AHL Expansion announced!

I don’t receive e-mails from the AHL very often and I pay attention to them even less but today’s was pretty exciting. In light of the NHL adding Las Vegas to the roster, St. Louis gave up its affiliation with the Chicago Wolves so Vegas could have it. Now the Colorado Eagles are being promoted to the AHL next season to give the Avalanche a closer partner. I thought they sounded familiar, I was right too. They used to be a team my beloved Austin Icebats played long ago in the Central Hockey League. At some point the Eagles made the jump into the ECHL while the CHL collapsed. Now they’re closer to the “big leagues.” What does this mean for our I-35 South rival the Rampage? They will be with the Avalanche until next season and switch to the Blues. The news said the Eagles will be in our Pacific Division when they start. I wonder if they’ll puss out like the five California and one Arizona team with a 73-game schedule?