In a space of six months, the Plymouth Whalers franchise has progressed from, "It's in Plymouth, it's going to be in Plymouth" to "Hopefully, Chatham."

With livelihoods and pro hockey dreams hinging on what Whalers (and Carolina Hurricanes) owner Peter Karmanos does with his hockey holdings, it seems best to play the story down the middle until there is more clarity. However, two weeks after news broke that the USA Hockey Foundation will make Plymouth's arena its home game, Karmanos was blunt on Monday with ESPN's Craig Custance about his intentions for the Ontario Hockey League's original U.S.-based franchise.

Spoke with Peter Karmanos who said he's targeting small Canadian city for relocation of Plymouth Whalers: "Hopefully, Chatham." — Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) December 8, 2014

Karmanos on the struggles in Plymouth: "It was continually a battle to break even there, no matter how good we did as a team." — Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) December 8, 2014

That hardly makes it a fait accompli that the franchise will land in hatham. All Karmanos seemed to imply is that Chatham is best-case scenario. It sure isn't going to inspire people in Plymouth to buy tickets, though.



City council in Chatham, which is one of the largest Ontario cities without a major junior club, have discussed building a large arena project as recently as March. The OHL has had relatively good luck with teams moving into small or smallish population centres where hockey is the only game in town, such as North Bay (from Brampton in 2013), Barrie (expansion team in 1995) and Owen Sound (from Guelph in 1989). Chatham is also not directly aligned with another OHL city. It's not necessarily a pipe dream to put a team there, although one string attached probably involves a new arena. Chatham's current main arena's atmosphere is described as "rustic if not rough" in a Wikipedia entry.

A lot has to happen for this come to fruition, although one can understand why the Chatham Daily News and Windsor Star have jumped on the story. The OHL in Chatham certainly seems more plausible than it has in the past.

One question yet to be answered that isn't addressed in Custance's tweets involves whether Karmanos has a timeline to move, but the arena sale in Plymouth would logically suggest that it happen for 2015-16. The OHL deadline for a team to apply for relocation is Dec. 31. Two seasons ago, the future North Bay Battalion were granted league approval in November to leave Brampton, for whatever that it is worth.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.