The Brampton Beast (ECHL) have announced a new affiliation with the NHL’s Ottawa Senators and AHL’s Belleville Senators for the 2018-19 season.

“We are thrilled to announce our NHL affiliation with the Ottawa Senators. For many years the Senators have been a team that consistently been built through the draft and development,” said Beast President Cary Kaplan.

“For us, it was vital to affiliate with a team that believes deeply in the three tier NHL-AHL-ECHL system. This marks the first time that one team has all three levels of affiliation in the same Province. With Belleville being a two hour drive down the road, having players move freely up and down is vital to both player development and the Beast winning the Kelly Cup, which remains our primary on ice goal in Brampton,” said Kaplan.

“In addition to being logistically advantageous given its close proximity to Belleville and to the Senators development staff in Ottawa, having the team’s ECHL partner operate within the same province as its affiliates is of great importance to us,” said Ottawa General Manager Pierre Dorion.

The Senators have been members of the NHL since 1992. They are based out of the NHL’s Atlantic Division and play their home games out of the Canadian Tire Centre.

The Belleville Senators are in their second season in the AHL. The team plays their games out of CAA Arena and was previously known as the Binghamton Senators. The club was based out of Binghamton from 2002 until 2017.

Belleville’s current head coach is Troy Mann, who will be behind the bench with the Senators for his first season.

You can view the current NHL affiliations status here.