PORTLAND — Could the Pirates be on the verge of sailing out of Portland?

Perhaps so, if reports emanating from Albany, N.Y., prove to be accurate.

Reports published in today’s editions of the Albany Times Union say that the Portland Pirates could be relocating to that city, beginning with the 2010-11 season.

Albany has been home to the AHL’s River Rats since 1993, and has been the top farm club of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes for four seasons.

However, that franchise was sold this week to interests in Charlotte, N.C., and will move to that city next season.

Efforts are being made to find a replacement team to play in Albany’s arena, the Times Union Center.

According to the Times Union story, that replacement could be the Portland Pirates.

Two independent sources have told the Times Union that the Pirates, who are in the final year of a five-year lease with the Cumberland County Civic Center, are seeking to relocate to Albany to succeed the River

Rats.

Bob Belber, general manager of the Times Union Center, who is spearheading the search for a new hockey tenant, has implied as much.

Without identifying the team interested in relocating, Belber did tell the Times Union that it was located in the Northeast, and has a Northeastern NHL affiliate.

A handful of AHL teams, including the Pirates, fit that profile.

However, according to the Times Union story, the strongest signs point to Portland.

“There are a few things they have to do on their side,” Belber told the Times Union, citing items such as securing a backup practice facility, having a marketing plan in place prior to arriving in Albany and

developing an exit strategy for their current city. “They are still trying to make money and sell tickets in their current city.”

Belber said that he has provided a proposed license agreement to the

unnamed prospective new franchise operator, which toured the Times

Union Center, Tuesday.

The Portland Pirates entered the AHL in 1994, and have been owned since 2000 by Portland Pirates LLC, whose Managing Owner/CEO is Brian Petrovek.

(Efforts to reach Petrovek for comment, by both the Times Union and Journal Tribune by their respective press times, were unsuccessful).

In 2005, as the team suffered through lean times both on and off the ice, Petrovek gave strong consideration to moving his franchise to Worcester, Mass., which was then a vacant AHL market.

Instead, a new Civic Center lease was signed, and a new affiliation with the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks was forged.

The Ducks left after the 2007-08 season and were replaced by Buffalo, which is in the second year of a five-year development pact with the Pirates franchise.

Presumably, that relationship would remain intact should the Pirates move to Albany.

— Contact Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.