A few months ago, it was announced that the Montreal Canadiens had acquired the Brampton Beast as their ECHL affiliate. The ECHL is the premier "AA" league in North America.
The @BramptonBeast Announce the Montreal Canadiens as their NHL Affiliate. DETAILS -> http://t.co/BJ977Kjz5P pic.twitter.com/LkuNENMKgB
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) May 28, 2015
With this new partnership, the Beast not only partner with an NHL team, but also the Canadiens' AHL affiliate St. John's IceCaps.
Typically in any NHL/AHL/ECHL model, the best players are obviously with the NHL club, middle of the pack play for the AHL team, and the bottom third of players in the organization play for the ECHL team.