Washington Capitals, Hershey Bears Affiliation In Jeopardy

Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

On Sunday, the Maine Hockey Journal reported that the Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers are in the running to be the new NHL affiliate with the Portland Pirates. The Pirates affiliation with the Arizona Coyotes is in its final year of their agreement. The Maine Hockey Journey said Pirates’ COO, Brad Church, “has acknowledged that he has held talks with several NHL clubs, but declined to comment on the specifics of those talks. Church did say they were promising, and an announcement was imminent.” Brad Church told the Portland Press Harold that “he had spoken only with potential NHL partners whose AHL affiliation agreements are due to expire this season.” The Portland Press Harold also said that Coyotes GM, Don Maloney, “confirmed over the weekend that their partnership would not be renewed.”

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I don’t see why the Washington Capitals would want to change their affiliation with the Hershey Bears. Their affiliation agreement is up this season, but I don’t foresee the two teams parting ways. Many of the current Washington Capitals players had stints with the Hershey Bears including Jay Beagle, Eric Fehr, Brooks Laich, Michael Latta, Tom Wilson, Karl Alzner, John Carlson, Mike Green, Nate Schmidt, and Braden Holtby. The two teams have had success while being affiliated with one another and are continuing that success with two great teams this season.

Reports coming out today signified that talks are ongoing with the Hershey Bears and Washington Capitals. Tim Leone of PennLive spoke with Hershey Bears General Manager, Doug Yingst, who said “I am certain that the Washington Capitals will not announce that they’re affiliated with Portland this week. Our ongoing negotiations with the Washington Capitals are going extremely well. I think with the busy times of both parties, it isn’t done yet. All expectations are it should be done in the very near future.” Washington Capitals PR man, Sergey Kocharov, also confirmed to the Portland Press Harold that “We are negotiating an extension of our AHL affiliation agreement with the Hershey Bears and do not have any comment about ongoing negotiations at this time.”

It would seem like the Florida Panthers are now the only ones interested in affiliating with the Portland Pirates. It would make sense for Florida to change to the Pirates, and for the Coyotes to then switch over the the San Antonio Rampage. We will see what happens as the Portland Pirates are supposed to announce their new affiliate on Wednesday.

This change in affiliation for the Portland Pirates would be another addition to the growing list of changes in the AHL this season. Here is a list of the current affiliations with the new changes and affiliation agreement terms I could dig up:

Manchester Monarchs-Los Angeles Kings (Ontario Reign moves to AHL, Manchester to ECHL)

Providence Bruins-Boston Bruins (agreed to a “long term affiliation” in 2014)

Portland Pirates-Arizona Coyotes (last season of 1 year extension)

Worcester Sharks-San Jose Sharks (AHL Worcester moved to San Jose’s NHL arena, Worcester no team as of yet)

St. John’s Ice Caps-Winnipeg Jets (Team will move to Winnipeg and play at Jets arena, no official name yet)

Syracuse Crunch-Tampa Bay Lightning (affiliated until 2016-17)

Hartford Wolf Pack-New York Rangers (affiliated through 2015-16)

Albany Devils-New Jersey Devils (last season of 5 year extension)

Springfield Falcons-Columbus Blue Jackets (affiliated through 2015-16 w/ possible 2 year extension)

Bridgeport Sound Tigers-New York Islanders (Isles own the Sound Tigers)

Hershey Bears-Washington Capitals (last season of 1 year extension)

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins-Pittsburgh Penguins (Pittsburgh owns WBS)