Colorado Avalanche Losing the Lake Erie Monsters

The Colorado Avalanche are parting ways with their AHL affiliate Lake Erie Monsters. The two teams have been affiliated since Lake Erie started playing in the AHL in the 2007-08 season.

According to The Columbus Dispatch, the Columbus Blue Jackets are taking over the affiliation with the Lake Erie Monsters starting with the 2015-16 season. Lake Erie, near Cleveland, is much closer to Columbus than their past affiliate in Springfield, MA. Indeed, it’s apparently only a 2.5-hour drive between Cleveland and Columbus.

The move now has been for NHL teams to be closer to their AHL affiliates. The AHL actually will move five teams to California to make them closer to the San Jose Sharks, Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers. Such proximity facilitates call ups in the even of injury.

As of right now, there has been no official announcement of which AHL team will serve as the Colorado Avalanche’s affiliate. The team the Blue Jackets gave up, the Springfield Falcons, is supposed to go to the Arizona Coyotes for at least one season. (So, the change doesn’t benefit Arizona since Massachusetts is even farther from them than from Columbus.)

One proposal is the San Antonio Rampage. They were the Florida Panther’s AHL team, but the Panthers are going with the Portland Pirates. Again, even father away, but OK. And, yes, if the Avalanche go with San Antonio, we’ll be associated with a Texas team.

That said, the important part of the equation is that all prospects go with the NHL team, as do any players with contracts with an NHL team. So, goalie sensation Calvin Pickard, Joey Hishon (if he’s signed), Andrew Agozzino, Duncan Siemens, Conner Bleackley, Chris Bigras, Mason Geertsen… let’s just say they might want to buy some cowboy boots and get used to saying “Yee haw!” when they score a goal.

No matter what, though, the Avalanche are still their NHL team.

Next: Roster Watch: Goalies

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