The Rapid City Rush and Calgary Flames have announced that they have extended their affiliation with a multi-year deal. The affiliation will include the Rush in the ECHL, Calgary Wranglers in the AHL, and Flames in the NHL.
The Rapid City Rush and Calgary Flames initially started their affiliation in the 2022-23 season with a three year deal. Since their affiliation started, the Rush have had 14 players who have played in the AHL with the Calgary Wranglers or Calgary Flames. Seven of those players played in the organization in the 2024-25 season with five of them making their AHL debuts including Deni Goure, Trevor Janicke, Connor Mylymok, Charles Martin, and Joni Jurmo.
The Rush have also had one player make his NHL debut with Calgary during their affiliation in Rory Kerins. He made his NHL debut on January 13, 2025 where he registered two assists. Kerins was the first player to play for the Rush, Wranglers, and Flames. During his time with the Flames in the 2024-25 season, Kerins played in five games where he had four assists with a +3. Kerins became the eighth Rush player to make his NHL debut joining Marek Langhamer, Dysin Mayo, Dakota Mermis, Michael Bunting, Adin Hill, Erik Kallgren, and Ivan Prosvetov.
Kerins spent his rookie season in Rapid City with the Rush registering 17 goals and 20 assists for 37 points with eight penalty minutes and a +5 in 38 games during the 2022-23 season.
The Rapid City Rush had their first affiliation with the Arizona Coyotes from 2015-17. They then affiliated with the Minnesota Wild for the 2017-18 season before going back to the Coyotes from 2019-2022.
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