Blue Goose
Registered User
AHL looks to be Chicago, I don't see the Blues going elsewhere, even to San Antonio, and it has been discussed heavily that Colorado isn't keen on owning or operating a team, at either level....
nothing is changing unless something has been missed since Lehigh Valley and the AHL isn't expanding next season, because they would've had a proposal submitted behind the scenes and released that when the KC Mavericks fiasco occurred....
where the Blues do go after 16/17 isn't publically known or truly confirmed....
ECHL doesn't seem too keen either on expansion front despite the losses of Alaska and Elmira, and Vegas must have missed the league deadline to submit a proposal for 2017/18...
Reno has been a running gag line since the merger of the WCHL and ECHL.....
I think we're still waiting to see how long SVSE can manage 2 hockey teams and the other ancillary events that happen at SAP Center, they said the Barracuda were only a temporary stopgap measure before shifting them within the Sharks territory, whether it be their practice facility et all.
Having been to a SJ Barracuda game and seen the dismal attendance first-hand, my hope is that they eventually move over to Fresno. Seems like a good fit.
I can't seem to find the link, but I swear I read that Foley and co. don't expect to have an ECHL affiliate for the first season - does that mean they purchase the Alaska/Elmira teams to move to Reno next season? Could be, but we'll have to wait and see - I believe the ECHL has their Summer Meetings in mid-June to discuss all those factors.
I also can't see the Knights getting an AHL team in California. The Pacific Division already has 8 teams, and I remember hearing that the AHL commissioner said that when the league expands to 31 teams, that new team will be in the Central Division (presumably to move either Charlotte/Cleveland into the Eastern Conference). This is why the rumors of the Chicago Wolves being the Vegas affiliate and the Blues getting a new affiliate of their own in KC gained so much traction.
As you say, the fact that nothing has happened on that front yet seems curious - almost makes you wonder if they're just going to let Chicago be the affiliate for both STL and Vegas next season, to give the Blues one more year to find a logical spot for an affiliate team to own.