Peculiar Minor-League Name

While the Quebec Castors aren't the team in question here today, there was a peculiar name for one team in the Canadian-American Hockey League, the predecessor to the American Hockey League that we know today. The league operated in the northeastern United States for the most part from 1926 until 1940 when it became the AHL permanently, and the only Canadian entry to ever have played in the original league was the Castors to the left who existed from 1926 to 1928 and again from 1932 to 1935. For the first ten years of the league's existence, the league carried either five or six teams depending on what year one is referencing, but there was a team in Boston that were owned by the Bruins that we'll look at today because it seems the Bruins recognized the "minor" portion of minor-league hockey long before anyone else.

Here's the document where the peculiar name is found.

The purpose of said letter from the Boston Bruins was to inform Ron Lyons that his services with the club would no longer be necessary as the Bruins cut Ron "Peaches" Lyons after 14 games in the 1930-31 season after he scored zero points with the club. I'd also like to point out that Lyons was born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in 1908, but that's just a small detail that has nothing to do with where I'd like to direct your attention.

If you look at the top right corner of the letter, you'll see this:

If you're reading that correctly, the Boston Bruins operated a team in the Canadian-American Hockey League known as the Boston Bruin Cubs! Being that they were one level down from the NHL, it's the first time I've seen an NHL club name its minor-league affiliate in a lesser name under its own brand!

I get that there are teams where lesser names are used colloquially - "baby Sens" for the Belleville Senators, for example - and that the Montreal Canadiens operated a team called the "Junior Canadiens", but the Junior Canadiens actually were a junior team in the Quebec Junior Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey Association at times in their existence. Is Boston the only franchise in history to reference their minor-pro team as a baby version of the big club?

If you know of any teams that operated a minor-pro club as a "baby" version of itself, please let me know in the comments! I'm very curious to see if there's a team out there I haven't heard of, so do your best, readers!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!