Like every other franchise in the NHL, the St. Louis Blues are just trying to operate their business and develop their players as best they can. However, it becomes troublesome to accomplish that when another franchise keeps sticking their fingers in the pie on the window sill.
The St. Louis Blues are no superhero, but they definitely have a villain right now. Instead of the usual suspects in teams like Chicago or Detroit, or players like Jamie Benn or Patrick Kane, the Vegas Golden Knights have emerged once more to twist their proverbial mustaches.
However, instead of being a villain like the Blackhawks, where it is all up front hatred based on what transpires on the ice, the Golden Knights are being punks and doing a lot of back channel stuff. They’re more a Dr. Evil to the Blues, constantly laughing at nothing.
For those unaware, the Vegas Golden Knights purchased the San Antonio Rampage from Spurs Sports and Entertainment, which was the group that owned the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA and the Rampage in the AHL. For those with short memories, this marks the second time in around four years that the Golden Knights have poached an AHL franchise from the Blues.
Back in the spring of 2017, the Golden Knights reached an agreement with the Chicago Wolves to be affiliates. That was far less a contentious move since the Blues contract with the Chicago Wolves was running out and the relationship between St. Louis and Chicago had soured.
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As I mentioned at the time, the Wolves had always been fiercely independent. Even when they were affiliated with an NHL team, they wanted their independence to decide coaches, playing time etc. When they gave the Blues control of those things, they actually had success on the ice, but apparently it still touched a nerve being told what to do from higher up.
What made that deal confusing was they got out from under the Blues only to seemingly give control to Vegas. The owner of the Wolves was gushing so much over Vegas president George McPhee that you thought he’d sent him some fan mail and bought all his albums.
Still, at least that made some sense from a business perspective. Clearly this new deal makes business sense for the ownership group of the San Antonio Spurs, but nobody in St. Louis gets any benefit.
The Blues are once again out in the cold due to actions of the Vegas Golden Knights. The situation will likely not be as dire as the one the franchise faced going into the 2017-18 season, but it still puts a cloud over the prospect pipeline.
St. Louis is now limited in their options. The most immediate one would seem to re-affiliate with the Wolves.
However, how long could that relationship be good for? Things did not end particularly well there, so it might be a stretch to think Chicago would welcome the Blues back and just let them have their own coaching staff.
Another route would be for the Blues to re-open the possibility of an AHL franchise in Kansas City. The Blues played with that idea before, but for whatever reason it fizzed out.
That doesn’t seem very realistic since this is happening so late in the game. If the Blues knew this was possible at the start of the season, then maybe, but unless this was only a public bombshell and the team brass had an idea, it seems too late to set up an entire franchise just months before dropping a puck in 2020-21.
The Blues were likely secure in the fact they had a five-year deal with the Rampage. Now, only two years into it, they are left scrambling to find a home for their prospects after this current season.
As it was back in 2017, the issue is not so much places to play. The Blues could loan out players again, but that hinders development.
The current group of call ups, as Chris Kerber pointed out, have had immediate success because the Rampage played the same system and used the same terminology as the Blues. Guys were not getting called up and having to learn a new language, so to speak.
The Blues have to work themselves into a situation where they have control over a coaching staff. If not, then you’re basically sending your kids off to college hoping they get a good education without just screwing around with all that tuition money you’re spending.
Doug Armstrong has done a hell of a job through trades to upgrade his team. You still need to develop players and Vegas is doing a hell of a job in mucking up the Blues works.
The reality is that Vegas likely doesn’t care about the Blues or any other team, so to them this is not personal. It is hard not to take it personally on this side of the fence, however.