor Gauthier.

• The idea of having full autonomy over all affiliates in the system is nice, but the Penguins' agreement with the Nailers is one that allows the Penguins to be in charge of putting coaches behind the bench in Wheeling themselves. Head coach Ryan Papaioannou, assistant coach Evan McFeeters, goaltending coach Karel Popper are Penguins employees. The Penguins don't own Wheeling, but they operate the hockey side of things.

The Penguins have had stability in the affiliation for the last 29 years, dating back to February 1998. It's one that should keep going.

Nothing's been finalized yet. The Nailers haven't received any kind of word from the Penguins indicating that they're moving on. It's not out of the question that the Penguins could re-up with the Nailers, and the Everblades could find a different affiliate. That's not breaking any rules, that's not a conflict of interest, that's not unlike some similar ECHL ownership setups around the league.

The Hoffmanns seem to be good for the Penguins. And in the grand scheme of things, the ECHL affiliate is very small compared to things that more directly benefit the parent club. But if the Hoffmanns do switch the Penguins' affiliate to their own, it'd sure seem like they're prioritizing their other interests over what works best and is logical for the Penguins.