Fred Poulin Rabid Habs
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The Canadiens AHL affiliate will be named the Laval Rocket
Earlier this summer, the Montreal Canadiens had announced they will move their AHL affiliate, the St. John’s IceCaps, to the nearby city of Laval for the start of the 2017 season. The name “Laval Rocket” was chosen by a fan vote, the winning name earning 51% of all votes, mostly in honor of former Habs legend, Maurice “Rocket” Richard.
The other top three finalists where the Rapides and the Patriotes, which earned 25% and 24% respectively. Overall, 850 different names were submitted by hockey fans and more that 54,000 votes were cast during the process.
The new team’s logo and colour pattern will be chosen in the upcoming months, but it expected to keep the traditional blue, red and white scheme.
The current American Hockey League club, the IceCaps, will play its final season in St. John’s, Newfoundland before moving to Laval in time for the 2017-18 campaign.
The new AHL team will play its home games at Place Bell, a 10,300-seat arena built on the outskirts of the Montmorency metro station, just north of the Montreal island.
In March 2014, Laval’s new mayor Marc Demers estimated that the cost of Place Bell would double to more than $200 million, because of costs not accounted for by the previous administration. The construction of the building started in 2014 and is slated to be completed in 2017 on time to welcome the new Laval Rocket.
Fred Poulin