Arizona Coyotes Changing AHL Affiliation
The Four Year Affiliation The Arizona Coyotes Had With The Portland Pirates Will End After This Season
According to Karoline Zacharer who writes for the Portland Pirates AHL team, the team has signed a four-year affiliation agreement with the NHL Florida Panthers to begin next season. The Panthers will move their current American Hockey League prospects from San Antonio, Texas to Portland, Maine. As part of the agreement, the Panthers will supply players, coaches, and hockey operations staff to the Pirates. This will be the fifth National Hockey League affiliation for the Pirates in their over twenty-year history in Maine.
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“I would like to thank Don Maloney, Ray Edwards, and the entire Arizona Coyotes management, coaching, and training staffs for four great years,” Pirates COO, Brad Church said. “A special thanks to all the players who have come through Portland over this time for your time, efforts, and contributions to the Pirates Community both on and off the ice. We will continue to work together through the end of the 2014-2015 season in which we hope brings a long playoff run.”
What does this mean for the Arizona Coyotes? Either they will switch their affiliation to the San Antonio Rampage, or perhaps re-locate a team in say… the Tucson area. There’s no verification of the Tucson area getting the team, but it certainly would make logical sense to have an affiliate team that close to the Phoenix area for various reasons. Scouts could easily view young player’s development without air travel, Tucson is just a two hour drive from Phoenix. And, then when the Arizona Coyotes want to call up a player, he can be there in short order ready to go.
The Tucson Convention Center can hold 6,500 right now for hockey, and will have an $8 million renovation done by the end of the year, to increase seating to 8,000. In 1978-79 the Tucson Rustlers played here in a Pacific Hockey League, and had a fierce rivalry with the Phoenix Roadrunners. Prescott Valley has been rumored to also be a location to house the affiliate. Or, even Flagstaff. Both of those communities are smaller, and Tucson could have the inside track.
The other option will be for the Arizona Coyotes to re-establish their affiliation with the San Antonio Rampage, whom they partnered with from 2005-2011. They will not own the team, and many other NHL teams do own their AHL affiliate. They would need to discuss purchasing the team with the San Antonio Spurs owner Peter M. Holt. The Rampage play at the AT&T Center where the Spurs also play.
The Arizona Coyotes have some options here, and if it were up to me I would choose Tucson. It would aid in increasing interest in hockey in Arizona, which is growing with youth hockey surging. I think the Coyote management team will take all the pro’s and con’s and come up with an intelligent decision.
More from Howlin' Hockey
- How the Arizona Coyotes could line-up with Logan Cooley signed
- Report: Logan Cooley could be closer to signing Arizona Coyotes ELC
- Arizona Coyotes sign Matias Maccelli to three-year deal
- Ivan Prosvetov signs one-year deal with Arizona Coyotes
- Arizona Coyotes cut Galchenyuk after reported police incident