According to Carolina Hurricanes team reporter Walt Ruff, the team has reached a working agreement with the Bloomington Bison of the ECHL.
The Bison, who are the ECHL's newest franchise as of this year, already had an official affiliation agreement with the New York Rangers but because there are only 29 ECHL franchises, some teams have to make these types of agreements.
With this agreement, the Hurricanes will still be able to assign prospects to the team.
Last year, the Canes had a similar agreement with the Norfolk Admirals who were officially affiliated with the Winnipeg Jets and had six players play at that level: Domenick Fensore, Griffin Mendel, Blake Murray, Justin Robidas, Ronan Seeley, and Yaniv Perets.
"We are excited to partner with the Bloomington Bison and Hallett Sports & Entertainment," said Carolina Assistant General Manager Darren Yorke to Ruff. "Hallett Sports & Entertainment already has an outstanding reputation in operating the Indy Fuel and we are confident that the same standard will apply in Bloomington. This past year, our prospects had success in the ECHL and we wish to continue those development efforts in close proximity to our AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves."
With more and more Hurricanes prospects beginning to move over to North America and with an affiliation established with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL, it makes sense to make sure there is a connected pipeline and the fact that it's so close to the Wolves is an added bonus.