The Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League today announced that the team will be sold and has plans to relocate across the state of Michigan to Flint for the 2015-16 season.
The team will be sold by Peter Karmanos Jr to Rolf Nilsen. Karmanos, who is also the owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, has owned the Whalers since their days as the Detroit Compuware Ambassadors in 1990. He was also the owner of the Hartford Whalers, hence the usage of the name in Plymouth.
Ontario Hockey League team owners will still need to review and approve the sale and relocation before it is made official, their next meeting will take place on February 2nd.
No word on if the Whalers name will transfer with the team to Flint but with Karmanos now out of the picture I can’t imagine the name will remain. FlintWhalers.com is already registered, but it’s by the same guy who owns “BestBreastsEver.com” (obviously NSFW) so… yeah, probably not affiliated with the team.
It’s also unlikely that the team will use Flint’s traditional hockey team name, the Generals, as, well, there’s already a team with that name in the league.
So long Whalers… again.
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