Good morning, hockey fans! Today begins the 84th season of the American Hockey League, the first minor pro hockey league in North America to fire things up and get their year started (in close conjunction with the NHL, of course).
With that said, our re-loaded AHL staff is ready to cover Colorado, Cleveland, Iowa, Toronto, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and Utica for the 2019-20 regular season! But first, our American League correspondents went ahead and gave us their best educated guesses regarding individual awards, playoff-bound teams, the Calder Cup Final, and eventual league champion for this coming year.
Here’s The Sin Bin’s 2019-20 “Way Too Early” AHL Individual Awards and Playoff-Bound Staff Picks!

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

	Most Valuable Player	Defenseman of the Year	Goaltender of the Year	Rookie of the Year	Coach of the Year
Brent Baldwin	Andrew Agozzino (WBS)	Philippe Myers (Lehigh Valley)	Alex Nedeljkovic (Charlotte)	Morgan Frost (Lehigh Valley)	Sheldon Keefe (Toronto)
C.C. Hawkley	Alex Barre-Boulet (Syracuse)	Calle Rosen (Colorado)	Shane Starrett (Bakersfield)	Ryan Poehling (Laval)	Mike Vellucci (WBS)
Zack Power	Alex Barre-Boulet (Syracuse)	Zach Redmond (Rochester)	Anton Forsberg (Charlotte)	Vitali Kravtsov (Hartford)	Chris Taylor (Rochester)

ATLANTIC DIVISION PLAYOFF TEAMS

Brent Baldwin	C.C. Hawkley	Cody Severtson	Zack Power
Charlotte	Charlotte	Charlotte	Bridgeport
Hershey	Hershey	Hershey	Charlotte
Lehigh Valley	Providence	Providence	Hershey
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton	Wilkes-Barre/Scranton	Lehigh Valley	Providence

NORTH DIVISION PLAYOFF TEAMS

Brent Baldwin	C.C. Hawkley	Cody Severtson	Zack Power
Cleveland	Cleveland	Belleville	Laval
Syracuse	Rochester	Rochester	Rochester
Toronto	Syracuse	Syracuse	Syracuse
Utica	Toronto	Toronto	Toronto

CENTRAL DIVISION PLAYOFF TEAMS

Brent Baldwin	C.C. Hawkley	Mac Moore	Zack Power
Chicago	Chicago	Chicago	Chicago
Grand Rapids	Grand Rapids	Iowa	Grand Rapids
San Antonio	Iowa	Milwaukee	Manitoba
Texas	Texas	Texas	Milwaukee

PACIFIC DIVISION PLAYOFF TEAMS

Brent Baldwin	C.C. Hawkley	Zack Power
Bakersfield	Bakersfield	Bakersfield
Colorado	Colorado	Colorado
San Diego	San Diego	Stockton
San Jose	Tucson	San Jose

CALDER CUP FINAL PICKS & WINNERS

	2019-20 Calder Cup Final	2019-20 Calder Cup Champion	How Many Games?
Brent Baldwin	Toronto vs. Colorado	Toronto Marlies	Six
C.C. Hawkley	Toronto vs. Bakersfield	Toronto Marlies	Five
Cody Severtson	Syracuse vs. Texas	Syracuse Crunch	Five
Mac Moore	Hershey vs. Bakersfield	Bakersfield Condors	Six
Zack Power	Rochester vs. San Jose	Rochester Americans	Six

Tune in to The Sin Bin all season long for extensive AHL, ECHL, and SPHL coverage!