While the NHL and the Vegas Golden Knights continue to stand pat in their desire to return this year, the AHL have ceded defeat in trying to salvage the 2019-20 season.
It was announced on Monday that the American Hockey League had come to the gruelling decision to officially cancel both the remainder of the 2019-20 regular season and the 2020 Calder Cup Playoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that it is the end of the road for the Chicago Wolves, the AHL affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights.
With the current situation meaning that it isn’t feasible for the AHL to even attempt to breathe new life into this season, all focus will instead shift towards ensuring 2020-21 goes ahead as scheduled.
The current standings in the AHL, in addition to team and player stats, will now become gospel and they will dictate who wins what in the 2019-20 AHL Season Awards.
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With the cancelation of the AHL does come some ramifications for the NHL, and we are going to delve into how those impact the Golden Knights.
Firstly, we shouldn’t start to become harbingers of doom and predict a similar ugly fate for the 2019-20 NHL season based solely on the actions taken by their AHL counterparts.
For starters, the NHL has far more resources at its disposal than the AHL and their broadcasting deals should help massively if hockey returns this year.
The NHL will be able to broadcast their games on National TV, even if games are played in centralized arenas, whereas the AHL won’t have that luxury.
There are some intricate logistical issues that have risen to the surface in the wake of the AHL pulling the plug on the 2019-20 season, however, and the Golden Knights will be impacted in some way shape or form.
The Chicago Wolves
Firstly, this is the end of an era for the Chicago Wolves and the Vegas Golden Knights now, and also the end of an era for the San Antonio Rampage.
Earlier this year the Knights purchased the rights of the San Antonio Rampage with the intention of moving that franchise to Henderson, a relocation that has since been approved by the American Hockey League.
As a result, the Golden Knights will now have their own AHL affiliate on their doorstep from the 2020-21 season onwards, although a team name for the Henderson franchise has yet to be announced.
The Wolves, meanwhile, are set to become the new AHL affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes.
With the 2019-20 AHL season now cancelled, the ties between Vegas and the Chicago Wolves can officially be severed.
And it is a less than spectacular ending to that relationship.
After reaching the Calder Cup Final last year, only to be defeated by the Charlotte Checkers in five games, the Wolves finished the 2019-20 season 4th in the Central Division with a 26-26-3 record.
From a player point of view, prospect forward Lucas Elvenes finished 17th in points in his rookie year in the AHL, finishing 2019-20 with 48 points (12 goals, 36 assists) in 59 games.
Elvenes was lights out in his debut year in North America and, as a result, was 4th among all AHL rookies and also became only the second rookie in the 26-year history of the Chicago Wolves to lead the team in scoring.
Expanded Rosters
Should the NHL return this year and a Stanley Cup Champion is crowned in 2019-20, a number of hurdles will have to be cleared before games played.
Chief among the potential list of issues is the fact that players will be going from 0-100 in terms of getting back into the swing of things.
The NHL will stage some kind of Training Camp for all teams, but injuries will remain a major concern throughout the league.
One solution is expanded rosters with Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic and TSN reporting that rosters could be expanded up to at least 30 players, if not more.
Now, during normal circumstances NHL teams can recall up to four players from the AHL after the Trade Deadline and an unlimited amount once the AHL season is done, while the 23-man roster limit doesn’t apply after the Trade Deadline.
Hence the bevy of “Black Aces” call-ups you normally see ahead of the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
But, with the AHL now finished, the Golden Knights could invite a pool of players from the Chicago Wolves to Training Camp and keep them on hand should injuries arise.
For the likes of Lucas Elvenes, who tore it up for the Wolves in 2019-20, as detailed above, this would give certain prospects a chance to show what they can do on the biggest stage and being on the bubble of the Stanley Cup Playoffs would prove to be an invaluable experience.
Also, having unlimited access to their farm club would allow the Golden Knights to lean on extra bodies should they need to throughout the course of a deep and gruelling postseason run.
This will come in handy too during Training Camp should certain players go down with injuries after being away from the rink for a substantial amount of time, while the Golden Knights could look to plug in a few players from their farm system in the latter stages of the regular season, should it return, in order to rest a handful of their more established stars.
Other than that, the AHL having to jump off the plank this year won’t impact the NHL or the Vegas Golden Knights, although it is a travesty that a Calder Cup Champion won’t be crowned for the first time since the AHL was formed in 1936-37.
It is just a sad reality of the new world we currently live in.