On February 6, the Vegas Golden Knights organisation announced that they had purchased an American Hockey League franchise membership from Spurs Sports & Entertainment, namely the San Antonio Rampage.

Vegas Golden Knights Chairman and CEO Bill Foley confirmed that the organisation are applying for the relocation of the franchise to Henderson/Las Vegas, Nevada.
The purchase and relocation are subject to approval from the American Hockey League Board of Governors.

How the news was broken by Vegas on social media left a lot to be desired in my opinion.

There is a time and place to be cute, clever or witty and this wasn’t it.

After 18 years, San Antonio Rampage fans found out in the most heart-breaking way that their team was going to be no longer after the 2019-20 campaign.

Some decorum and recognition of that would have been a better direction to go in doing so show some respect to a community losing their hockey team.
However, that’s just my personal opinion and perhaps I’m old and hold a different set of values.

Either way, it was a bombshell for the folks of San Antonio who then read the briefest of all brief statements to confirm their worst fears.

“Spurs Sports & Entertainment today announced that the Vegas Golden Knights have purchased the San Antonio Rampage American Hockey League franchise membership. Pending approval from the AHL Board of Governors, the Rampage will finish the 2019-20 season in San Antonio before relocating to Nevada for the 2020-21 season.”
“We are extremely grateful to our staff, our fans and our partners who have supported the Rampage for the last 18 years,” said SS&E CEO RC Buford. “While this was a difficult decision to make, we believe this move is best for the long-term success of Spurs Sports & Entertainment.”

The full Vegas statement can be read here: https://www.nhl.com/goldenknights/news/vegas-golden-knights-purchase-ahl-franchise-membership/c-314714854

San Antonio’s NHL affiliate is the St. Louis Blues and once again they are left without an AHL club to develop their prospects and depth players.

My good friend Grant Sales is a St. Louis fans and reached out to me when this news broke to share some of his feelings and concerns about the future.

“For most of us, our AHL organisation is a bit like a water tap.

We turn it on and water/prospects come out, but we have very little idea of how these things actually work.

As a Blues fan, having seen San Antonio hot-house our prospects, including our lord and Saviour Jordan Binnington (although we’re praying for something of a resurrection right now!) for two seasons, it puts us in the market for a new AHL team.

1. The most obvious solution is the Blues renew their acquaintance with the Chicago Wolves, their AHL franchise from 2013/2017. This is not the way to go. The Wolves are an independent franchise in the AHL, a rarity, and they do what is best for Chicago. This presented a problem as they ended up playing their centrally contracted players over the Blues prospects. In the case of Jordan Binnington, it led to him being sent to the ECHL and then loaned to Providence because of no game time.

2. The second solution is to create a new franchise, in somewhere like Kansas City, MO. This is fraught with problems because places like the KC Ice Center are particularly built for professional hockey, plus it would be a new franchise so that the fees involved, plus the arena upgrade costs would eat into the Blues budget, possibly causing cap problems down the road

3. This is the most unlikely of all, but still a possibility. The Blues don’t get an AHL franchise and scatter their prospects to the wind, loaning their players out to any franchise that would want them. This presents the biggest challenge as recalls and various levels of coaching would mean that the prospects would be very uneven and pretty much untrackable.

Overall, it would be advantageous for the Blues to get their own AHL franchise, but the costs may be prohibitive, leading to another partnership with Chicago.

We have a good 4 months to watch this unfold and I pray it unfolds the right way.”

I firmly believe that Chicago and St. Louis will likely become partners at least for the short-term because it’s a marriage of convenience rather than love.

However as Grant mentioned above, Chicago is a law unto themselves and in the past have shown they care very little for the problems of the NHL club when it comes to affairs that directly affect them.

The Wolves remain independently owned and continues to make decisions that don’t always fit in with the NHL team they are affiliated with to benefit their own cause.

Another expansion team seems highly unlikely as it would take the league to 33 teams with Chicago going absolutely nowhere and the Palm Springs team on the way.

John Hoven (@MayorNHL) is rarely wrong with AHL scoops the reported the following which is interesting but leaves a lot of questions at this stage.

Ultimately we are left with this situation.

Two dance partners who have no desire to be in the same room together, let alone try to tango. A far from ideal situation and a tough first task for the person who will take over from outgoing AHL CEO and President Dave Andrews.

My overriding feeling is sadness for the hockey folks of San Antonio.
People are about to lose their jobs and the community will rue the loss of a hockey club that contributed much.