Jr. A hockey is set to return to Markham.

A franchise with a long history is skating its way to the city from Hamilton with an official announcement expected this week, yorkregion.com has learned.

With the move of Belleville’s Major Jr. A franchise to Hamilton this coming season, the steel city’s Jr. A Hamilton Red Wings were looking for a new home.

They appear to have found it in Markham, where they will be renamed the Markham Royals (or possibly Royalls, with two L’s, if they adopt the name used years ago) and play out of Centennial Community Centre Arena.

The Red Wings played in Hamilton for 39 years. But with the arrival of the Belleville Bulls — who will be renamed the Hamilton Bulldogs, taking the name of the AHL pro franchise that was recently sold and is moving to St. John’s, Nfld. — saturation of the junior hockey market and demands on ice time at the former Copps Coliseum, now FirstOntario Centre, had become hurdles.

Markham has been without a junior hockey club since the Waxers franchise was suspended by the Ontario Junior Hockey League for financial and operational reasons prior to the 2012-13 campaign.

The lack of even a Jr. A hockey team was seen by some as an embarrassment for Markham, which has touted itself as a good location for a future NHL franchise.

The Red Wings were formed in 1977 as the Hamilton Kilty B’s Jr. B franchise and in 1993 the club became a tier two Jr. A franchise.

The club’s current owner Stuart Hyman purchased the club in 2003 and renamed it.

The Markham Royalls is a moniker used by a Jr. B club in the 1970s which was affiliated with the Jr. A Waxers.