The New York Islanders are moving their American Hockey League affiliate from Bridgeport, Connecticut to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada according to Rogers Sportsnet on Thursday. There are three team names being considered at this time. They are the Mustangs, Havoc and Hammers.
This will mean that there are seven Canadian franchises in the American Hockey League. The other six are the Abbotsford Canucks (affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks), the Calgary Wranglers (affiliate of the Calgary Flames), the Manitoba Moose (affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets), the Toronto Marlies (affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs), the Belleville Senators (affiliate of the Ottawa Senators) and the Laval Rocket (affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens).
However, the new Hamilton based team is the only team that is in a Canadian city and affiliated with an American-based NHL franchise. The Edmonton Oilers are the only Canadian based team in the National Hockey League not affiliated with an American Hockey League affiliate in a Canadian city. The Oilers’s AHL franchise is based in Bakersfield, California.
Hamilton has been in the American Hockey League before. The Hamilton Canucks were the affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks from 1992-94, and the Hamilton Bulldogs were an affiliate of the Oilers from 1996 to 2002, and then the Canadiens from 2002 to 2015.
