{"id":238194,"date":"2026-05-20T16:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238194\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T16:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:54:12","slug":"echls-trenton-ironhawks-announced-nhl-affiliate-with-new-york-islanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238194\/","title":{"rendered":"ECHL&#8217;s Trenton Ironhawks announced NHL affiliate with New York Islanders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Minor league hockey is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/philadelphia\/news\/trenton-ironhawks-echl-team-name-logo\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">returning to Trenton<\/a>, New Jersey, in October after 13 years, and now the Ironhawks have an NHL affiliation.<\/p>\n<p>The Ironhawks of the ECHL and the New York Islanders announced an affiliation agreement between the two clubs Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>With the affiliation, Trenton joins Hamilton of the American Hockey League as the Islanders&#8217; primary minor league affiliate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Judging by the early support for the Ironhawks, Islanders prospects will develop in an electric atmosphere and a community that loves cheering them on,&#8221; Ironhawks president Bob Ohrablo said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Trenton was previously the Islanders&#8217; ECHL affiliate from 1999-2002 and again in 2005-06, when it was known as the Titans.<\/p>\n<p>Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche said they&#8217;re excited to partner with the Ironhawks to bring pro hockey back to Trenton and have the Ironhawks serve as a &#8220;platform for our prospects to develop both on and off the ice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve had several members of the current and past Islanders teams play games in the ECHL and look forward to continuing that trend in Trenton,&#8221; Darche said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/philadelphia\/news\/trenton-hockey-club-echl-minor-league\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">return of pro hockey to Trenton<\/a>\u00a0was announced in September 2025. In January, the team announced its team name and logo, chosen through a fan contest.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While the name Ironhawks evokes Trenton&#8217;s proud past as an industrial powerhouse, this team will play an important role in shaping a Trenton renaissance,&#8221; Mercer County Executive Dan Benson  said in January. &#8220;Bringing new economic activity, creating jobs, and igniting business opportunities right here in our community.&#8221; \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Trenton hasn&#8217;t had pro hockey since 2013, when the Titans ceased operations. The city was home to the Trenton Titans from 1999-06, then the Devils from 2007-11 and then back to the Titans from 2011-13. The ECHL team had NHL affiliations with the Philadelphia Flyers, New Jersey Devils, Islanders and Los Angeles Kings.<\/p>\n<p>The Ironhawks will play at CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton. Their first game is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24.<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minor league hockey is returning to Trenton, New Jersey, in October after 13 years, and now the Ironhawks&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3180,17772,1066,9,11,10,93066],"class_list":["post-238194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-hockey","tag-mercer-county","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-trenton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}