The Hershey Bears will play the Bridgeport Islanders in the first round of the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs, and they have both an incredible and rare opportunity.
If Hershey can be victorious in the three-game series, they will end the Bridgeport Islanders… like, literally.
The New York Islanders are relocating their AHL affiliate to Hamilton, Ontario, for the 2026-27 season after the AHL Board of Governors approved the move unanimously on March 31. The relocation will bring professional hockey to Hamilton’s 18,000-seat TD Coliseum, which recently underwent a $300 million renovation. The move will officially end 25 years of AHL operations in Bridgeport.
“On behalf of the entire New York Islanders organization, I want to extend our deepest thanks to the City of Bridgeport and the incredibly loyal fans who have supported this team for the past 25 years,” Kelly Cheeseman, president of business operations for the Islanders and UBS Arena, said in a release. “From the early days of the Sound Tigers to our time as the Bridgeport Islanders, this community has been the heart of our AHL operations. We are grateful for the memories, the partnerships, and the passion the fans in Connecticut have shown our players and staff.”
“We are excited to make Hamilton our primary affiliate in the American Hockey League,” added Mathieu Darche, general manager and executive vice president of the Islanders. “The support the city has shown our organization throughout this transition has been incredible. We look forward to having our top young talent play in front of such a strong fanbase inside the newly renovated, world-class TD Coliseum and we are committed to establishing ourselves in the community to engage a new generation of hockey fans.”
The relocation brings professional hockey back to Hamilton, which previously hosted the Hamilton Bulldogs from 1996 to 2015. The Bulldogs were the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens, as two separate franchises, for 19 seasons. The new team name and logo are coming soon.
This notes the second possible time the Capitals organization can end an era for the Islanders org.
On April 27, 2015, former Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the series-winning goal in Game 7, eliminating the New York Islanders from the quarterfinals of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs. This win technically “closed” the Nassau Coliseum’s 43-year era as an NHL arena before the team moved to Brooklyn.
Alex Ovechkin joked about the opportunity, saying, “It’s our job, you know? I’m going to probably take a chair.”
The Islanders actually returned to the venue several years later. Following their 2015 move to Brooklyn, they split home games between Nassau Coliseum and Barclays Center from 2018 to 2020 before playing their final season there in 2020–21.
Per a Hershey release, the Bears and Islanders/Sound Tigers have played against each other 134 times in the regular season since Bridgeport was admitted to the AHL as an expansion team in 2001-02. Hershey owns a lifetime record of 78-37-3-5-11 against them.
The two teams have previously met just twice in the Calder Cup Playoffs. Hershey won their first matchup, a best-of-seven series in the 2010 East Division Semifinals, 4-1 on their way to winning their 11th Calder Cup championship. They also defeated Bridgeport 3-2 in their best-of-five series in the 2019 Atlantic Division Semifinals.
Bears defenseman Aaron Ness is the only returning player from that 2019 matchup to be on either teams’ roster. Bears assistant coach Brent Thompson, the father of NHL superstar Tage Thompson, was the head coach for Bridgeport in that series.
The first game of the two teams’ third and final career matchup in the postseason is Tuesday night at 7:00 pm at Total Mortgage Arena. The series then shifts to Giant Center on Thursday. If a Game 3 is necessary, the series will return to Total Mortgage Arena on Saturday.
