A new team is coming to Ontario, and hockey fans are stunned

On X, insider Frank Seravalli responded to a user asking about the status of the American Hockey League Bridgeport Islanders, revealing the rumored status of the team.

The New York Islanders farm team, Bridgeport has been linked with a potential move to Hamilton, Ontario for next season, with Seravalli reporting back in June of last year that the team was looking at relocation.

Asked for a follow-up about the reports, Seravalli confirmed that the move was in place, and that Bridgeport would be moving to Hamilton.

New York fans expressed sadness at the loss of Bridgeport, and a nearby team gone after two decades.

Neither the New York Islanders or their affiliate Bridgeport have commented on the report.

Bridgeport has been in the NHL since it's founding in 2001, one of two Connecticut-based teams in the AHL along with the Hartford Wolf Pack, the affiliate of the New York Rangers.

Originally named the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the team was renamed to the Islanders in 2021, the franchise having been a stepping stone for multiple future NHLers including Brock Nelson, Ryan Strome, Devon Toews, Nino Niederreiter, & Ryan Pulock.

Hamilton gets it's third attempt at an AHL team, the first being the Hamilton Canucks, a team marred with challenges that folded after two seasons.

The city got its second chance two years later as the Hamilton Bulldogs, affiliates of the Edmonton Oilers and later the Montreal Canadiens.

The team was sold to the Winnipeg Jets, who relocated the team to Newfoundland, but the rights to the name was purchased by the outgoing Belleville Bulls franchise of the Ontario Hockey League.

Hamilton hosted the Bulldogs until 2023, when renovations moved the team to Brantford. In what was supposed to be a temporary housing of the team, the official rights were transferred to the Hyman family, including NHLer Zach, making a permanent move to Brantford.

The new Hamilton team would play in a new venue, TD Coliseum, the renovated and renamed FirstOntario Centre, the home arena of the OHL Bulldogs.

Hamilton once held NHL hockey, a member of the NHL in it's infancy as the Hamilton Tigers. Taking the rights of the Quebec Bulldogs in 1920, and along with it one of the era's best talents in Joe Malone, despite some reluctance from the Québécois about a move to Ontario.

Despite having a superstar in Malone, both as a player and manager, the Tigers struggled in their first four seasons, finishing first in the NHL in 1925, but challenges arose in what would have been their potential triumph.

Disputes emerged over a demand from the team for bonuses for playing in the playoffs, with owner Percy Thompson having already drawn scorn from Tigers players over his frugality in terms of bonuses and rising salaries for the team.

The league failed to broker a compromise between the two sides, leading to a strike amongst the players, and their eventual relocation to New York in 1925, opening up the NHL in the United States.

Refusing to play without their demanded bonuses, the second place Toronto St. Patrick's played the Montreal Canadiens for the NHL Championship, winning Montreal victorious, later losing the Stanley Cup against the WCHL's Victoria Cougars, the only non-NHL champion in the Cup's history since the league's founding.

The loss of the Tigers and their unrealized title shot continues to cloud Hamilton's hockey community to this day.

In 2025, the 100th anniversary of the loss of the Tigers, local Hamilton officials demanded an apology from the NHL for the failure to provide the team with playoff bonuses, and the players' suspension for the strike.

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