HAMILTON, Ontario (AP) \u2014 The name of the New York Islanders\u2019 American Hockey League affiliate is the Hamilton Hammers after the club was relocated to the Canadian city from Bridgeport, Connecticut.<\/p>\n
The Islanders unveiled the Hammers moniker and logo at a news conference in Hamilton on Thursday and said it was a tribute to the city\u2019s steelmaking industry. The team is set to play in the recently renovated TD Coliseum.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to building on the progression and foundation established this past season in the AHL and bringing that momentum to Hamilton,\u201d Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche said. \u201cThe Hamilton Hammers will embody the city\u2019s hard-working spirit \u2014 built on heart, work ethic and a community identity that never backs down.”<\/p>\n
Bridgeport made the playoffs this past season in Rocky Thompson’s first year as coach. Prospects such as recent first-round picks Cole Eiserman, Victor Eklund and Kashawn Aitcheson could all be playing for Hamilton in 2026-27.<\/p>\n
The Islanders had their top minor league affiliate in Bridgeport for the previous 25 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HAMILTON, Ontario (AP) \u2014 The name of the New York Islanders\u2019 American Hockey League affiliate is the Hamilton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[2670,2677,64744,5,122,2595,3328,159,5190,5189,4,3494,3492,60587,52361,703],"class_list":["post-580586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-islanders","tag-bridgeport","tag-connecticut","tag-hamilton-hammers-islanders","tag-hockey","tag-islanders","tag-mathieu-darche","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkislanders","tag-nhl","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40802-ap-new-york-city-sports-only","tag-product-40803-ap-new-york-state-sports-only","tag-victor-eklund"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116614653737201713","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}