The Baltimore Skipjacks were a minor league hockey club that served as a farm team to the Boston Bruins (1982-1983), Pittsburgh Penguins (1982-1987) and Washington Capitals (1988-1993). Prior to the Skipjacks, Baltimore had a long and checkered history with pro hockey. Going back to the World War II era, all of Baltimore’s previous minor league clubs were named the “Clippers”.
The Fredericton Express was an American Hockey League team in the Canadian Maritime province of New Brunswick. The club was founded as an expansion team in 1981 to serve as a farm club to the NHL’s Quebec Nordiques. In 1982, the Vancouver Canucks entered a partnership with the Nordiques to jointly operate and provide prospects to the club. This two-team partnership endured until 1988, when the Nordiques shifted the franchise from Fredericton to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Popular but short-lived minor league hockey team that played at the Cincinnati Gardens from the fall of 1971 through the spring of 1974. The Cincinnati Swords were formed as an American Hockey League farm club of the NHL’s expansion Buffalo Sabres franchise (hence the name).
The Baby Whalers came on the scene in 1980 when the NHL’s Hartford Whalers acquired Binghamton’s previous American Hockey League club, the Broome Dusters, and re-branded the team. During the 1989-90 season, Binghamton was historically awful. The Whalers’ 11-60-9 record ranked as the worst winning percentage in AHL history at the time. After that dreadful season, the New York Rangers replaced Hartford as Binghamton’s parent organization. The team was re-branded as the Binghamton Rangers for the 1990-91 AHL season.
The 2001-2006 Cleveland Barons of the American Hockey League (AHL) represented the second revival of the classic “Barons” hockey brand in Cleveland. The original Barons played in the AHL from 1937 to 1973, followed by the doomed NHL edition of the Barons that lasted just two seasons from 1976 to 1978. These latter days Barons served as the top farm team of the NHL’s San Jose Sharks and played to small crowds at Gund Arena from 2001 until 2006. The franchise moved to Worcester, Massachusetts ahead of the 2006-07 AHL season.
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