As teams begin to build their rosters for the upcoming 2016-17 National Hockey League season, you can occasionally hear that a player joined an organization on an "AHL contract". What exactly does that mean, and how does such a contract fit into an organizational hierarchy?
Last season the Montreal Canadiens had Travis Brown, Angelo Miceli, Markus Eisenschmid, Eddie Pasquale, Josiah Didier, and Brandon McNally on such contracts. The St. John's IceCaps have contracted three players to play with them in the upcoming season; Jeremie Blain, Didier, and Eisenschmid.