PORTLAND – It was one of the worst-kept secrets in minor-league hockey, but on Tuesday, the Portland Pirates made it official: The Buffalo Sabres will take over as the team’s NHL affiliate, effective immediately.

The rumblings of a deal between Portland and Buffalo started in the middle of last season, when industry talk indicated that Anaheim – which was affiliated for three years with the Pirates – was looking for an affiliate closer to home.

Meanwhile, the relationship between the Sabres and Rochester of the AHL also spiraled downward. For the last three seasons, Buffalo and Florida shared Rochester.

A meeting between Pirates’ CEO and Managing Owner Brian Petrovek and the Sabres’ brass in November yielded a preliminary agreement, and once Anaheim singed last week with the Iowa-based AHL franchise (formerly the Iowa Stars), Tuesday’s announcement became a mere formality.

“We had a meeting on the first of November,” Petrovek said. “That afternoon, we continued the back-and-forth, and I got a call from (Buffalo’s Managing Partner Larry Quinn’s) chief operating officer, and we began to put the details of the relationship together.”

The shift, according to Petrovek, will make sense, both geographically and philosophically, for both clubs.

“We looked at Boston … and their relationship with Providence is strong, and good for the league,” Petrovek said. “Then, we looked at Montreal. Montreal and Hamilton have a good relationship, and is good for the league … We looked at ‘next’ as ‘best.’ We met on November first, and to me, they really had me at hello.”

As for the players hockey fans can expect to see in Portland, Regier was less than completely forthcoming, but said the Sabres’ mission is to develop players through its farm system for the parent club in Buffalo.

“We really have a common goal, and that common goal revolves around the players on the ice,” Buffalo Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier said. “The younger players are the life-blood of our team. We’re not into the free agency. We have, depending on the roster, usually about two-thirds of our players have been drafted and developed by our scouts and coaches.”

Some names Regier did mention included former Boston College standout Nathan Gerbe, former PEI Rocket defenseman-turned-forward Marc-Andre Gragnani, and former Saint John Sea Dogs’ forward Felix Schutz.

Regier also left open the possibility that some players who played in Portland last season could well end up on this season’s roster, too.

“It is something we’ll look at, of course,” Regier said, with Maine native Eric Weinrich in the room watching.

As for scouting, Regier said that while Portland’s proximity to Lewiston will enable them to better scout the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and, specifically, the Lewiston Maineiacs, the organization was already well-entrenched within the league.

“Our head scout and our assistant head scout are both based in Prince Edward Island,” Regier said, “So their proximity to the Quebec league is much stronger than most teams.”

The agreement between the teams runs officially for five years, though the Buffalo Sabres hold an option on the final two, meaning that only three of the five years of the contract are guaranteed.

“We didn’t feel, quite frankly, as we looked at it, that we (the Pirates) needed the option,” Petrovek said. “We felt really good about the terms as they were.”

The Pirates open training camp in September.