Flynn arrived in San Antonio as a free agent signing from Dallas on July 1st. In 21 games this season, the 30 year old veteran registered one goal and eight assists. Flynn missed 17 games in November and December as a result of an upper body injury sustained against Manitoba on November 13th when former Rampage center Felix Girard caught him with a check to the head.

Flynn was making top dollar for an AHL player this season, and this move certainly raised some eyebrows as to why he would walk away from his deal. Stephen Meserve (@100degreehockey), who covered Flynn with the Texas Stars last season, speculated that this could be a health related decision for Flynn. Meserve wrote about Severin Blindenbacher back in 2011 under very similar circumstances. The AHL is known as one of the more physical leagues, and it’s possible that Flynn felt going to the less physical NLA was in the best interest of his health.

Flynn’s departure leaves the already shorthanded Rampage in a bind. Ryan Tesink was signed to a PTO before the weekend set with Manitoba and, due to call ups and injuries, had to play shorthanded on Sunday.

The Rampage travel to Milwaukee to take on the Admirals on Tuesday before returning home Friday night for the first of three home games before heading out on their annual month-long Rodeo Road Trip on Feb 7th.

Darren Abate/AHL

The American Hockey League released the regular season schedule this afternoon and Rampage fans can now begin marking their calendars and scheduling babysitters. The Rampage will open up their 17th season at home on October 6th against the Grand Rapids Griffins. The Rampage are 11-5-1 in home openers, including a 2-1 victory over the Ontario Reign last season.

An annual feature of the Rampage season, the hated Rodeo Road Trip, will kick off on Friday February 8th in Des Moines and wrap up 19 days later in the newest AHL city, Loveland, Colorado. In that span the Rampage will play ten games–six within the division–in six different states.

The 2019 season will wrap up with the Rampage and rival Stars playing three games in four nights. With a little bit of luck and good hockey, those games could go a long way in determining playoff seeding for one, or both, clubs.

Instead of repeating what is already out there, I will post this graphic sent out by the team. (From sarampage.com)

Highlights:

• With the move to the Central Division, the Rampage now have a much more “normal” schedule than in years past. With the exception of February (Rodeo) and March (recovery from Rodeo), the remaining months have fairly equitable home/road splits.
• As seen above, 28 of 38 home games fall on a weekend. On the flip side, 26 of 38 road contests fall on weekend dates.
• The Rampage have a total of four dreaded “three-in-three’s”, three of which are played completely on the road. Two of them are on back to back weekends in November/December.
• Rampage fans won’t have to wait long to see some of their former favorites as the Colorado Eagles will come to town the second weekend of the season for a two game set starting October 12th.

As always, all Rampage games can be heard on Ticket760 or streamed on AHLLive.

According to Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St Louis Blues and San Antonio Rampage will begin a five year affiliation deal beginning with the 2018-19 season.

Teams haven’t commented, but Rutherford pieced his story together from numerous sources around both the NHL and AHL, confirming what we at Running With the Herd speculated about on our mid-summer show. When reached, the Rampage politely declined to comment.

Still, there are questions galore regarding this situation.

Is Colorado the mystery team vying for the AHL’s 31st team? They make the most sense, to me, as they have an interested ECHL team, that team is 90 minutes away from Denver, and they could slot perfectly into the Pacific.

The biggest question for Rampage fans, what about this year? Rutherford states that the Blues will use this season to spread around their 16 or so prospects. He further speculates that upwards of six Blues prospects could find themselves in San Antonio for this coming season.Who those six players are, and what their role on the Rampage will be is still in question, and we may not know the answers until training camp.

One name we’ve seen circulated for weeks, and which seems to be backed up by the Avalanche’s lack of activity on the goalie free agent market is goalie Ville Husso. Husso was drafted 94th overall in the 2014 draft and is entering his second season in North America. In 22 games with the Wolves last season, Husso registered a .920%. The Blues will want to get him plenty of games, and with only Spencer Martin and Joe Cannata under contract, San Antonio is as good a place as any to do so.

Other names to consider, former Rampage center Wade Megan, who led the AHL with 33 goals last season and veteran Dman Chris Butler, a dependable veteran blue line presence and captain of the Wolves.

Many questions still remain to be answered, but one thing is certain; this summer has been a bizarre ride of speculation and rumor. This season figures to be even wilder.

 (Darren Abate/AHL)

The full AHL game-by-game schedule was released today, a full month before its usual release date. With only two teams now sharing an NBA arena–San Antonio and Cleveland–the AHL pushed up their schedule release to mid-July for the first time in recent memory.

The Rampage open the 2017-18 season at home against division rival Ontario on Saturday, October 7th. They will finish the season playing at Texas on Sunday, April 14th.

In between, the schedule highlights include:

• The annual Rodeo Road Trip consists of 12 games in 26 days beginning Feb 3rd at Texas and ending Feb 28th at Ontario
• The 14 game series against rival Texas wastes no time getting started as the Rampage travel to Cedar Park for back to back games at the HEB center on Oct 20-21 followed by a Sunday home game on Oct 22.
• That early playoff-like series against Texas is just one of two “Three-in-threes”, the other ending the season with a home game against Grand Rapids and Texas on Friday and Saturday nigh respectively, then wrapping up the regular season with a trip to Cedar Park on Sunday.
• The annual School Kid’s day game will take place Nov 14 against Grand Rapids.
• The Rampage will play a 3pm Sunday matinee at home on New Year’s Eve against San Diego.
• Five trips–one during the rodeo trip–to California.
• 12 Dollar Beer Nights

All games can be heard on Ticket760 and streamed live on AHLlive.com

Darren Abate/AHL

Before the crew at Running With the Herd head off into the summer sunset, there’s a little business that needs tending to. Brendan Ranford has been named the Player of the Month for April. In 8 games, Ranford scored three goals and added a team best six assists. His nine points were second to only Colin Smith for the month. Ranford also led the team with 20 shots on goal.

The former Texas Star finished the season with a bang, recording four assists in the final game of the season in Cedar Park. All told, Ranford finished with seven assists and one shootout winning goal in his five games against his former club since being acquired on deadline day from Tucson for Joe Whitney.

Now, it’s time for sun, sand, and golf. Check back for summer updates. When news breaks, we will be the first (or fourth) to bring you our opinions.

(Darren Abate/AHL)

For the second time this season, Rocco Grimaldi has been named the “Running With the Herd Live Player of the Month”.

Grimaldi led all Rampage skaters with 8 goals and 11 points in 13 games in March. Additionally, the 5’6″ bundle of energy also led the team with 44 shots on goal for the month, 15 more than the next closest player.

His stellar offensive play in March led to his second callup of the season to the Colorado Avalanche, the Rampage’s NHL affiliate. Grimaldi has registered one assist in four games with the Avs this season, his first in the organization.

For the season, Grimaldi leads the Rampage with 29 goals, just four shy of the all-time franchise record for goals in a single season, currently held by Don MacLean. He will have three games to attempt to break the record, all against the Stars. Rocco has scored six goals in 11 games against the rival Stars this season.

All games can be heard on Ticket760 and seen on AHL Live.

Photo by Darren Abate

San Antonio Rampage center Felix Girard has been named the Running With the Herd Player of the Month for February.

The San Antonio Rampage managed a single win in the entire month of February. Finding a player that stood out wasn’t as difficult as expected. Girard, 22, registered 3g-4a-7pts playing in all ten games this month. He also was second on the team in SOG with 26, trailing only Rocco Grimaldi’s 27 for the team lead.

Since being acquired from Nashville in the Cody MacLeod trade, Girard has seen a dramatic spike in his offensive production, mostly playing alongside Grimaldi and Gabriel Bourque. In 18 games since the trade, Girard has scored four goals and added an additional nine assists. His 0.72 pts/game pace is second on the team, trailing recently promoted JT Compher by just 0.01.

The Rampage kick off March with a semi-revamped team tonight. playing on home ice for the first time in exactly one month. The Grand Rapids Griffins come to town for the first time this season for Military Appreciation Night. Puck drop is at 7:30pm CT and the game can be heard on Ticket760.

photo by Darren Abate

San Antonio Rampage forward Rocco Grimaldi has been named the Running With the Herd Player of the Month.

Grimaldi led the Rampage with 8 goals and 12 points over 13 games played in January. The soon to be 24 year old forward scored the game winning goals in the last three Rampage wins. For the season, Grimaldi leads the Rampage in goals (18), points (35), game winning goals (5) and shots (135). Additionally, he is second on the team in assists (17), trailing only AJ Greer.

To go along with today’s prestigious honor, Grimaldi also earned AHL Player of the Week for last week’s performance.

The Rampage return from the All-Star break this Friday to take on the rival Texas Stars for the first game of a home and home set before heading off for the annual Rodeo Road Trip. Friday’s game is also the annual Pink in the Rink game, and a huge crowd is expected to see the boys off.

Photo courtesy AHL.com

The San Antonio Rampage will send two players to Allentown, PA at the end of the month to represent the Silver & Black in the 2017 AHL All-Star Classic presented by Capital Blue Cross.

(Darren Abate/AHL)

AJ Greer, 20, is tied for the lead among all Rampage skaters in goals (10), assists (14), and points (24). He also ranks second on the team with 0.80 points per game. The first year pro has turned heads both inside and outside the organization and has already been rewarded with two callups to the NHL.

(Darren Abate/AHL)

Martin, 21, is in his second year with the Rampage and has quickly developed into a bona fide #1 goaltender in the AHL. Martin is tied for the league lead with 14 wins and ranks in the top half of the league in both GAA and Save% while playing the second most games this season.

This marks just the second time multiple Rampage players have been selected to an All Star game. In 2015, Drew Shore and Alex Petrovic were selected as representatives. Shore, however, was traded a week before the event, meaning this will be the first time both players will represent the team in the same season.

All-Star weekend is January 29th and 30th. Check your local listings for TV times.

Photo by Darren Abate/@peakaction

In news sure to alienate half of the Rampage fanbase, the Captain, Joe Whitney has been named the Running With the Herd Player of the Month for December. Whitney led the Rampage in scoring for the month registering 12 points (4g-8a) in 13 games. His four goals were tied for the team lead. Whitney added a team best eight assists as well.

As a team, the Rampage finished December with a 7-5-1 record despite missing numerous key players to injury. The team’s on-ice leadership and coaching deserve a ton of credit for keeping the team hovering near .500 until those top players came back from injury.

Among the other impressive performances for the month:

AJ Greer – 4g-5a-9pts in 13GP

Rocco Grimaldi – 4g-4a-8pts and 36 SOG in 12GP.

Jim O’Brien – 4g-2a-6pts in 6GP since returning from injury

JT Compher – 3g-3a-6pts in 6GP since returning from injury

Chris Bigras – 1g-3a-4pts in 3GP since returning from injury

Cody Corbett – 2g-4a-6pts in 10GP

The Rampage continue their six game road trip Wednesday night in San Jose. Puck drop is at 9:00CT and, as always, all of the action can be heard live on Ticket760.