DENVER \u2013 The Colorado Avalanche Hockey Club, in conjunction with the ECHL and the American Hockey League\u2019s Colorado Eagles, announced today that the New Mexico Goatheads will serve as the Avalanche\u2019s ECHL affiliate beginning with the 2026-27 season. The teams agreed on a multi-year agreement.<\/p>\n
The Goatheads are an expansion franchise and will play at the Rio Rancho Events Center in Rio Rancho, N.M. It marks the first time a professional hockey team will compete in the state of New Mexico since 2009 when the New Mexico Scorpions played from 1996-97 \u2013 2004-05 and 2006-07 \u2013 2008-09. The ECHL announced it would be awarding an expansion club to Rio Rancho on May 2, 2025, and the franchise established their name in a reveal on Sept. 29, 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ECHL is a key part of the Avalanche-Eagles player development equation, and we\u2019re excited to establish this multi-year partnership with the New Mexico Goatheads,\u201d said Avalanche Assistant General Manager and Eagles General Manager Kevin McDonald. \u201cWe were impressed with the Albuquerque market when we were evaluating options, and Rio Rancho will provide a strong environment for players to grow both on and off the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis partnership is about opportunity and growth,\u201d said Goatheads General Manager Jared Johnson. \u201cAligning with the Avalanche on a multi-year agreement gives our players a defined development path while delivering high-level hockey to our fans from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Utah Grizzlies previously served as the Avalanche\u2019s ECHL affiliate from 2018-26. The club\u2019s secondary affiliate has hailed from the ECHL every season dating back to 2014-15.<\/p>\n
Four Colorado Avalanche players who have appeared in games for the team in 2025-26 are ECHL alumni in Scott Wedgewood, Mackenzie Blackwood, Trent Miner and Jack Ahcan. Additionally, Head Coach Jared Bednar\u2019s previous hockey experience includes playing in the ECHL over parts of the 1993-98 and 1999-02 campaigns as well as coaching in various capacities from 2002-09. Bednar is a member of the ECHL Hall of Fame. Assistant Coach Nolan Pratt played in the ECHL for part of the 1995-96 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2013 The Colorado Avalanche Hockey Club, in conjunction with the ECHL and the American Hockey League\u2019s Colorado…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-482781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}