Spectra also manages the arenas in Abbotsford, Des Moines, Springfield, and Allentown, so they have a "tie in" with those AHL teams too.
They also manage what is now called Cure Insurance Arena in Trenton NJ, Ford Arena in Beaumont TX, Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, James Brown Arena in Augusta GA, and NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates. All of those buildings have hosted ECHL teams in the past, so Spectra could decide to put ECHL teams in any of them, and those teams could affiliate with the AHL team in one of their other buildings, or with an entirely different team. They could even choose to relocate the Mariners to one of those buildings if it was in their best interest.
They also manage sponsorship sales for the Tulsa Oilers, and ticketing for the Phantoms, so they are tied in there too.
My point being that Spectra is a big company that manages a lot of buildings and runs some or all of the team operations for a number of teams, and their parent company owns some teams outright. The affiliation agreement between two of those teams isn't written in stone, and they don't have to affiliate with another team that they have a business relationship with. Any of their teams could affiliate with a team they don't own. For example the Flyers are owned by Comcast and Spectra runs the Wells Fargo Arena, the Phantoms are not owned by Comcast, but they play in a Spectra managed building and Spectra runs their ticket department, and the Royals have no connection to Comcast other than the affiliation. (SMG runs the concessions at Santander Arena in Reading)
Just because Spectra manages both Portland and Hartford's buildings, and Comcast owns the Mariners, doesn't mean they have to be affiliated with the WolfPack.