A statement is expected soon from Plymouth Whalers’ Governor Mike Vellucci about the minor-league ice hockey club’s possible relocation to Ontario.

That’s the word this morning from team spokesman Peter Krupsky, who deferred all comment on news that the team was moving to Vellucci.

It emerged on Twitter this week that team owner and founder Peter Karmanos Jr., the retired chairman and co-founder of Detroit-based, wants to move the team from Plymouth Township to Chatham, Ontario, which is east of Windsor, sitting on the eastern side of Lake St. Clair across from St. Clair Shores and the Grosse Pointes.

In a pair of tweets on Monday, ESPN The Magazine senior NHL writer Craig Custance broke the news that the Whalers are seeking a new home. It was quickly picked up by hockey media the past two days.

The tweets from @CraigCustance:

“Spoke with Peter Karmanos who said he’s targeting small Canadian city for relocation of Plymouth Whalers: ‘Hopefully, Chatham.’”

“Karmanos on the struggles in Plymouth: ‘It was continually a battle to break even there, no matter how good we did as a team.’”

Karmanos has complained for years that the Whalers have struggled with attendance at 3,807-seat Compuware Arena.

The club averaged 2,478 fans per game last season, 19th in the 20-team Ontario Hockey League, and has languished in the bottom third of the league’s attendance for years. It’s at 2,378 fans this season, third worst.

Karmanos paid $22 million to build the arena, which opened in 1996.

Chatham is home to the Chatham Maroons of the Western Ontario Hockey League. The junior ice hockey club plays in the 2,500-seat Chatham Memorial Arena, which was built in 1949.

Chatham has about 44,000 residents, and is part of the Chatham-Kent single-tier municipality (a Canadian form of government in which a county and its cities become a single entity).

There are no OHL teams in Chatham-Kent. Besides Plymouth, the league has two other American teams: the Saginaw Spirit and the Otters in Erie, Pa.

Karmanos already has taken steps to pave the way for relocation.

Colorado Springs-based USA Hockey Inc., the governing body for organized amateur ice hockey in the United States, and Compuware Arena issued a joint statement on Nov. 24 that a “deal is in place” for the organization to buy the venue in the first half of 2015. The deal is subject to due diligence, the statement said.

“Our intention is to relocate the National Team Development Program to the facility and also use it to host and showcase other USA Hockey programs and international events,” said Ron DeGregorio, president of The USA Hockey Foundation and USA Hockey, in a statement.

The development team now plays at the 1,000-seat Ann Arbor Ice Cube.

However, DeGregorio’s statement contained a sentiment that conflicts Karmanos’ subsequent statement about moving the team.

“In addition, keeping the current users of the building is important to both us and Pete Karmanos,” DeGregorio said. “There are a number of issues we’re still working through, and while I know people will have questions, we’ll have nothing further to say until a final resolution is reached.”

If the Whalers do move, it will end the club’s 24 years in metro Detroit.

Karmanos launched the team as the Detroit Compuware Ambassadors in 1990, and it was called the Detroit Junior Red Wings for a time. It was the Detroit Whalers from 1995 to 1997 before taking its current name in 1998.

Over its history, the team has played home games at Cobo and Joe Louis arenas in Detroit, Oak Park Ice Arena and The Palace of Auburn Hills.

The Whalers have made the playoffs an OHL record 23 consecutive seasons. The team’s lone OHL playoff championship was in the 2006-07 season.

In May, the Whalers announced sweeping front office changes after Vellucci was elevated to assistant general manager and director of hockey operations for the Carolina Hurricanes, the minor-league club’s parent owned by Karmanos.

Vellucci remains the Whalers’ governor (or team representative to the league). He was the team’s longtime general manager and head coach, duties that now have been split among several employees.

Karmanos bought the Hartford Whalers in 1994 and relocated the team to North Carolina as the Hurricanes in 1997. That further fueled a bitter rivalry with Detroit Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch, who reportedly evicted Karmanos’ junior hockey team from Joe Louis Arena, where the Red Wings play. They also were rivals as minor-league hockey team owners in the early 1990s.

“We are unfriendly rivals. He doesn’t like me at all,” Karmanos told ESPN in 2002.

Bill Shea: (313) 446-1626, [email protected]. Twitter: @bill_shea19