The Dallas Stars have extended their affiliation with the Idaho Steelheads for two more seasons.
The Steelheads serve as the the ECHL affiliate of the Dallas Stars and will now continue to do so until 2020.
Players under contract to NHL teams don’t often spend much time with their ECHL affiliates with the exception of goaltenders, so the affiliations don’t tend to have a significant meaning for fans. However, the Stars have been doing more to increase the visibility of their relationship with the Steelheads.
For the past three years, training camp has been held in Austin. This year, the fans in Boise will get the chance to play host to the team for the first time instead.
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Last season, the Steelheads defeated the Allen Americans in the post-season before losing to the Colorado Eagles in the second round. They did so with newly re-signed goaltender Philippe Desrosiers in net. They also had Cole Ully on the team, who was under contract to the Dallas Stars but wasn’t given a qualifying offer this summer.
The Americans are right here in the DFW metroplex and seem like a more logical choice for the Stars to partner with. Instead, they have a deal with the Sharks, who are much closer to Idaho. It stands to reason that fans may question why the affiliations aren’t swapped now, but there’s a history there.
The Steelheads have continuously been the ECHL affiliate of the Stars since 2005. It’s a long-standing relationship the Stars don’t seem to have reason to change. The Americans were in the old CHL (Central Hockey League, not to be confused with the Canadian Hockey League) before it folded in 2014. While they were in the CHL, they actually did have a partnership with the Dallas Stars for a time.
The ECHL absorbed some of the CHL’s teams, including the Americans. Earlier in the 2013-14 season, the Sharks lost their ECHL affiliate, the San Francisco Bulls, who had to stop playing midseason when their organization collapsed. The teams could’ve looked into switched things around since the Stars contract with the Steelheads expired that year as well, but they seemed happy with the arrangement.
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Today’s announcement combined with the plan to hold training camp in Boise shows the Stars’ commitment to keeping the Steelheads as their ECHL affiliate. It may come as a disappointment to fans who were hoping for some sort of swap with the Americans, but shouldn’t stop them from still supporting both ECHL teams, especially since they tend to be pretty far removed from their NHL teams.