BATON ROUGE — A new hockey team is coming to Baton Rouge after the departure of the Zydeco following several weeks of speculation about the future of hockey in the Capital City. 

While the team does not have a name, General Manager of the Raising Cane's River Center Wayne Hodes said that there will be a hockey team playing in Baton Rouge next season. 

"We wanted to keep the continuation of having hockey," Hodes said at the Wednesday announcement of the unnamed Baton Rouge Hockey Club. "In October, you will see the puck drop in Raising Cane's River Center."

Hodes explained that talks to bring another hockey team to the ice in the River Center started when it became apparent that the Zydeco would not be continuing in Baton Rouge. The new team will be owned by Andreas Johansson, who also owns the Binghampton Black Bears, the first Federal Prospects Hockey League team to win three consecutive championships.

"I saw it as my main task to bring in a really strong group that can really help take this further and keep it going," Johansson said.

The new team will, like the Zydeco, be a member of the FPHL. 

The future of hockey in Baton Rouge has been up in the air for the past few weeks, with rumors swirling that the Zydeco would be leaving the Capital City after only a few years in Baton Rouge.

No official confirmation came one way or the other about the fate of hockey at the River Center, with River Center officials only saying they worked hard to keep the team in downtown Baton Rouge. 

Matt Pace, who works with the ownership of the Binghampton team, said that Baton Rouge stood out to him as a home for a new team. 

"We're making sure professional hockey remains in Baton Rouge," Pace said. "We want kids to grow up wearing our jerseys and wearing them to play hockey."  

Management of the team has already begun establishing infrastructure for the new season that starts in October, with a booster club, social media and season ticket sales in various stages of development. 

Among the supporters of the new hockey team in Baton Rouge that attended the announcement was Mayor-President Sid Edwards, who called it a great day for Baton Rouge. 

"No one is more excited than me. I am a ball coach," Edwards said. "I am super excited about this opportunity for Baton Rouge. I just love sports."

Edwards expressed hope that the team can help Baton Rouge recover from a year of uncertainty in the sports world with rough seasons and staffing shakeups at LSU and Southern University's football programs.

"In Baton Rouge, people just latch on when you have a winner," Edwards said.

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