Earlier this season, the Utah Grizzlies announced the sale and subsequent relocation of their East Coast Hockey League team (ECHL) team to Trenton New Jersey at the conclusion of the 2025-26 season.
For 30 years, the Utah Grizzlies played in West Valley City, Utah, and they served as the ECHL affiliate of the Avalanche since the 2018 season. Since the announcement in September, Colorado's future plans for a replacement team have been up in the air. While National Hockey League teams are technically able to play without an ECHL affiliate, 30 of the 32 teams in the league all have one. The only outliers this season are Columbus and, ironically, Utah.
While it certainly wasn't a hot topic of conversation for Colorado, the belief was originally that the team would join Columbus and Utah in playing without an ECHL affiliate for the foreseeable future. Instead, the team has found their new affiliate down south in New Mexico's first professional hockey team in 17 years.
The creation of the New Mexico Goatheads was announced back in May of 2025 as the New Mexico Pro Hockey Club. The team will bring professional hockey back to the New Mexico desert for the first time since 2009, when the New Mexico Scorpions ceased operations with the Central Hockey League.
Prior to their affiliation agreement with Colorado, the Goatheads were assisted by the Dallas Stars organization in the initial setup of the team, acting as consultants for hockey operations. Many New Mexico residents believed the team would eventually be affiliated with the Stars due to this relationship, but with Dallas already having their ECHL team in Idaho, their rivals in Colorado grabbed the team instead.
The Goatheads teased their NHL affiliate team at the end of January in a post that any Avalanche fan would recognize is a direct tie to Colorado, referencing "the climb" that is typically associated with the Colorado Avalanche team. The saying not only draws connections to the organization‘s culture of always striving to be better, to reach new heights, but also to the snowy mountains of Colorado that gave the Avalanche their name. Those same Rocky Mountains run all the way down to New Mexico, where the Goatheads have adopted their own version of the climb, and will hope to replicate the same winning culture the Avalanche have.
Affiliate teams, both ECHL and American Hockey League clubs, are vital for player development and growth. The Avalanche's current AHL team, the Colorado Eagle, was once their ECHL affiliate before they moved into the AHL, and the Grizzlies took over. The process and build of the Eagles has proven beneficial to the organization as a whole, offering a step for players to grow and learn on a dominant AHL team. The ECHL is another significant step for players with NHL potential that are still trying to find their footing.
Using the climb reference coined by both the Avalanche and the Goatheads, the NHL sits at the top of the mountain for every hockey player. The journey up there is long, tough, and with many setbacks, but the affiliate teams stationed amid that climb are designed to get players to the top, where they can succeed and win with their NHL club.
An ECHL team may not be a drastic neccessity to NHL teams, but the Avalanche being able to pick up the Goatheads as they were losing their current affiliate is certainly a good thing and will be beneficial for them buildng up their propsect pool going forward.
Avalanche fans can tune into New Mexico professional hockey beginning with the 2026-27 season where they can get a first look at players that may one day be joining them up north.