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The Greenville Swamp Rabbits are a professional
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
team located in
Greenville, South Carolina Greenville (; locally ) is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway be ...
. They play in the South Division 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 ...
's Eastern Conference and play their home games at the
Bon Secours Wellness Arena Bon Secours Wellness Arena (formerly the BI-LO Center; The Well) is a multi-purpose arena in Greenville, South Carolina. The arena serves as the home of the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the ECHL. History The Bon Secours Wellness Arena was built ...
in downtown Greenville. The franchise had previously played as the
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 ...
from the ECHL's inception in
1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...
until the team's relocation in
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and subsequently as the Greenville Road Warriors until being re-branded as the Swamp Rabbits in 2015. The Swamp Rabbits are the second ECHL franchise to play in Greenville, as the city hosted the
Greenville Grrrowl The Greenville Grrrowl were an ECHL hockey team located in Greenville, South Carolina. They played their home games at the BI-LO Center. In the 2001–02 season, they won the Kelly Cup. The Grrrowl's initial season was 1998–99, with former Ch ...
from 1998 until
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 ...
.


Team history


Greenville Road Warriors (2010–2015)

The franchise was founded as the
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 ...
prior to the 1987–88
All-American Hockey League The All-American Hockey League (AAHL) was a minor professional hockey league formed in 1986 after the Continental Hockey League (CnHL) ceased operations. The league was created by the CnHL teams Danville, Dayton, and Troy adding the Downriver ...
season. The next season, the franchise became one of the founding members of the
East Coast Hockey League 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 ...
, which would be rebranded as 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 ...
in 2003. The Chiefs would flounder for several years as the owners of the team tried to find new local ownership, but failed. After losing a reported $100,000 per year and facing an expensive rent posted by their arena's new owners, the Chiefs began taking offers to relocate the team. On February 13, 2010, the '' Tribune-Democrat'' newspaper began reporting that parties in Greenville, South Carolina, were in negotiations with Chiefs' owner Neil Smith about relocating the team for the 2009–10 season out of the
BI-LO Center Bon Secours Wellness Arena (formerly the BI-LO Center; The Well) is a multi-purpose arena in Greenville, South Carolina. The arena serves as the home of the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the ECHL. History The Bon Secours Wellness Arena was buil ...
. Two days later, it was confirmed previous reports that the Chiefs would relocate, pending approval by Greenville's arena board and the ECHL's board of governors. On February 15, the Greenville Arena District Board announced that they had agreed to a five-year deal to bring the Chiefs to the Bi-Lo Center. Cincinnati Cyclones assistant coach Dean Stork was named the team's first head coach on June 29. The Greenville Road Warriors' inaugural season was successful and they became the second first-year team in the ECHL to win a regular-season conference title with 46–22–4 record. Led by rookie head coach Dean Stork, the Road Warriors had nine players with at least 40 points during the regular season and a defense that gave up the second-fewest goals in the league (192). The
2011 Kelly Cup playoffs The 2011 Kelly Cup Playoffs of the ECHL started on April 4, 2011 following the end of the 2010–11 ECHL regular season. The playoff format remains unchanged from that of the 2010 postseason, with the exception of the changed conference names. 1 ...
began with the top-seeded Road Warriors taking on the eighth-place
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 ...
. A split of the first two games in Elmira left the series tied and headed back to Greenville. The Road Warriors took the next two games, a 2–0 win in game three and an overtime win in game four, to move on to the second round. The Road Warriors then took on the
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 ...
, splitting the first two games at the BI-LO Center. The Nailers then went up 3–1 in the series with wins in games three and four in Wheeling. Greenville responded by winning game five (5–1) and game six (6–3) to force a game seven at the BI-LO Center. Greenville never led during regulation, but Brendan Connolly scored the game tying goal with 23 seconds left in the third period to force overtime. The Road Warriors comeback fell short when Wheeling converted a 2-on-1 just over eight minutes into overtime and ended Greenville's season. The Road Warriors' second season in the ECHL saw the team finish second in the South Division, fourth in the Eastern Conference, with a 41–25–6 record. The team posted the sixth-most goals (232, 3.22 per game). Justin Bowers finished third in the league with 78 points and was second with 59 assists while Brandon Wong (31, 6th) and Marc-Olivier Vallerand (30, 7th) finished in the top ten in the league in goals. On the defensive side, rookie goalie, and
New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...
prospect, Jason Missiaen was 12–5–2 over a span where he played of 18 of 19 games, finishing the season with 22 wins. In the playoffs, Greenville took on the fifth-seeded
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 ...
in a best-of-five Eastern Conference quarterfinal series. Florida had won eight of its final 10 games of the regular season and the Road Warriors lost the first two games in Florida by scores of 5–2 and 4–2 before returning home for game three. It would be the final game of the season as Florida notched a 3–2 win and completed the sweep.


Road Warriors under new ownership

During the 2012 playoffs, the Road Warriors' owners, Neil Smith and Steve Posner, sold the franchise to a local ownership group led by Fred Festa and his Chestnut Street Sports LLC. The 2012–13 season was one of many milestones for the Road Warriors, both individual and as a team. Head coach Dean Stork getting his 100th victory behind the Greenville and captain T.J. Reynolds played in his 600th professional game. The Road Warriors also saw a 9% rise in attendance over the previous season. On three occasions, the team had record crowds larger than any from the previous two seasons with largest of 7,529 on March 2, 2013. In the first half of the season, Gwinnett and Greenville traded the first-place position in the South Division. However, after going 26–14–4 in the first half of the season the team struggled during the second half and went 10–13–4. Greenville fell to the bottom of the Eastern Conference and clinched the eighth playoff seed with 80 points in the regular season. The Road Warriors' opponent in the best-of-seven series, 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 R ...
, collected 99 points for the first seed in the Eastern Conference. Greenville was shutout in games one and two in Reading. Back on home ice, Greenville was finally scored in game three and a 4–2 victory. The Road Warriors then lost the next two games and Reading collected two more shutouts in games four and five to win the series 4-games-to-1. Reading would go on to win the Kelly Cup, making 2012–13 the second straight season the Road Warriors would be eliminated by the eventual league champions. The 2013–14 season saw the Road Warriors reach the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in their four-year history. The beginning of the season got off to the worst start in team history. Aside from the first few weeks of the season, the team did not peak over a .500 winning percentage until the second weekend in January. The Road Warriors then earned a three-game weekend sweep of the
Evansville IceMen The Evansville IceMen were a minor league ice hockey team in the ECHL in Evansville, Indiana. The franchise was originally a member of the United Hockey League before it merged into the Central Hockey League in 2010. The franchise has won four po ...
. From February 8 through March 28, the Road Warriors earned a 16–4–0 record, putting them in playoff contention. This push helped the team clinch the sixth playoff seed with a 39–27–2–4 record and fourth consecutive playoff appearance under Dean Stork. The Road Warriors drew 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 ...
in the first round of the playoffs. The series began with the teams splitting games and was evened at two games apiece to even the series going into game five. On April 26, the Road Warriors played the longest game to date in a three overtime battle against the Wings. Kyle Jean scored the winning goal in a game that lasted 4 hours and 21 minutes. The Road Warriors won game six to move on to the second round for the first time in two years. The Wheeling Nailers were the next opponent in the 2014 Kelly Cup playoffs. The Road Warriors began the series winning two games on the road. The Nailers battled back to even the series. While in front of home fans, the Road Warriors won game five by a score of 4–1 and three nights later, shutout the Nailers 4–0 in game six to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cincinnati Cyclones. The two games again split the first four games, but the Cyclones won games five and six to end the Road Warriors hopes at a championship. After a less successful 2014–15 season that saw the team finish with a 39–29–1–3 record and miss the playoffs for the first time since relocating to Greenville, head coach Dean Stork was released.


Greenville Swamp Rabbits (2015–present)

On August 26, 2015, the team announced that it had officially rebranded itself as the Greenville Swamp Rabbits. The team was renamed to the Swamp Rabbits to strengthen the team's ties to Greenville. The name Swamp Rabbits was a local name of the Greenville and Northern Railway that began operations in 1920. In 2005 the railroad was abandoned and was converted to the
Swamp Rabbit Trail The Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail is a multi-use rail trail in Greenville County, South Carolina, that largely follows the bed of a former railroad that had been nicknamed after the indigenous swamp rabbit. South-to-north the current trail b ...
. The first season of the Swamp Rabbits and under first-year head coach Brian Gratz was 29–33–9–1. The New York Rangers extended their affiliation with Greenville through the 2017–18 season. The Swamp Rabbits would finish the 2016–17 season with a 40–26–5–1 record and secured the second seed in the South Division for the playoffs. The Swamp Rabbits lost to intrastate rivals, 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 ...
, four-games-to-two in the first round. During the 2017–18 season, owner Fred Festa sold the Swamp Rabbits to a multi-partner ownership group called South Carolina Pro Hockey, LLC, headed by former
Rochester Americans The Rochester Americans (colloquially known as the Amerks) are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League; the team is an owned and operated affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres. The team plays its home games in Rochester, New York, a ...
' owner
Steve Donner Steve Donner is an American sports executive, team owner, and manager. He is the founding Commissioner of the Professional Box Lacrosse Association, and the co-owner of the Elmira Mammoth of the Federal Prospects Hockey League. He is the former ...
. The new ownership group confirmed their intentions of keeping the Swamp Rabbits in Greenville. At the end of the season and a last place finish in the Eastern Conference, the Swamp Rabbits fired third-year head coach Brian Gratz with a compiled 93–99–21–3 record. The team then hired Kevin Kerr as head coach after serving in the same capacity with the
Macon Mayhem The Macon Mayhem are a Southern Professional Hockey League team based in Macon, Georgia, and play in the Macon Coliseum. The team was formerly the Augusta RiverHawks, who suspended operations for the 2013–14 season due to ice system failure at Ja ...
in the
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 ...
for the previous three seasons. The Swamp Rabbits also played the 2018–19 season independent of an NHL affiliate after the Rangers affiliated with the new Maine Mariners for 2018–19 instead, and the Swamp Rabbits finished tied for last place in the league. On June 26, 2019, the Swamp Rabbits announced an affiliation agreement with the
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 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 ...
for the 2019–20 season. The season was curtailed by 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 ...
with Swamp Rabbits in a playoff position for the first time since 2017, but the playoffs were cancelled. In May 2020, the team was sold to Spire Hockey South, a group associated with
Spire Sports + Entertainment A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...
. The following 2020–21 season, the Hurricanes switched their AHL affiliation from the Checkers to the
Chicago Wolves The Chicago Wolves are a professional ice hockey team playing in the American Hockey League and are the top minor-league affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League. The Wolves play home games at the Allstate Arena in the C ...
, but the Swamp Rabbits affiliated with the NHL's
Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern ...
in order to keep the nearby AHL affiliation with the Checkers. On August 23, 2022, the
Los Angeles Kings The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference and was founded on June 5, 1967, after Jack Kent ...
announced a 2 year affiliation with the Swamp Rabbits.


Season-by-season records


Players


Current roster

Updated December 19, 2022.


References


External links


Official website of the Greenville Swamp RabbitsOfficial website of the ECHLOfficial website of the Bon Secours Wellness Arena
{{South Carolina Sports ECHL teams Sports in Greenville, South Carolina Ice hockey teams in South Carolina Ice hockey clubs established in 2010 Carolina Hurricanes minor league affiliates Florida Panthers minor league affiliates Los Angeles Kings minor league affiliates Philadelphia Flyers minor league affiliates 2 2010 establishments in South Carolina