"At the end of the day though, we felt like a fresh start would work best. We want to build a culture that brings alumni back into the locker room to talk with the current players, whether its sim help or just normal conversations about IRL happenings, a culture that isn’t currently seen in Montreal. This culture is seen in other SMJHL franchises such as St Louis, Vancouver, and Anaheim (I’m sure there are others, too, but these are the 3 I know of 100%). We want to build that here and are confident that this is something we will be able to do, and a fresh start in terms of branding will help with that."

Also I doubt that any alumni sticking with the program will have anything to do with the branding and relocation.