The Montreal Canadiens will be saying goodbye to the Steel City as the team announced Thursday that they had purchased the team and will transfer it from Hamilton to St. John’s Newfoundland for the next two years.
The team will be known as the St. John's IceCaps. St. John's had previously been an affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets.
The Canadiens have had their farm team in Hamilton since 2002.
The Hamilton Bulldogs won the Calder Cup in 2007, beating the Hershey Bears in five games.
Some have speculated that the Canadiens intend to move their AHL affiliate to Laval but any possibility of that happening would have to wait until the fall of 2017 at the very soonest.
The moves are part of a larger carousel of hockey changes. Winnipeg's farm team will join the big league club in Winnipeg next season after leaving Newfoundland. Meanwhile the OHL Junior Belleville Bulls will be moving to Hamilton.
