NHL and AHL affiliates, explained
Affiliations are the wiring of professional hockey. They decide where a prospect plays, how he moves between leagues and what his contract pays at each stop.
What an affiliation is
An affiliation is an agreement between an NHL club and a minor league team. The NHL club sends players it has under contract to the minor league team, where they play every night and develop. In return the minor league team gets players it could not otherwise sign. Some NHL clubs own their AHL affiliate outright, while others work with independently owned teams.
Affiliations are not permanent. A minor league team can change its NHL partner over the years. The Rochester Americans of the AHL, for example, are affiliated with the Buffalo Sabres, and their own team pages list earlier affiliations with the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Vancouver Canucks and Florida Panthers. That is why any list of affiliates comes with a season attached.
AHL affiliates
The AHL is the first stop below the NHL, and every one of the 32 NHL clubs has an AHL affiliate. Does any NHL team not have an AHL affiliate? Not at present. The current list of AHL affiliates of NHL teams is published by the league on its NHL affiliations page, season by season. This site does not copy the list, because it changes and the league's own page is the reliable source.
ECHL affiliates
Most NHL clubs also have an ECHL affiliate, usually linked with their AHL team as a second development level. As of the 2026 to 2027 season, 29 of the 32 NHL teams hold an ECHL affiliation; the Buffalo Sabres, New York Rangers and Utah Mammoth are the exceptions. The ECHL publishes the current pairings on its NHL and AHL affiliations page.
Two-way contracts
A two-way contract is a contract whose salary depends on the league the player is assigned to. The player earns his NHL salary when he is in the NHL and a lower minor league salary when he is assigned to the AHL. It is the most common contract for developing players, because it lets a club move a player up and down without signing a new deal each time.
A one-way contract pays the same salary wherever the player is. The AHL also uses one-way and two-way contracts of its own, with two salary rates, for players signed by the AHL team rather than by an NHL club. Players under NHL contracts in the AHL are covered by the NHL's collective bargaining agreement and are paid by their NHL teams.
Call-ups and recalls
How do NHL call ups work? When an NHL club needs a player, usually because of an injury, it recalls a contracted player from its AHL affiliate and adds him to the NHL roster. The NHL club chooses the player; the AHL team does not decide who goes. Before the season, each NHL club must submit an opening day roster of no more than 23 players, so every recall has to fit within the club's roster limits.
After the NHL trade deadline the rules tighten. Clubs can still use an emergency recall when their roster falls below two goaltenders, six defensemen and 12 forwards.
Movement also happens one level down. An AHL team can assign a player to its ECHL affiliate, and ECHL clubs can bring in players from the SPHL, which is how many SPHL players get their first call-up.
Waivers
Sending a player down is not always simple. When a player is reassigned from the NHL to the AHL, he must normally pass through waivers first. Waivers give the other NHL clubs a chance to claim the player before he is sent down.
Young players are often waiver exempt for their first professional seasons. Whether a player is exempt depends on his position, his age when he signed his first NHL contract and the number of professional games he has played. That exemption is one reason clubs can send young prospects to the AHL freely while older players are harder to move. For the steps before a player reaches this point, see the path to the NHL, and for the league levels, AHL vs ECHL vs SPHL.