Houston Aeros (Sports Team)

The Houston Aeros were a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. The team played in Houston, Texas, at The Summit (renamed Compaq Center in 1998) from their inception in 1994 until 2003 when they moved to the Toyota Center, where they remained until the conclusion of the 2012-2013 season when they relocated to Des Moines, Iowa, rechristened as the Iowa Wild. The team operated as an independent minor league team from 1994-2001 when they were members of the International Hockey League, though occasionally accepted some players on loan from various National Hockey League clubs for development. Upon joining the AHL for the 2001-2002 season, they became the primary affiliate of the Minnesota Wild, a partnership they maintain to this day in Iowa. While the team's only formal partnership with the Dallas Stars came in the form of a partial affiliation agreement during the 2004-2005 season, Dallas occasionally sent some of their prospects to the Aeros on individual loans from 1993-2005, until the establishment of the Iowa Stars gave Dallas its own primary farm team. As of March 12th, 2020, Mikko Koivu, Jared Spurgeon, and Matt Dumba are the only players still in the Minnesota Wild system who had once spent time in Houston.