The Vegas Golden Knights bought the San Antonio Rampage on Thursday and plan on moving them to Nevada for the 2020-21 season. Pending the expected AHL approval, Vegas will make the Rampage their affiliate, officially ending the Wolves’ three-year relationship with the Golden Knights.
San Antonio is currently the affiliate of the St. Louis Blues, who were the Wolves’ parent club from 2013-17 (and sent a handful of players to Rosemont during the 2017-18 campaign). But even though the Blues don’t have an affiliate set for next season and the Wolves are in need of a parent club, it doesn’t mean a reunion is guaranteed.
For one, it’s always possible more teams shift, leaving different opportunities for both sides. And when the franchises split, the breakup was not lamented by either side.
“We are aware of the news regarding Vegas purchasing the San Antonio organization,” Blues president and general manager Doug Armstrong said in a statement. “The Blues will finish the remainder of the 2019-20 season with San Antonio as our AHL affiliate. In the meantime, our pursuit of a new minor league affiliate will begin immediately. We will have no further comment on this topic at this time.”
The Wolves and Vegas breaking up is not a surprise. On Saturday, Wolves chairman Don Levin told the Sun-Times there was “no scenario at all” where his franchise would continue with Vegas for next season.
In a statement Thursday, Golden Knights president of hockey operations George McPhee said the move will “effectively centralize our hockey operations and streamline our processes in terms of player development, scouting, transfers and staffing.”
”It’s been a goal of the Vegas Golden Knights to have our AHL team located in our market since our team’s inception,” McPhee said in the news release. “We are now closer to realizing this goal than we have ever been before.”
