WORCESTER — One of the key numbers in professional hockey’s extensive player development system has become mileage.

As this city’s hockey fans found out three years ago when the Sharks moved to San Jose to become the Barracuda, closer has become better in setting up affiliations. Sometimes, though, it seems like there can be such a thing as too close for comfort.

The Railers’ affiliation with Bridgeport of the American Hockey League has made it easy for the Sound Tigers to bring players down from here, and as stands to reason, they are usually among Worcester’s best players.

Currently, two key players who began the year with the Railers, Mike Cornell and Kellen Jones, are with Bridgeport. Patrick Cullity, who played five games here a while back, was in Worcester mostly to get playing time so he really doesn’t count as a call-up.

Jeff Kubiak, Yanick Turcotte and goalie Eamon McAdam have done the Interstate 91 trip as well.

Railers general manager/coach Jamie Russell looks at the I-91 connection as a positive for both Worcester and Bridgeport.

“It’s definitely an advantage,” he said. “Certainly it’s a two-way street where they have the ability, because it’s close, for guys to go back up. This weekend’s a great example, if guys are going to be scratched on Saturday night, and they’re off the next day going into the All-Star break, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll send them down to us to maybe play on Sunday.

“If we’re two time zones away and a couple of flights, that’s probably not gonna happen on a timely basis — getting them here. They’re gonna have their numbers regardless of whether you’re in Missouri, or an hour and a half away. They’re gonna have a minimum of one extra forward, one extra defenseman, and that’s going to be dictated no matter where you are geographically. The ability to get those guys back and playing, if they have their numbers, the geography between Long Island and Bridgeport and Bridgeport and Worcester makes, in my opinion, a ton of sense.”

The distance, or lack of it, helped secure the affiliation as well.

“Certainly, when we were looking at affiliations and organizations,” Russell said, “we started with the premise of what organizations are close. We looked at Springfield, we looked at Providence, we looked at Bridgeport. That was our starting point, and from there, we had some conversations heading west a little bit in terms of Utica, Binghamton, Syracuse. We wanted to start with organizations that were close.”

The Railers also have had two players go up to the AHL on pro tryouts — Chris Langkow and Mitch Gillam, both of whom are back now. That is also a good thing, according to Russell.

“It’s a recruiting tool,” he said. “It’s a positive from the player’s standpoint because they want to come and play here because there are American Hockey League teams close by. Those teams are businesses, too. If they can get a player that’s an hour away from their home rink versus flying somebody in from Florida or Texas, they’re probably going to do that, short term. So that gives players opportunities. They want to play where teams are close.”

Rail Life

Heading into Saturday night’s game, 38 ECHL players had scored at least 15 goals, including Woody Hudson’s 15-1-16 line. None of the other 37 had fewer than 13 assists. … The Railers complete the cycle when they play host to the Florida Everblades at 3 Sunday afternoon. When the game is finished, Worcester will have played every first-place team in the ECHL. Florida leads the South Division, Manchester the North, Toledo the Central and Colorado the Mountain Division. … One of the Everblades’ best players is defenseman Gus Young, who spent the entire 2014-15 season with the Sharks. … Mallards coach Phil Axtell played for Russell at Michigan Tech, while defensemen Willie Raskob and Kyle Bigos both have Worcester connections. Raskob played one game for the Railers earlier this season before being traded, and Bigos played eight games for the Sharks in 2013-14 and 2014-15. … A rarity — Russell went with the exact same lineup as he did on Friday night. There may be some fresh legs in there Sunday versus Florida.

—Contact Bill Ballou at william.ballou@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillBallouTG.