The Nova Scotia Voyageurs were a professional ice hockey team, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. They played in the American Hockey League, from 1971 to 1984. Originally chartered as the Houston Apollos of the Central Hockey League, the organization was relocated to Montreal after five seasons due to low attendance and travel costs. The Voyageurs played their first two seasons, as the Montreal Voyageurs and were the affiliate of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens. In 1971, they relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia. They were the firstAHL team to be located in Atlantic Canada, and would be the first to play in the Halifax Metro Centre. The team was also the first Canadian club to win the Calder Cup, and were the class of the league for many years - only in two seasons did the team garner a losing record, and the Voyageurs never missed the playoffs. The team eventually moved to Sherbrooke, Quebec to become the Sherbrooke Canadiens. The Vees won three Calder Cups, the first in 1972. Nova Scotia won again in 1976 and 1977, while their parent Canadiens were winning back-to-back Stanley Cups; this is the only time an NHL/AHL affiliated combo have won both Cups in the same year twice. The team was replaced in Halifax by the Nova Scotia Oilers, an affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers and subsequently the Halifax Citadels, an affiliate of the Quebec Nordiques. With the success of the Voyageurs in its existence of 13 seasons, it spawned a period of 34 consecutive years where there would be at least one AHL team in Atlantic Canada. This was largely due to the desire of several Canadian NHL franchises to continue to pay players sent down to the minors in Canadian dollars throughout the 1980s and 1990s. However, by the late 1990s, many of the remaining AHL teams in Atlantic Canada had disappeared, either by relocation or by the franchise being rendered dormant. The last remaining team in this long period would be the St. John's Maple Leafs, which moved from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador in 2005 to Toronto, Ontario to play as the Toronto Marlies. The AHL did not return to Atlantic Canada until 2011 with the St. John's IceCaps.
