The American Hockey League affiliates for the , and ultimately, as I continually hear, the AHL’s future Western Conference will actually play out of the west.
I don’t have a atlas in front of me, but currently the most western AHL teams in the Western Conference are the Texas Stars (Dallas affiliate) and San Antonio Rampage (Florida). That’s going to change, and Colorado’s AHL affiliate — currently the Lake Erie Monsters in Cleveland — could relocate in a Mountain Time zone. I’m hearing Denver (Denver Coliseum), Colorado Springs (World Arena) and Salt Lake City (EnergySolutions Arena, originally Delta Center) are the top options. I hope to soon have a conversation with Denver Cutthroats owner John Hayes, who is still mulling a 2015-16 Central Hockey League return for his team after going dark this season. The Denver Cutthroats of the AHL would work.
If Colorado makes a move, it doesn’t mean the the Lake Erie Monsters will disband. The most successful AHL cities are bound to keep their teams or inherit another. Ultimately, the idea is to have the Western Conference and Eastern Conference make sense geographically and only play conference games during the regular season.
The AHL would work in Colorado. The state’s previous minor-league teams failed because they were double-A or lower. The triple-A model has great promise.
