The 2020–21 ECHL season was the 33rd season of the

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 E ...

. Due to the ongoing restrictions in the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the start of the regular season was pushed back to December 11, 2020. The

Fort Wayne Komets The Fort Wayne Komets are a minor league ice hockey team in the ECHL. They play their home games at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This team was previously a member of the Central Hockey League, the original Inte ...

were the

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. Th ...

champions, defeating the

South Carolina Stingrays The South Carolina Stingrays are a professional minor league ice hockey team based in North Charleston, South Carolina. The Stingrays play in the South Division of the ECHL's Eastern Conference. They play their home games at the North Charleston Co ...

in four games.

League business

Due to the uncertainty of being able to host games in some locations caused by the

, 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

and

Toledo Walleye The Toledo Walleye are a professional ice hockey team based in Toledo, Ohio. The Walleye are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the ECHL. The Walleye were founded in 1991 as the Toledo Storm and play their home games at ...

. 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, 2020, the other eleven teams had opted out from participating in the season and voluntarily suspended operations: the Adirondack Thunder,

Atlanta Gladiators The Atlanta Gladiators are a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Duluth, Georgia. The Gladiators play in the South Division of the ECHL's Eastern Conference. They play their home games at Gas South Arena, approximately northeast o ...

Brampton Beast The Brampton Beast were a professional ice hockey team based in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. The team originally played in the Central Hockey League for one year during the 2013–14 season prior to the league's folding before joining the ECHL f ...

Cincinnati Cyclones The Cincinnati Cyclones are a professional ice hockey team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The team is a member of the ECHL. Originally established in 1990, the team first played their games in the Cincinnati Gardens and now play at Heritage Bank Cen ...

Idaho Steelheads The Idaho Steelheads are an American professional minor league ice hockey team based in Boise, Idaho, and a member of the ECHL. The Steelheads play in the Mountain Division of the ECHL's Western Conference since the 2016–17 season. In 1996, th ...

Kalamazoo Wings The Kalamazoo Wings, nicknamed the K-Wings, are a mid-level professional ice hockey team in Kalamazoo, Michigan. A member of the ECHL's Western Conference, Central Division, they play in the 5,113-seat Wings Event Center. They are the affiliate ...

, Maine Mariners,

Newfoundland Growlers The Newfoundland Growlers are a professional minor league ice hockey team in the ECHL based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The team began play in the 2018–19 ECHL season and have home games at Mary Brown's Centre. They are membe ...

Norfolk Admirals Norfolk Admirals has been the name of two professional ice hockey franchises: * Norfolk Admirals (AHL), a team which played in the American Hockey League from 2000 to 2015 *Norfolk Admirals (ECHL) The Norfolk Admirals are a professional ice hock ...

Reading Royals The Reading Royals are a professional ice hockey team that currently plays in the ECHL. The team participates in the North Division of the ECHL's Eastern Conference. The Royals play their home games at the Santander Arena located in downtown R ...

, and

Worcester Railers The Worcester Railers (also called Worcester Railers HC) are a professional ice hockey team based in Worcester, Massachusetts. The team began play in the 2017–18 ECHL season, and is a member of the North Division of the Eastern Conference of t ...

. On January 5, 2021, the league announced that Toledo had opted out of the season as well, but that Fort Wayne had finalized plans to start playing on February 12. The league announced a conference-based alignment and its schedule through April 4. The league announced a remainder of the schedule on February 10. Due to COVID-19 related postponements and teams' arenas availability, several games throughout the season were rescheduled or cancelled. During the season, the Brampton Beast announced the team had ceased operations entirely on February 18, 2021.

Affiliation changes

All-star game

During the previous season, the league had awarded the

Jacksonville Icemen The Jacksonville Icemen are a minor league ice hockey team in the ECHL in Jacksonville, Florida, that began play in the 2017–18 season. The team is affiliated with the New York Rangers and plays their home games at VyStar Veterans Memorial Are ...

the 2021 All-Star Game, but the Jacksonville-hosted event was deferred to 2022.

Standings

Due to the imbalanced schedule during the pandemic, teams are ranked on

points percentage Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

. Final standings – clinched playoff spot; – clinched regular season conference title; –

Brabham Cup The Henry Brabham Cup is the trophy awarded annually by the ECHL to the team that finishes with the most points in the league during the regular season. The Brabham Cup has been awarded 33 times to 16 different franchises since its debut in 1989. ...

(regular season) champion

Postseason

For the 2021 Kelly Cup playoffs, the top four teams from each conference at the end of the regular season qualified for the postseason. The playoff format is a three-round best-of-five tournament for each series. The postseason began on June 7.

Bracket

Awards

All-ECHL teams

First Team

Jake Hildebrand Jake Hildebrand (born June 19, 1993) is an American ice hockey goaltender who is currently playing for the Löwen Frankfurt of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Playing career In 2012, Hildebrand enrolled at Michigan State University to play ...

(G) – Florida * Samuel Jardine (D) – Greenville *

Les Lancaster Lester Wayne (Les) Lancaster (born April 21, 1962) is a former professional baseball player who pitched in the Major Leagues from 1987–1993 and later managed in the minor leagues. Along with fellow reliever Mitch Williams, Lancaster helped lea ...

(D) – Allen * Anthony Beauregard (F) – Wichita * Aaron Luchuk (F) – Orlando * John McCarron (F) – Florida

Second Team

Evan Buitenhuis Evan is both an English and Welsh male given name derived from "Iefan", a Welsh form for the name John. In other languages it could be compared to "Ivan", " Ian", and "Juan"; the name John itself is derived from the ancient Hebrew name Yəhôḥ ...

(G) – Wichita * Matt Register (D) – Allen * Dean Stewart (D) – Wichita * Tyler Coulter (F) – Rapid City * Peter Quenneville (F) – Rapid City * Cole Ully (F) – South Carolina

All-Rookie

* Evan Weninger (G) – Wichita * Ben Finkelstein (D) – Greenville * Dean Stewart (D) – Wichita * Matthew Boucher (F) – Utah * Jay Dickman (F) – Wichita * Joseph Garreffa (F) – Orlando

References

External links

ECHL website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Echl Season 2020-21 ECHL season 2020-21 3 Ice hockey events curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic