Finally Moving In?

When the St. Louis Blues reached an affiliation agreement with the Springfield Thunderbirds on March 6, 2020, no one would have predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic would have forced the Blues to find new homes for their players over the last season. While the agreement certainly is valid and the Blues will have some players as Thunderbirds in coming seasons, Springfield opted out of the 2020-21 AHL season due to the pandemic, forcing the Blues into a rather weird situation: where do they send their AHL players?

You'll have to follow the story here: the San Antonio Rampage, with whom the Blues had a loose affiliation, were bought by the Vegas Golden Knights and moved to Henderson, Nevada meaning St. Louis needed to find a new affiliate where it could develop players. Springfield, who had been affiliated with the Florida Panthers, needed a new affiliation after Florida re-aligned themselves with Syracuse. With Springfield without an affiliation, that's where St. Louis stepped in and affiliated themselves with the Thunderbirds. Clear as mud? Alrighty then.

With Springfield opting out of last season, the Blues were forced to scramble. They came to an agreement to have some of the Blues' AHL players suit up with the Utica Comets, but Utica was Vancouver's affiliate so they only had a limited number of spots for the Blues. As a result, some players went overseas to continue playing as the Blues seemingly were scattered across the globe.

With summer moving in and the Blues looking to September as they prepare for the 2021-22 season, they may finally be able to set down some roots in Springfield. Being that the Thunderbirds are an independently-owned AHL franchise by a broad-based group of investors, getting some good players in Springfield through the Blues affiliation will help drive ticket sales and attendance.

It will also help head coach Drew Bannister who took an "associate head coach" role under Trent Cull in Utica. Bannister spoke of the lesser role and how it helped him this season in becoming a better coach, something that may not have been seen on the immediate surface when the opportunity with Utica arose.

"Working under Trent this year was a great experience for me," Bannister told Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I learned some things on how he would run things, and what I liked, and maybe changes that I would make. Different ideas.

"It gives you a different perspective in the game, and how you're dealing with players. I appreciated this year in that fact for myself."

It'll be much better for Bannister to get all the Blues' prospects under one roof and playing for the same team so they learn the systems that the Blues use, and it appears that everything is good to go for the 2021-22 season in the AHL with 32 teams participating. Having players such as Nikita Alexandrov, who played most of the 2020-21 season in the SM-Liiga, and Keean Washkurak, who played in the Slovakia2 league due to the OHL shutdown, never got the same AHL time that other teams' prospects received this year, so getting them into the mix for 2020-21 will be crucial for the success of the Thunderbirds and those players.

How the season plays out in 2021-22 remains to be written, but the Blues need to get their house under one roof in order to see all of their prospects in one place where a true depth chart can be built for the organization. That starts in September in Springfield, Massachusetts where the Blues will finally be able to move into their new rink and get things rolling for the future.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!