|
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 wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hertz Arena
Hertz Arena is a 7,181-seat multi-purpose arena in Estero, Florida, which is located between Miromar Lakes, Florida and Bonita Springs, Florida. The arena opened in November 1998 and serves as the home of the Florida Everblades of the ECHL. History The arena was first named Everblades Arena in 1998 after the hockey team that plays there. TECO Energy was the first company to obtain the naming rights to the building, changing the name to TECO Arena. In 2004, TECO Energy decided they were no longer interested in holding the naming rights. Germain Motor Company bought the rights, and in 2004 the venue was renamed to Germain Arena. This same company, an automobile dealership with locations in Florida, Arkansas, and Ohio, also held the naming rights to the Germain Amphitheater in Columbus, Ohio. In September 2018, The Hertz Corporation bought the naming rights for the arena and it was renamed Hertz Arena on October 1. The company petitioned the city to repaint the arena bright yel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2008–09 ECHL Season
The 2008–09 ECHL season was the 21st of the ECHL. League business Team changes The league welcomed one new franchise, the Ontario Reign, which relocated from Beaumont, Texas and played at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California. Two teams, the Columbia Inferno and the Myrtle Beach Thunderboltz, voluntarily suspended operations for the season with plans on returning in the 2009–10 season. The Myrtle Beach franchise was originally planning to return to operations, but their arena had not been completed in time for the Board of Governors Meeting during the All-Star Break. The league announced that they were immediately terminating the Pensacola Ice Pilots franchise, because the team's owners did not intend on fielding a team for the 2008–09 season or any season after that. The team was a founding member of the ECHL as the Nashville Knights and moved to Pensacola, Florida, after the 1995–96 season. Realignment On June 23, the ECHL announced the new divisi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2011–12 ECHL Season
The 2011–12 ECHL season was the 24th season of the ECHL. The regular season schedule ran from October 4, 2011 to March 31, 2012 and was followed by the 2012 Kelly Cup playoffs beginning on April 2, 2012. League business Team changes Following the loss of the Victoria Salmon Kings at the end of the 2010–11 season, the league welcomed as its 19th and 20th teams, the Chicago Express, who played home games at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois and the Colorado Eagles, who moved to the ECHL from the Central Hockey League and played home games at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colorado. Chicago played in the North Division of the Eastern Conference and Colorado played in the Mountain Division of the Western Conference. On July 6, 2011 the New Jersey Devils announced that the Trenton Devils were suspending operations immediately, citing a desire to restructure their player development system to more closely mirror those of other NHL franchises. New Jersey ... [...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] |
2018–19 ECHL Season
The 2018–19 ECHL season was the 31st season of the ECHL. The regular season was scheduled to run from October 12, 2018, to April 7, 2019, with the Kelly Cup playoffs to follow. Twenty-seven teams in 20 states and two Canadian provinces each play a 72-game schedule. The Kelly Cup was won by the Newfoundland Growlers in their inaugural season over the Toledo Walleye. League business League changes After serving as league commissioner for 16 seasons, Brian McKenna, stepped down from the position following the 2017–18 season. He was replaced by Ryan Crelin, who had most recently been serving as the ECHL's chief operating officer. Team changes *The Colorado Eagles ownership left the ECHL, bought an expansion franchise and joined the American Hockey League as the affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche to bring the AHL up to 31 teams to match the size of the National Hockey League to continue the one-to-one NHL/AHL affiliations. *The Maine Mariners in Portland, Maine, were adde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2014–15 ECHL Season
The 2014–15 ECHL season was the 27th season of the ECHL. The regular season schedule ran from October 17, 2014, to April 11, 2015,"ECHL releases 2014-15 schedule" , , June 4, 2014. (accessed 15 June 2014) with the playoffs following. Twenty-eight teams in 20 states and one Canadian province each played a 72-game schedule. Ten days prior to the start of the season, the league was significantly expanded on October 7, 2014, after the ECHL had accepted the |
2004–05 ECHL Season
The 2004–05 ECHL season was the 17th season of the ECHL. The Brabham Cup regular season champions were the Pensacola Ice Pilots and the Kelly Cup playoff champions were the Trenton Titans. During this season, the National Hockey League cancelled its season due to the player lockout. This led to many players who would normally be in the American Hockey League pushed out of roster spots by the younger NHL players back into the ECHL. Some NHL players also found work in the ECHL, some as a way to return to their hometowns (or their wives'), and others to give back to the league which gave them a start. Scott Gomez chose to return home to his Anchorage roots and played for the Alaska Aces. Curtis Brown played for his wife's hometown in San Diego. Jeremy Stevenson, who played his first professional season with Greensboro ten years before, returned to the Carolinas with the South Carolina Stingrays. Stevenson's NHL teammate Shane Hnidy, who played 21 games with the former Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2021–22 ECHL Season
The 2021–22 ECHL season was the 34th season of the ECHL. The regular season was scheduled to run from October 21, 2021, to April 17, 2022, with the Kelly Cup playoffs to follow. Twenty-seven teams in 20 states and two Canadian provinces were each scheduled to play 72 games. The Florida Everblades were the 2022 Kelly Cup champions when they defeated the Toledo Walleye in five games in the Kelly Cup championship. League business League changes Following the delayed and COVID-19 pandemic affected season that led to 12 teams going on hiatus before starting the season, the league returned to its typical season start date in October with 27 teams participating. The league also returned to a two-conference, four-division alignment. Team changes *Eleven of the twelve teams that opted out of participating in the previous season returned: the Adirondack Thunder, Atlanta Gladiators, Cincinnati Cyclones, Idaho Steelheads, Kalamazoo Wings, Maine Mariners, Newfoundland Growlers, ... [...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] |
2016–17 ECHL Season
The 2016–17 ECHL season was the 29th season of the ECHL. The regular season schedule ran from October 14, 2016 to April 9, 2017, with the Kelly Cup playoffs following. Twenty-seven teams in 21 states and one Canadian province each played a 72-game schedule. League business Team changes *The Evansville IceMen voluntarily suspended operations for the 2016–17 season. The IceMen franchise was approved for relocation to Owensboro, Kentucky, following arena issues in Evansville but would have needed at least a year to finish renovations to the Owensboro Sportscenter. However, the IceMen's deal to move into the Sportscenter fell through in September 2016. In January 2017, various media sources reported that the franchise had been sold to an ownership group based out of Jacksonville, Florida, and was approved by the league on February 8. The team returned in 2017–18 as the Jacksonville Icemen. Conference realignment The ECHL returned to a four division alignment for the 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brad Ralph
Bradley Ralph (born October 17, 1980) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey left winger and is the head coach of the Florida Everblades of the ECHL. He played in one National Hockey League game for the Phoenix Coyotes during the 2000–01 NHL season. Career Ralph was a career minor-leaguer, highlighted by playing one game in the NHL. He skated in the ECHL (for the Mississippi Sea Wolves, Augusta Lynx, Dayton Bombers, Columbia Inferno, and Charlotte Checkers) and American Hockey League (for the Springfield Falcons and Hershey Bears) in the United States, as well as a season each for Alleghe HC in Serie A in Italy and AaB Ishockey in the AL-Bank Ligaen in Denmark. After his playing career, Ralph began coaching hockey, spending two years as head coach for the Augusta RiverHawks in the Southern Professional Hockey League and of the Idaho Steelheads in the ECHL. On August 4, 2015, Ralph was named head coach of the Western Hockey League's Kelowna Rockets. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2020–21 ECHL Season
The 2020–21 ECHL season was the 33rd season of the ECHL. Due to the ongoing restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic, the start of the regular season was pushed back to December 11, 2020. The Fort Wayne Komets were the Kelly Cup champions, defeating the South Carolina Stingrays in four games. League business Due to the uncertainty of being able to host games in some locations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, several member teams had not been able to confirm participation in the 2020–21 season and the season start was postponed. In October 2020, thirteen teams confirmed plans to begin to play in December 2020 with others hoping to return in January 2021. All teams had a deadline to voluntarily opt out of the 2020–21 season by November 30, but two teams had been granted extensions: the Fort Wayne Komets and Toledo Walleye. The Komets and Walleye were then approved to postpone their start to February. The league announced its schedule through February 11, 2021. By December 7, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
