Binghamton Whalers

American Hockey League (1980-1990)

Tombstone

Born: May 1980 – Broome Dusters are re-branded as the Binghamton Whalers
Affiliation Change: 1990 (Binghamton Rangers)

First Game: October 10, 1980 (L 5-2 @ Rochester Americans)
Last Game: March 31, 1990 (L 6-2 vs. Hershey Bears)

Calder Cup Championships: None

Arena

Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena (4,855)¹
Opened: 1973

Marketing

Team Colors: Blue, Green & White²

Radio:

1980-82: WNBF (1290 AM)

Radio Broadcasters:

1980-82: Roger Neel

Ownership & Affiliation

Owners:

1980-1985: Hartford Whalers (Howard Baldwin, et al.)
1985-1990: Bob Carr, Jim McCoy & Tom Mitchell

NHL Affiliations

1980-1990: Hartford Whalers
1980-1981: Pittsburgh Penguins
1984-1988: Washington Capitals

Attendance

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Print Download

Source: 1994-95 American Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book

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Background: Whalers Replace Dusters

The Binghamton Whalers were a long-running club in the minor league hockey hotbed of Binghamton, New York. As of 2014, only seven cities in North America have hosted more American Hockey League games than Binghamton, according to local AHL beat writer Matt Weinstein.

The Baby Whalers came on the scene in 1980 when the NHL’s Hartford Whalers acquired Binghamton’s previous AHL club, the Broome Dusters, and re-branded the team. The Baby Whalers logo was a clever re-purposing of Hartford’s NHL logo, which formed a “B” when rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise.

Calder Cup Finals Appearance

Hartford owned and operated the Baby Whalers directly for the team’s first five seasons in the AHL. This included the club’s finest campaign during the winter of 1981-82. Under Head Coach Larry Kish, the Whalers won the AHL’s South Division with a 46-28-6 record. They advanced all the way to the 1982 Calder Cup finals, where they lost to the league’s best team in the regular season, the New Brunswick Hawks, four games to one.

Wretched Final Season & Shift To Rangers

During the 1989-90 season, the Baby Whalers were historically awful. Their 11-60-9 record offered the worst winning percentage in AHL history at the time. Following that campaign, Binghamton’s long-time affiliation with the Hartford Whalers came to an end and the club became the top farm team for the New York Rangers. The team was re-branded as the Binghamton Rangers for the 1990-91 AHL season. The former Baby Whalers franchise later shifted to Hartford in 1997 – ironically to replace the departed Whalers of the NHL – and continues to play on today as the Hartford Wolf Pack.