The Capital District Islanders were a team in the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

based in

Troy, New York Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany ...

, which is located within a region popularly called the

Capital District A capital district, capital region or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any poli ...

. The Islanders were the principal minor league affiliate of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

's New York Islanders during the 1990–91, 1991–92 and 1992–93 seasons. The Islanders were born out of an effort to coax an AHL team into Albany's newly built

Knickerbocker Arena The MVP Arena (originally Knickerbocker Arena, and then the Pepsi Arena and Times Union Center) is an indoor arena located in Albany, New York. It is configurable and can accommodate from 6,000 to 17,500 people, with a maximum seating capacity ...

. However, the

Adirondack Red Wings The Adirondack Red Wings were a minor professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They played in Glens Falls, New York, United States at the Glens Falls Civic Center. The team was affiliated with the Detroit Red Wings of the Nation ...

, based in Glens Falls, had long claimed the Capital District as part of its home territory, and initially refused to allow an AHL expansion team to play in Albany. Those plans changed when the International Hockey League expanded eastward out of its Great Lakes stronghold to move the

Fort Wayne Komets The Fort Wayne Komets are a minor league ice hockey team in the ECHL. They play their home games at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This team was previously a member of the Central Hockey League, the original Inte ...

to Knickerbocker Arena as the Albany Choppers. By this time, the IHL had firmly established itself as the AHL's equal, and the AHL was unnerved by this encroachment into its Northeastern heartland. It sought to sabotage the Choppers by locating another team in the Albany area. It hastily granted an expansion team to a group headed by one of the suitors for an Albany AHL franchise, car dealer Michael Cantanucci. The new team would play at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Houston Field House on its Troy campus. It quickly secured an affiliation with the NHL Islanders, bringing with them most of the players who had been on the

Calder Cup The Calder Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the playoff champions of the American Hockey League. It was first presented in 1937 to the Syracuse Stars. The cup is made of sterling silver mounted on a base of Brazilian mahogany. In its cur ...

champion

Springfield Indians The Springfield Indians were a minor professional ice hockey franchise, originally based in West Springfield, Massachusetts and later Springfield, Massachusetts. The Indians were founding members of the American Hockey League. They were in existe ...

the previous year. In the ensuing price and attendance wars, the Choppers folded midseason. The Islanders' best record was in the 1992–93 season, when the team finished 34-34-12 for third place in its division and a playoff berth. Among the team's notable players were Greg Parks, its leading career scorer in only one and a half seasons; forwards Richard Kromm and Brent Grieve, defensemen Dennis Vaske, Jeff Finley and Dean Chynoweth and goaltender Danny Lorenz. In 1993, Cantanucci sold the franchise to local insurance magnate Albert Lawrence. Lawrence renamed the team the Albany River Rats, changed its affiliation to the New Jersey Devils, and moved the team to Albany's

, the same arena in which the Albany Choppers played in 1990. The current AHL affiliation of the New York Islanders is the Bridgeport Islanders.

Season-by-season results

;Regular season ;Playoffs

References

{{Defunct AHL Ice hockey teams in New York (state) Defunct American Hockey League teams Defunct ice hockey teams in the United States Ice hockey clubs established in 1990 Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 1993 Sports in Capital District (New York) Defunct sports teams in New York (state) New York Islanders minor league affiliates 1990 establishments in New York (state) 1993 disestablishments in New York (state)