The 2009–10 ECHL season was the 22nd season of the ECHL. It ran from October, 2009 until April, 2010, followed by the Kelly Cup playoffs which lasted until May 21, 2010 as the

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 ...

won their second Kelly Cup championship in three years by defeating the

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 ...

in five games. The league welcomed two franchises to the league for the 2009–10 season with the return of the

Toledo Storm The Toledo Storm were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the ECHL from 1991 to 2007. The Storm played their home games at the venerable Toledo Sports Arena along the eastern banks of the Maumee River in Toledo, Ohio. The team colors ...

as the

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 ...

, who will play in the Lucas County Arena in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, after a two-year suspension of the franchise to allow for the construction of their new arena, and the admission of the

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 ...

as an expansion franchise who will play in

Wings Stadium Wings Event Center (formerly Wings Stadium) is a 5,113-seat multi-purpose arena located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The arena, opened in 1974, is home to the Kalamazoo Wings, an ice hockey team in the ECHL. The stadium changed the name to the Wings ...

Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

. The ECHL held its annual All-Star Game and Skills Challenge on January 19–20 at

Citizens Business Bank Arena Toyota Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Ontario, California, United States. The arena hosts local sporting events and concerts and is suitable for indoor events, including basketball, ice hockey, ice shows, boxing, graduation ceremonies and con ...

Ontario, California Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County in the U.S. state of California, east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area, ...

, home of the

Ontario Reign The Ontario Reign are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) that began play in the 2015–16 season. Based in Ontario, California, and affiliated with the National Hockey League's Los Angeles Kings, the team plays i ...

League business

Team changes

Departures

Following the league's Mid-Season Board of Governors Meeting on March 27, 2009, the league announced that two teams had been granted one-year extensions to voluntary suspensions because of arena issues, two teams would suspend operations for the season and that one team would cease operations following the conclusion of the

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. ...

. The economic crisis forced the ECHL to allow one-year extensions on voluntary suspensions for two teams in South Carolina, one in Columbia and one in

Myrtle Beach Myrtle Beach is a resort city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is located in the center of a long and continuous stretch of beach known as "The Grand Strand" in the northeastern part of the state. Its y ...

. Both franchises awaited approvals for their new arenas in Irmo and Conway, respectively, as neither arena has begun construction. The

Dayton Bombers The Dayton Bombers were an ECHL ice hockey team located in Dayton, Ohio. The team most recently was in the North Division of the ECHL's American Conference. The Bombers originally played at Hara Arena from 1991 to 1996. The team moved to the Ervi ...

and the

Mississippi Sea Wolves The Mississippi Sea Wolves are a professional hockey team based in Biloxi, Mississippi, and play in the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. The Sea Wolves are members of the FPHL. They are a revival of a team by the same name that played in the ECHL, ma ...

announced that they would be suspending operations for the 2009–10 season and had to present new business plans to the league in June 2009. Dayton owner Costa Papista cited declining support as the reason for the team being forced to suspend operations. Dayton averaged 3,679 fans per home game in 2008–09 (up slightly from 3,663 in 2007–08), but the Bombers would consistently fall short of the league's average attendance each year (4,218 in 2008–09). Papista stated that it is hard to sell hockey at the Bombers primary arena, the

Nutter Center The Nutter Center is a multi-purpose arena located at Wright State University, in Fairborn, Ohio. It mainly serves as the home court of the Wright State Raiders men's and women's basketball teams. It is also regularly used as a music venue for ...

on the campus of

Wright State University Wright State University is a public research university in Fairborn, Ohio. Originally opened in 1964 as a branch campus of Miami University and Ohio State University, it became an independent institution in 1967 and was named in honor of aviation ...

Fairborn Fairborn is a city in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 34,620 at the 2020 census. Fairborn is a suburb of Dayton, and part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the only city in the world named Fairborn, a port ...

as the seating capacity is upwards of 9,500 and has proposed building a $30 million, 5,500-seat arena in downtown Dayton that would house professional hockey in Dayton. The proposal is being explored by the Greater Downtown Dayton Plan. The suspension ended Dayton's run of 18 seasons in the ECHL, the second longest to league founder

Johnstown Chiefs The Johnstown Chiefs were a minor league ice hockey team located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, that played in the ECHL. The team was founded in 1987 in the All-American Hockey League, and moved to the East Coast Hockey League (now "ECHL") when that ...

' 21-year run. With a team in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

and the return of a team to

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Orur ...

, ECHL Commissioner Brian McKenna said that he would like to see Dayton return to the league, stating "We very much would like to be back in Dayton and, hopefully, some day we will be." However, two

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

-based businessmen gained approval from the International Hockey League to revive the

Dayton Gems The Dayton Gems were a minor league ice hockey team based in Dayton, Ohio, and members of the International Hockey League from 1964 to 1977, and 1979–1980. In the fall of 1964, the lobby of their new arena, Hara Arena, had a natural gas exp ...

franchise. With the new IHL franchise in place and a failed drive for season tickets and managing partnership to resume play for the 2010-11 season, the Bombers owners relinquished their team's membership in the ECHL at the Annual Board of Governors' Meeting in Las Vegas in June 2009. Mississippi owner Mike Rogers and team president Bill Yates also announced that their team would suspend operations due to economic troubles that included travel expenses and low ticket sales. Mississippi became the latest team on the

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...

corridor to cease operations, after the

Baton Rouge Kingfish The Baton Rouge Kingfish were a minor professional ice hockey team in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as a member of the East Coast Hockey League. The franchise arrived in Baton Rouge in 1996 after relocating from Erie, Pennsylvania, where they had played ...

, Louisiana IceGators,

Mobile Mysticks The Mobile Mysticks were a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Mobile, Alabama that played in the ECHL. They played their home games at the Mobile Civic Center. The team was founded in 1995 as an expansion franchise, joining the ECH ...

, and

Pensacola Ice Pilots The Pensacola Ice Pilots were a professional ice hockey team located in Pensacola, Florida. The team was previously affiliated with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Islanders (2006–07), and the Chicago Blackhawks. They h ...

. Team president Bill Yates stated that the team intended to continue operations in the ECHL, including possibly playing in 2010–11, but there was still the possibility they may move the team to a new city or a different league, most notably the

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

. It was announced in May 2009 that Biloxi and Pensacola were expected to receive

Southern Professional Hockey League The Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) is a professional ice hockey independent minor league based in Huntersville, North Carolina, with teams located primarily in the southeastern United States as well as Illinois and Indiana in the mid ...

(SPHL) franchises for the 2009–10 seasons; the SPHL also announced Lafayette, Louisiana would move to the SPHL. With the new SPHL franchise in place, the Sea Wolves former owners relinquished their team's membership in the ECHL at the Annual Board of Governors' Meeting. The Phoenix RoadRunners told the Board of Governors that the team would not participate in the 2009–10 season and would cease operations effective immediately following the 2008–09 season. At the Annual Board of Governors' Meeting, Phoenix officially relinquished their membership in the ECHL. After sitting out from the league for four seasons on voluntary suspension, the potential

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Myrtle Beach is a resort city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is located in the center of a long and continuous stretch of beach known as "The Grand Strand" in the northeastern part of the state. Its y ...

franchise (formerly the Pee Dee/Florence Pride) relinquished their franchise's membership in the league at the Annual Board of Governors' Meeting.

Additions

Following their two-year voluntary suspension due to construction of a new arena, the

(formerly

) returned to the ECHL and competed at the Lucas County Arena in downtown Toledo. The Walleye brought back former Storm boss

Nick Vitucci Nick Vitucci (born June 16, 1967) is a former professional ice hockey goaltender. He was the head coach of the ECHL's Toledo Walleye from 2009 to 2014. In 2008, Vitucci was inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame. Playing career During his playin ...

as the team's inaugural head coach and Joe Napoli served as the team's general manager. Napoli also served as the general manager and vice president of the

Toledo Mud Hens The Toledo Mud Hens are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. They are located in Toledo, Ohio, and play their home games at Fifth Third Field. A Mud Hens team has played in ...

minor league baseball club, which owned the Walleye, their co-anchor tenant Toledo Bullfrogs arena football team, and Lucas County Arena, under the Mud Hens subsidiary, Toledo Arena Sports, Inc. On June 9, 2009, the ECHL welcomed the

as an expansion member for the 2009–10 season. The Wings joined the American Conference's North Division, renewing old rivalries from the original IHL with Toledo and Cincinnati. The Wings became the second team in three years to jump from the new International Hockey League to the ECHL, following the

Elmira Jackals The Elmira Jackals were a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Elmira, New York. They were members of the United Hockey League from 2000 to 2007 and the ECHL from 2007 to 2017. The Jackals played their home games at First Arena. On ...

who transferred from the IHL to the ECHL in time for the 2007–08 season. Kalamazoo's move to the ECHL was expected after the club announced they were leaving the IHL on June 3, 2009.

League realignment

With Phoenix ceasing operations, Dayton and Mississippi suspending operations for the season and Toledo being added, the ECHL found itself with 19 teams and in need for a realignment of its teams. Following the Mid-Season Board of Governors Meeting, the ECHL announced a new divisional alignment of 11 teams in the American Conference and 8 teams in the National Conference. In the American Conference, the expansion Toledo Walleye would move into the North Division, while the

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 Re ...

and

Trenton Devils The Trenton Titans were a professional minor league ice hockey team that played in the ECHL. The team last played in the Atlantic Division of the ECHL's Eastern Conference. The Titans played their home games at the Sun National Bank Center in Tren ...

were forced to move from the North Division to the South Division. The Pacific and West Divisions of the National Conference will remain the same with the exception of the Phoenix Roadrunners and the

Fresno Falcons The Fresno Falcons were a minor league hockey team. They were charter members of several long standing leagues in the western United States including the Pacific Southwest Hockey League and the West Coast Hockey League. In their final years, they ...

who folded midway through the 2008-09 season. On June 9, 2009, the ECHL announced that the newly admitted Kalamazoo Wings would compete in the American Conference's North Division bring the total number of teams in the North Division to six and the total number of teams in the American Conference to twelve. Following the Annual Board of Governors' Meeting in June, the ECHL announced that it would establish a third division in the American Conference consisting of the Elmira, Johnstown, Reading and Trenton franchises. The move slightly balances the league as all five divisions have four members.

American Conference

= East Division

= *

= North Division

= *

Wheeling Nailers The Wheeling Nailers are a professional ECHL ice hockey team based in Wheeling, West Virginia. They are the ECHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey Lea ...

= South Division

= *

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 ...

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 (N ...

Gwinnett 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 of ...

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 ...

National Conference

= Pacific Division

= *

Bakersfield Condors The Bakersfield Condors are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) based in Bakersfield, California. The team is owned by and affiliated with the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers. The Condors play their home g ...

Las Vegas Wranglers The Las Vegas Wranglers were a professional ice hockey team based in Las Vegas Valley. The Wranglers were members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League). The Wranglers were founded a ...

Stockton Thunder The Stockton Thunder were a minor league professional ice hockey team that was based in Stockton, California, and a member of the ECHL. The Stockton Arena was their home ice, with a capacity of 9,737. The team was an affiliate team of the New Yor ...

= West Division

= * Alaska Aces *

Utah Grizzlies The Utah Grizzlies are a professional ice hockey team in the ECHL. They play their home games at the Maverik Center in West Valley City, Utah. Franchise history The current Utah Grizzlies franchise started in 1981 as the Nashville South Stars ...

Victoria Salmon Kings The Victoria Salmon Kings were a professional ice hockey team based in Victoria, British Columbia, and members of the ECHL. The team debuted in the 2004–05 season and folded after the 2010–11 season. The Chilliwack Bruins of the major junio ...

2010 Kelly Cup Playoffs format

At the Annual Board of Governors' Meeting unanimously approved a new format for the Kelly Cup Playoffs in 2010 as follows: The conference quarterfinals will be a best-of-five game series with the remaining rounds being best-of-seven game series. The best-of-five series will be a 2-3 format with the higher seed choosing if it wishes to host Games 1-2 or Games 3-5. Teams that are less than 350 miles apart may choose to play a 2-2-1 format. In the National Conference, postseason berths will be awarded to the first-place team in each division and the next five teams in the conference, based on points. The division winner with the best record in the conference will receive a bye in the first round, the other division winner will play the 7th seed, and so on. The semifinals will put the Conference champion against the winner of the 4-5 seed games, and the other two series winners against each other. In the American Conference, postseason berths will be awarded to the first-place team in each division and the next five teams in the conference, based on points, with the division winners being the top three seeds. The winners of the 1-8 matchup will play the winner of the 4-5 matchup in the first Conference semifinal series, and the other two winners will meet in the other semifinal.

Player roster revision

As well as the newly approved playoff format, the league also stated that the Injured Reserve would be abolished during the Kelly Cup Playoffs. Instead, the teams will have a maximum roster of 23 players for the postseason with 20 active players and up to three inactive players.

Other league business

During the Annual Board of Governors' Meeting in June, the league announced a few decisions set to try to stabilize the league. The first of which was the Board of Governors' unanimously re-electing Steve Chapman of the Gwinnett Gladiators as the Chairman of the Board of Governors for a fourth straight term. Chapman had been awarded the ECHL Executive of the Year Award in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, the only person in league history to win the award multiple times. With the four team difference between the American and National Conferences, the league revised its expansion policy. After having a membership as high as 40 during the ECHL- WCHL merger, the league capped the number of teams the league would allow to 24, with a priority of putting teams in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

and

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

. The league currently has 20 active members and two inactive members in

Columbia, SC Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city ...

and

Reno, NV Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

. The league received updates from the inactive

Columbia Inferno The Columbia Inferno were an ECHL team based in Columbia, South Carolina. Beginning in 2008, the team went on voluntary suspension awaiting construction of a new arena in suburban Lexington County, South Carolina. However, the ECHL dropped Columb ...

and Reno, Nevada franchises who were granted a one-year extension to their voluntary suspensions. Columbia advised the Board that construction is scheduled to begin later in the Summer on the Lexington County Events Center and that the Inferno plan to return to the ice for the 2010-11 season. The team also announced that it retained the nucleus of its staff and plans to increase its preparation for 2010-11 in October. The Board unanimously approved a request from Reno for a one-year extension to its Home Arena Pending as the ownership group continues its work toward an arena project. The Reno franchise has been on voluntary suspension since the team was granted expansion rights in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

. Finally, the league announced the creation of the Playing Schedule Committee. The committee was created to examine the overall scheduling process. The committee will report to the Board at the Preseason Meeting in September regarding the timing and release of the schedule in coming seasons as well as the criteria to be used in creating the schedule.

Regular season

''Updated through April 1, 2010''

Conference standings

x - clinched playoff spot, y - clinched division title, z - clinched best conference record, e - eliminated from playoff contention * – division leader x - clinched playoff spot, y - clinched division title, b - clinched

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. ...

, best record in the conference and first round bye, e - eliminated from playoff contention * – division leader

Divisional standings

;American Conference Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; OTL = Overtime loss; SOL = Shootout loss; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; Pts = Points ;National Conference Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; OTL = Overtime loss; SOL = Shootout loss; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; Pts = Points

2009-10 Kelly Cup Playoffs

Bracket

Statistical leaders

Leading skaters

These are the top ten skaters based on points. ''GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; PTS = Points; +/– = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes; † = Player no longer with listed team'' Statistics current as of: April 5, 2010

Leading goaltenders

These are the top five goaltenders based on both

goals against average Goals against average (GAA) also known as "average goals against" or "AGA" is a statistic used in field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender or goalkeeper (depending on s ...

and

save percentage Save percentage (often known by such symbols as SV%, SVS%, SVP, PCT) is a statistic in various goal-scoring sports that track saves as a statistic. In ice hockey and lacrosse, it is a statistic that represents the percentage of shots on goal ...

with at least one game played (Note: List is sorted by goals against average). ''GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; SV% = Save percentage; SO = Shutouts; TOI = Time on ice (in minutes)'' Statistics current as of: April 5, 2010

ECHL awards

All-ECHL Teams

ECHL All-Rookie Team

The selections of two players from the Gwinnett Gladiators and Idaho Steelheads marked the eighth and ninth times that multiple players from the same team had been voted to the All-Rookie Team and the first time since the 2001-02 season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Echl Season 2009-10 2009-10 3 3