I think I don’t have to introduce the Halifax Raiders to anyone on the site. Especially not the reputation they have garnered over their 27 seasons of existence in the league. With 2 4 star cups, both within the first few seasons of the franchises existence, and a long history of great teams with nothing to show for it, Halifax is known to be the bad franchise, the bottom feeders. With the move to FHM, there was a feeling that the Raiders needed a change, and a big one in that. Unfortunately, that means one thing – relocation.

Why would one choose Maine? I personally believe that SMJHL franchises have a bit more flexibility in where you can put them as they don’t need to be tied to a massive city like New York, Montreal, LA or something. So when the time came up to choose where we go, the main idea was to try and stay somewhat near the original position of the Raiders, and when we ran across the neighbouring locations, we liked Maine the most as a fairly non-traditional location people don’t think too much about. The franchise name is then I think a pretty logical choice considering its a Maine team. I wanted something a little bit special, so instead of being your typical “group of things“ like standard hockey teams are, we decided to go for Timber. Again, the logical choices follow with the colour scheme and logo there.

Maine Timber will be located in Portland, Maine, and will be playing out of the Cross Arena, sharing it with ECHL’s Maine Mariners. The arena seats 6206 people, and has been recently renovated, and we hope it’s going to be a good new home for the team.

Big thanks to @Wasty for his help with this entire process, as I am about as artistically adept as a newborn elephant.

Finally, I personally hope that this can give the franchise a new, fresh start, something that it needs heading into the new sim engine, and hopefully we can leave Halifax and it’s struggles in the history alongside Simon and his shenanigans.