Well, it's going to be crowded at MTS Centre next year:
True North relocates AHL franchise to Winnipeg
Thursday, 03.12.2015
True North Sports & Entertainment Limited, in conjunction with the American Hockey League, today announced plans to relocate the AHL affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Club from St. John’s, NL to Winnipeg, MB for the beginning of the 2015-16 hockey season.
Stay tuned for WinnipegJets.com for more, including comments from Jets General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff.
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http://jets.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=757779Moving the AHL affiliate was something that the Jets and True North had been looking to do for at least a couple of years now. The logistics of sending/recalling players back and forth over such a large distance evidently was a real pain. This move is only going to be temporary (maybe just a season or two) until True North can find another, closer location to have the AHL team. There's already talk of resurrecting the "Manitoba Moose" name for them while they're here (so then we'd have the Jets 2.0 in the same building as the Moose 2.0).
Fortunately for the people of St. John's, they're not going to be completely screwed over:
AHL announces franchise transactions
March 12, 2015
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … American Hockey League President and CEO David Andrews announced today that the league’s Board of Governors has unanimously approved the following:
- The transfer of ownership of the Hamilton Bulldogs franchise to Club de Hockey Canadien Inc., owners of the National Hockey League’s Montreal Canadiens.
- The relocation of that franchise from Hamilton, Ont., to St. John’s, N.L., beginning with the 2015-16 season.
- The relocation of the AHL franchise owned by True North Sports & Entertainment Ltd., owners of the National Hockey League’s Winnipeg Jets, from St. John’s, N.L., to Winnipeg, Man., beginning with the 2015-16 season.
Division alignments and schedule formats for the 2015-16 season will be determined by the Board of Governors at a later date.
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http://theahl.com/ahl-announces-franchise-transactions-p196769Basically, the St. John's IceCaps name will still exist since it is owned by their current team president Danny Williams, however it will be composed of the team that is currently (soon to be formerly) known as the Hamilton Bulldogs. This second version of the IceCaps (IceCaps 2.0
) will also only be a temporary arrangement, because the Montreal Canadiens, like the Jets, wanted to have their AHL affiliate geographically closer to make player transfers easier. As such, they have already begun construction on a new arena for their AHL affiliate in the town of Laval, Quebec. So like the Moose 2.0, the IceCaps 2.0 will only be in St. John's for a season or two, during which time Danny Williams and the rest of the current IceCaps front office will have a chance to seek out yet
another team to come to St. John's after IceCaps 2.0 move to Laval.
Confused yet?