February 28: The AHL’s board has approved the sale and the relocation to Henderson, effective for the 2020-21 season. The team will play at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas next season.
February 6: The Vegas Golden Knights now own their very own AHL franchise, purchasing the San Antonio Rampage. The team is applying for relocation with the intention to move the minor league club to Henderson/Las Vegas, Nevada. Golden Knights CEO Bill Foley released a short statement:
Since our initial season ticket drive began five years ago in February 2015, we have witnessed first-hand the incredible passion and enthusiasm our community has for hockey. By every relevant metric, the growth of the game here the last few years at all levels has been remarkable. We could not be more proud to bring a second professional hockey club to the Valley to accelerate this growth even further.
The Golden Knights are currently affiliated with the Chicago Wolves, who will be looking for a new NHL partner next season should the relocation go through. It is still pending AHL Board of Governors approval, but if everything goes according to plan the Rampage would relocate for the 2020-21 season. The team is expected to be named the Henderson Silver Knights.
The Rampage will remain affiliated with the St. Louis Blues through the end of the 2019-20 season. Blues GM Doug Armstrong announced that the team will begin the search for a new affiliate immediately, despite signing a five-year agreement with San Antonio in 2017.
do the Blues get some compensation for this? seems like they should.
Seems the blues should get something as I think there would be 3 years left on the original agreement. But hey, buy the wolves and move them to say Kansas City or Springfield Mo to expand
the blues fan base in the state.
I think the wolves stated they will not move, they have a small following in Chicago, if they became the Blackhawks AHL team I could see them doing extremely well as the hawks have made Chicago a hockey city again with the recent success
On the surface, this seems stinky, like somebody in the AHL got payola under the table for this. Vegas should have just relocated the Wolves and be done with it. Unless, of course, the Wolves generate more revenue for the league than San Antonio. Or, maybe the Wolves have the double-secret NMC with the league! It’s not just for players anymore…
The wolves are indepentantly owned. You can’t move a team you do not own.
Not with that attitude. You never know until you try.
Yeah, agreed. Let’s be positive about this.
Do the Blues lose the players on the Rampage? Or does their roster simply move to another team? They have some promising players at San Antonio
The players remain with the Blues.
As long as they’re on NHL contracts, that is. Players on AHL contracts belong to the AHL team, not their NHL affiliate.
That AHL team is linked to its NHL affiliate the players on those AHL contracts move to where the nhls affiliate is next. Geez way to spread some misinformation there layventsky sounds Russian are you a bot lol
St. Louis could always go back to Peoria Rivermen as they had a AHL affiliate for years way back when, Kansas City would be a good 2nd option for minor league affiliate for the Blues.
Vegas out here sabotaging the blues AHL plans.
Loving the sloppy seconds a second time, back to the wolves we go and hopefully we purchase them this time.
Las Vegas Wranglers are now (semi-) officially reborn, in the same location! Will probably have a new name, but the same old barn smell…
Only for 2 -3 seasons. They are building a new arena in Henderson for them.