Plans To Bring Pirates Back To Portland

The Portland Pirates are planning to come back to the city as an ECHL team for the 2017-18 season, according to the Portland Press Herald.

The Pirates, in its AHL incarnation, were announced to be leaving the city last week to relocate in Springfield, MA for the next season, leaving the city without a professional hockey presence.  Former Pirates player and general manager Brad Church and former team owner Godfrey Wood are behind the efforts to relocate a current ECHL team to Maine’s most populated city.

According to Wood and Church, the new team would adopt the Pirates nickname.  No report at this time as to what ECHL team would potentially be relocating and what the NHL affiliation would be.