Wolves take on Predators as second affiliate for 2020-21

The Nashville Predators announced today that the team has partnered with the Carolina Hurricanes to have Predators prospects assigned to Carolina’s primary development affiliate, the American Hockey League’s Chicago Wolves, for the 2020-21 season.

This comes after Monday’s announcement that Nashville’s AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, would not be playing this season due to fiscal ramifications and current health and safety standards in Wisconsin.

“We want to thank the Carolina Hurricanes and Chicago Wolves organizations for the opportunity to partner with them for this coming season,” said Predators director of player development and Admirals general manager Scott Nichol. “We look forward to resuming our relationship with the Admirals in the 2021-22 campaign.”

“We have great admiration and respect for (Nashville president of hockey operations and general manager) David Poile and Milwaukee owner Harris Turer,” said Wolves owner and chairman Don Levin. “The Admirals can’t play this year for reasons beyond their control, so we want to help people we respect and who are our partners. We’re going to combine the best available players from both sides and have a really good team.”

“This season presents a unique situation, with NHL teams having taxi squads and some AHL teams opting out,” said Carolina president and general manager Don Waddell. “We were able to come to an agreement with the Predators and Wolves that we believe benefits everyone involved. The Wolves have been great partners and we’re thankful for their willingness to work out this agreement.”

The Wolves coaching staff, led by new head coach Ryan Warsofsky, will handle coaching duties. The team will play home games this season at the Chicago Wolves’ training facility at Triphahn Ice Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill., where the Wolves are establishing strict COVID-19 protocols to maximize everyone’s health and safety. Fans will not be permitted to attend games until the Illinois Department of Public Health deems it safe to do so.