Nashville Predators AHL Affiliate Announces They Won’t Play This Season

The Nashville Predators are less than two weeks away from opening their new season, but their AHL affiliate will not be participating in the minor league ranks.

There’s no overlooking how strong of an AHL affiliate the Nashville Predators are lucky enough to have, supplying them with strong prospects that can step into the NHL when needed.

In what is really unfortunate news, the Nashville Predators AHL affiliate Milwaukee Admirals will be foregoing their upcoming season, per the team’s official social media account:

There’s been speculation about when the AHL season might get underway due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the reality of not being able to safely allow fans to attend games in person.

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The financial strains that minor league teams like the Admirals are facing is at a high level. The team said in their statement that “the lack of any revenue was too difficult to manage”.

This is tough news to see as this will impact certain prospects who were counting on getting valuable playing time in the AHL. How this will all be sorted out remains to be seen.

There are a lot of Predators prospects who have made strong careers with the Admirals, including Alexandre Carrier, Daniel Carr, Rem Pitlick and Matt Donovan, among others. That’s just to name a few. Where these players end up playing this upcoming season is unknown currently.

Fans can submit their questions regarding this unfortunate announcement, and team President Jon Greenberg will answer some of them. An awesome gesture for the team to their fans that care so much.

There are extra spots available with the Predators with the taxi squad of four to six players, and the team will also carry an extra goaltender, which will almost certainly be Connor Ingram.

With all of the roster competitions going on at Predators training camp, maybe one or two of these prospects can have impressive showings and claim a spot in the starting lineup or on the taxi squad.

The Admirals were one of the best teams in the AHL and were well on their way to winning a Calder Cup. They had a dominating record of 41-14-5 for 90 points when their season was paused and eventually cancelled. The next closest team in the standings had 82 points.

The Calder Cup wasn’t awarded despite the Admirals having the best record when the season was suspended.

We’ll keep an eye on any more news that comes out on the options for some of these players who figured to be regulars on the Admirals roster this upcoming season. Perhaps they can be loaned to other teams.

The other two teams that will be joining Milwaukee in opting out of the 2020-21 AHL season is Charlotte (Florida Panthers affiliate) and Springfield (St. Louis Blue affiliate). The league has decided on division realignment.

We can’t wait to see the Admirals back on the ice as they are a huge part of our Nashville Predators family.