The Alaska Aces today announced affiliation agreements with the NHL's St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild.
Alaska last season was affiliated with NHL Calgary, but that deal lapsed when Calgary moved its AHL franchise from British Columbia to upstate New York, making the shuttling of players between the AHL and Alaska a geographical nightmare.
St. Louis' AHL affiliate is the Chicago Wolves and Minnesota's is the Iowa Wild, located in Des Moines. Those AHL locations make transit to and from Anchorage fairly uncomplicated because of routes between Minneapolis and Chicago, and Anchorage.
The Aces from 2005-2012 were affiliated with St. Louis.
Alaska won the Kelly Cup last June with many players who were under contract to either Calgary or its affiliate, the Abbotsford Heat, showing that an affiliation can have strong benefits.
Look for more on this development later today online at adn.com/sports and in Wednesday's dead-trees edition of Alaska Dispatch News.