It's been announced that the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Syracuse Crunch have a new partner to work with! The Brampton Beast is the new CHL affiliate of TampaCuse. They will share development duties for Tampa with the ECHL's Florida Everblades and the AHL's Syracuse Crunch.

The following is from the organization's official release:



"We take our developmental system very seriously," Yzerman said. "The Beast organization has all the ingredients to be a successful hockey franchise, including operating in a strong hockey market. Owner Gregg Rosen, president Cary Kaplan and the rest of their staff have a long history in hockey and are fully capable of building a winning foundation both on and off the ice in the City of Brampton." The Beast are a professional ice hockey team based in Brampton, Ontario. The team is set to begin its inaugural season in 2013-14 out of the Powerade Centre, a 5,000-seat arena in Brampton, located northwest of Toronto. As the first and only Canadian member in the league, the Beast will join nine other minor-professional CHL teams in the United States. The Beast are led by head coach Mark DeSantis and assistant coach Brent Hughes.

The Beast's Twitter was really hyping up the announcement today, so it sounds like they're very excited to become a partner in Tampa's quest to develop players. You can follow the Beast through that link. They also have a website and a Facebook account.



The CHL stands for the Central Hockey League and consists of 10 professional-level teams. According to their website, they've been in operation for 22 years. Tampa was once affiliated with the Colorado Eagles, but the partnership only lasted a season (2009-2010).