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Charlotte Checkers (1993–2010)
The Charlotte Checkers were an American ice hockey team in Charlotte, North Carolina, and played in the ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League). Franchise history Following a 17-year break from ice hockey, the Checkers returned in 1993 and made the playoffs ten times, including winning the ECHL Championship in 1996. The Checkers franchise was founded in 1993, and was owned by a consortium headed by local auto dealer and NASCAR team owner Felix Sabates, with former Charlotte Hornets president Carl Scheer and NASCAR drivers Richard and Kyle Petty among the minority partners. They played in the old Charlotte Coliseum, which was heavily renovated and renamed Independence Arena. Soon after winning the Jack Riley Cup in 1996, Sabates sold controlling interest minority partner Tim Braswell, who claimed he could make the team more popular. However, in a case of exceptionally bad timing, this came just as the NFL's Carolina Panthers were due to open their new downtown stadium. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ECHL
The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ECHL and the AHL are the only minor leagues recognized by the collective bargaining agreement between the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Hockey League Players' Association, meaning any player signed to an entry-level NHL contract and designated for assignment must report to a club in either the ECHL or the AHL. Additionally, the league's players are represented by the Professional Hockey Players' Association in negotiations with the ECHL itself. Some 662 players have played at least one game in the NHL after appearing in the ECHL. For the 2022–23 season, 28 of the 32 NHL teams have affiliations with an ECHL team with only the Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, and Winnipeg Jets having no official ECHL ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kelly Cup
The Patrick J. Kelly Cup goes to the playoff champion of the ECHL. The Kelly Cup has been awarded to teams since 1997. Prior to 1997, the playoff winner was awarded the Riley Cup, named after former American Hockey League president Jack Riley. The current cup is named after Patrick J. Kelly, the league's first commissioner. The cup is loaned to the winning team for one year and is returned at the start of the following year's playoffs, although the trophy itself has been replaced three times with the first two iterations preserved in the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Kelly Cup Playoffs Most Valuable Player award is also given out as part of the Kelly Cup Championship ceremonies. Nick Vitucci and Dave Gagnon are the only players to win the award on multiple occasions. Eighteen different teams have won the ECHL Championship, with nine (Alaska, Allen, Cincinnati, Colorado, Florida, Hampton Roads, Idaho, South Carolina, and Toledo) winning multiple times. The Hampton Roads Admirals, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlotte Checkers
The Charlotte Checkers are a minor-league professional ice hockey team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the American Hockey League (AHL), and are the top minor league affiliate of the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Checkers play their home games at Bojangles' Coliseum. The current organization is the third team by this name; it succeeded a Checkers franchise that played in the ECHL from 1993 until the end of the 2009–10 ECHL season. The original Checkers team played in the city from 1956 to 1977, originally in the Eastern Hockey League and then in the Southern Hockey League. The franchise is one of six teams to replace and share a name with a predecessor franchise from a lower-tier league; the others are the Bakersfield Condors, Colorado Eagles, Ontario Reign, Rockford IceHogs, and San Diego Gulls. History The franchise was originally based in Troy, New York, as the Capital D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SB Nation
''SB Nation'' (an abbreviation for their full name ''SportsBlogs Nation'') is a sports blogging network owned by Vox Media. It was co-founded by Tyler Bleszinski, Markos Moulitsas, and Jerome Armstrong in 2005. The blog from which the network formed was started by Bleszinski as ''Athletics Nation'' in 2003, and focused solely on the Oakland Athletics. It has since expanded to cover sports franchises on a national scale, including all Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football League, and National Hockey League teams, as well as college and soccer teams, mixed martial arts and professional wrestling, totaling over 300 community sites. In 2011, the network expanded into technology content with ''The Verge'', leading to the parent company Sports Blogs Inc. being rebranded as Vox Media. ''SB Nation'' operates from Vox Media's offices in New York City and Washington, D.C. Corporate affairs and business model From 2005 to 2011, the sports blog networ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carolina Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes (colloquially known as the Canes) are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, and play their home games at PNC Arena. The franchise was formed in 1971 as the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association (WHA). The Whalers saw success immediately, winning the Eastern Division in the WHA's first three seasons and becoming the inaugural Avco World Trophy Champions to cap off the 1972–73 season. The Whalers again competed for the World Trophy in 1978, this time falling short to the Winnipeg Jets in a rematch of the 1973 Finals. The franchise joined the NHL in 1979 as part of the NHL–WHA merger, renaming themselves the Hartford Whalers. The team relocated to North Carolina in 1997, rebranding themselves as the Hurricanes. Carolina advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in 2002, where they were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ice hockey league in the world, and is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. The NHL is the fifth-wealthiest professional sport league in the world by revenue, after the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the English Premier League (EPL). The National Hockey League was organized at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal on November 26, 1917, after the suspension of operations of its predecessor organization, the National Hockey Association (NHA), which had been founded in 1909 i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL season, 2010–11 season, every team in the league has an affiliation agreement with one NHL team. When NHL teams do not have an AHL affiliate, players are assigned to AHL teams affiliated with other NHL teams. Twenty-six AHL teams are located in the United States and the remaining six are in Canada. The league offices are located in Springfield, Massachusetts, and its current president is Scott Howson. In general, a player must be at least 18 years of age to play in the AHL or not currently be beholden to a junior ice hockey team. The league limits the number of experienced professional players on a team's active roster during any given game; only five skaters can have accumulated four full seasons of play or more at the professional level ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albany River Rats
The Albany River Rats were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They played in Albany, New York at the Times Union Center. History Before the formation of the franchise Without a viable indoor arena with an ice surface, through the end of the 1980s the city of Albany had never had a minor league professional hockey team. Three separate attempts to establish teams in the neighboring cities of Schenectady and Troy had proven unsuccessful. The first was in the 1952-53 season when the Capital Region had its first foray into pro hockey in the form of the Troy Uncle Sam Trojans, who played a single season in the Eastern Hockey League, finishing last in the five-team loop and folding after the season. Professional hockey would not return to the Capital Region until the 1980s, with a pair of failed attempts to establish franchises in the low-level Atlantic Coast Hockey League. The Schenectady Chiefs were awarded a charter franchise in the ACH ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Kahn (businessman)
Michael A. Kahn is an American businessman based in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is the founder and CEO of Kahn Ventures, Inc., which operates the 15th largest beer and wine distribution in the United States. In June 2006, Kahn bought the Charlotte Checkers, a minor professional ice hockey team that played in the ECHL. In 2010 he brought the American Hockey League to Charlotte when he purchased and relocated the Albany River Rats, since renamed the Charlotte Checkers The Charlotte Checkers are a minor-league professional ice hockey team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the American Hockey League (AHL), and are the top minor league affi .... References External linksMichael A. Kahn's staff ptofile at Eliteprospects.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Kahn, Michael Living people American Hockey League Year of birth missing (living people) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Texas Wildcatters
The Texas Wildcatters, who took their name from Texas wildcatters, were a professional minor league ice hockey team in the ECHL based in Beaumont, Texas. They played their home games at the Ford Arena. The franchise previously played in Huntington, West Virginia, from 1993 to 2000 as the Huntington Blizzard playing at the Huntington Civic Arena. The Wildcatters relocated to Ontario, California, and were renamed Ontario Reign. The franchise's last game as the Wildcatters was a 1–4 loss to the Columbia Inferno on April 25, 2008, at Ford Arena. History During the 2004–05 season, they were affiliated with the Florida Panthers and the San Antonio Rampage. On October 7, 2005, the Jefferson County, Texas, Commissioners announced that the team would not be allowed to use Ford Arena for the 2005–06 season because the site was being used for Hurricane Rita relief. There was no suitable temporary facility in the area, forcing the Wildcatters to cancel the season. They resume ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florida Everblades
The Florida Everblades are a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Estero, Florida, in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan area. They play in the ECHL and are affiliated with the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League (AHL) starting in the 2022–23 ECHL season. Their home games are played at Hertz Arena. The Everblades were founded in 1998. They play in the South Division of the Eastern Conference in the ECHL. They have failed to qualify for the playoffs just once in team history (2013–14) and have made five appearances in the Kelly Cup finals, winning in 2012 and 2022. History The team was founded in 1998 by Craig Brush, Peter Karmanos Jr., and Thomas Thewes and was named based on the Florida Everglades. The Everblades' logo features a gator-head design fused in the form of an ice skate. Barnstorm Creative Group, a Vancouver graphic design company, designed the logo. Barnstorm was cont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spectrum Center (arena)
Spectrum Center is an indoor arena located in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. It is owned by the city of Charlotte and operated by its main tenant, the NBA's Charlotte Hornets. The arena seats 19,077 for NBA games but can be expanded to 20,200 for college basketball games. History The arena opened in October 2005 as Charlotte Bobcats Arena. The name was changed to Time Warner Cable Arena when the naming rights were purchased in 2008. When Charter Communications purchased Time Warner Cable in 2016, the name was again changed to reflect the Spectrum trade name. The arena was originally intended to host the original Hornets franchise in the early 2000s. The Hornets' arena, the Charlotte Coliseum, was considered outdated despite being only 13 years old. In 2001, a non-binding public referendum for an arts package, which included money to build the new uptown arena, was placed on the ballot for voters; it was placed in order to demonstrate what was believed to be widespread pub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
