The Binghamton Devils appear to have played their final game in Binghamton. Tom Mitchell, executive vice president of operations for the Binghamton Devils, told WBNG and Fox 40 that the New Jersey Devils informed the organization that the team will be relocating for next season.

“This is devastating news to us, to the community,” Mitchell told WBNG. “The demands [the New Jersey Devils] were putting on us were absolutely impossible and we just couldn’t comply with them. So it looks like we’re going to part ways, and just try to move on.”

The Devils are playing this season in Newark, New Jersey due to COVID-19 protocols. The team arrived in Binghamton in 2017 after relocating from Albany, New York and played the past three seasons at Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena. The Devils replaced the Senators as Binghamton’s AHL partner following the Binghamton Senators’ relocation the prior year.

It appears that the Devils’ AHL affiliate is headed to Utica, New York. The city’s current team, the Utica Comets, is the AHL affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks have an option to opt out of their agreement with the Comets, and the Comets’ management recently filed a trademark for the Utica Devils.

This news comes after Binghamton nearly lost its Minor League Baseball franchise last year. The Rumble Ponies were set to be among several franchises eliminated in Major League Baseball’s contraction of the minor leagues, but they ultimately kept their affiliation with the Mets when their parent club came under new leadership.

It remains to be seen whether Binghamton will secure another AHL affiliate for the 2021-22 season or if another hockey league will place a team in the area.