The 2018–19 ECHL season was the 31st season of the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a minor professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams across the United States and Canada. Competitively, it is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...

. The regular season was scheduled to run from October 12, 2018, to April 7, 2019, with 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 ...

playoffs to follow. Twenty-seven teams in 20 states and two Canadian provinces each play a 72-game schedule. The

was won by the

Newfoundland Growlers The Newfoundland Growlers were a professional minor league ice hockey team in the East Coast Hockey League, ECHL based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The team began play in the 2018–19 ECHL season, 2018–19 season with home games ...

in their inaugural season over 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 ...

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 The Colorado Eagles are a professional ice hockey team based in Loveland, Colorado. The Eagles play in the Pacific Division of the American Hockey League. The Eagles were founded as an expansion franchise in 2003 in the Central Hockey League and ...

ownership left the ECHL, bought an expansion franchise and joined the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America that serves as the primary developmental league of the National Hockey League (NHL). The league comprises 32 teams, with 26 in the United States and 6 in Cana ...

as the affiliate of the

Colorado Avalanche The Colorado Avalanche (colloquially known as the Avs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver. The Avalanche compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Con ...

to bring the AHL up to 31 teams to match the size of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

to continue the one-to-one NHL/AHL affiliations. *The Maine Mariners in

Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...

, were added after purchasing the franchise from the folded Alaska Aces. The Mariners were the fifth team to replace a recently relocated

(AHL) team, in this case the

Portland Pirates The Portland Pirates were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). Their home arena was the Cross Insurance Arena in downtown Portland, Maine. The franchise was previously known as the Baltimore Skipjacks ...

, since 2015. *The

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North Ame ...

, were added, replacing the recently relocated

St. John's IceCaps The St. John's IceCaps were a professional ice hockey team based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. They were members of the North Division of the Eastern Conference of the American Hockey League (AHL). The team was originally aff ...

and becoming the sixth ECHL team to replace an AHL team since 2015. *The

Quad City Mallards The Quad City Mallards were a minor league professional ice hockey team based in the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa that competed in the United Hockey League, International Hockey League, Central Hockey League and ECHL. They were named aft ...

ceased operations after the 2017–18 season. The Mallards were the first of the teams added in the 2014 merger with 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 ...

to cease operations.

Conference realignment

As the new ECHL teams in Portland, Maine, and St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, were added to the North Division of the Eastern Conference, 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 ...

were moved to the Western Conference and Central Division. With the Colorado Eagles joining the

, the

Kansas City Mavericks The Kansas City Mavericks are an ice hockey team in the ECHL. Founded in 2009 as the Missouri Mavericks of the CHL, the team plays in Independence, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, at the Cable Dahmer Arena. History On April 16, ...

moved back to the Mountain Division from the Central.

Affiliation changes

Annual Board of Governors meeting

The annual ECHL Board of Governors meeting was held at the

New York-New York Hotel and Casino New York-New York Hotel and Casino is a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International, and is designed to evoke New York City in Architecture of ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, from June 18 to 22, 2018.

All-star game

The 2019 CCM/ECHL All-Star Classic was held on January 21, 2019, at the Huntington Center in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...

. The All-Star Classic retained the four team, 3-on-3 player tournament style used the previous season, but featured two teams made from the

(named Team Hooks and Team Fins) and one team for each conference's All-Star players. In the round-robin, the Western Conference and Team Fins each went 2–1, while the Eastern Conference and Team Hooks went 1–2. In the semifinal round, the Eastern Conference defeated the Western Conference 4–3 and Team Fins defeated the Team Hooks 3–1. The Eastern Conference All-Star team then defeated Team Fins 2–1 following a

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is a confrontation in which parties armed with firearms exchange gunfire. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to ...

. The Brampton Beast's David Pacan was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. The skills competition took place in between rounds of the tournament. The

's Bryan Moore won the fastest skater event, the Walleye's A.J. Jenks won the hardest shot event, and the Brampton Beast's David Pacan won the accuracy shooting event.

Standings

Final standings:

;Eastern Conference

;Western Conference - clinched playoff spot, - clinched regular season division 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 34 times to 16 different franchises since its debut in 1989. ...

(regular season) champion

Statistical leaders

Scoring leaders

The following players are sorted by points, then goals. ''GP = Games played; G =

Goal A goal or objective is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan, and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to ...

s; A = Assists; Pts =

Points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

; PIM = Penalty minutes''

Leading goaltenders

''GP = Games played; TOI = Time on ice (in minutes); SA = Shots against; GA = Goals against; SO =

Shutout In team sports, a shutout (North American English, US) or clean sheet (Commonwealth English, UK) is a game in which the losing team fails to score. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketba ...

s; GAA = Goals against average; SV% =

Save percentage Save percentage (often known by such symbols as SV%, SVS%, SVP, PCT) is a statistic in various Goal (sports), goal-scoring sports that track Save (goaltender), saves as a statistic. In ice hockey and lacrosse and association football, it is a sta ...

; W = Wins; L = Losses; OTL =

Overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

loss''

Postseason

Playoffs format

At the end of the regular season, the top four teams in each division qualifies for the 2019 Kelly Cup playoffs and be seeded one through four based on highest point total earned in the season. Then the first two rounds of the playoffs are held within the division with the first seed facing the fourth seed and the second seed facing the third. The division champions then play each other in a conference championship. The Kelly Cup finals pits the Eastern Conference champion against the Western Conference champion. All four rounds are a best-of-seven format.

Bracket

Awards

All-ECHL teams

First Team *

Michael Houser Michael Houser (January 6, 1962 – August 10, 2002) was a founding member and lead guitarist of the band Widespread Panic. He appeared on seven studio albums during his 16-year tenure with the band from 1986 till 2002. He is also feature ...

(G) – Cincinnati Cyclones * Eric Knodel (D) – Cincinnati Cyclones * Matt Petgrave (D) – Brampton Beast * Caleb Herbert (F) – Utah Grizzlies * Adam Pleskach (F) – Tulsa Oilers * Jesse Schultz (F) – Cincinnati Cyclones Second Team * Tomas Sholl (G) – Idaho Steelheads * Matt Register (D) – Toledo Walleye * Derek Sheppard (D) – Florida Everblades * Joe Cox (F) – Florida Everblades * Chris McCarthy (F) – Reading Royals *

Zach O'Brien Zachary O'Brien (born June 29, 1992) is a Canadian professional ice hockey winger currently playing with the Cardiff Devils in the Elite Ice Hockey League. Prior to turning professional, O'Brien played three seasons with the Acadie–Bathurs ...

(F) – Newfoundland Growlers Rookie Team * Tomas Sholl (G) – Idaho Steelheads * Alex Breton (D) – Allen Americans * Derek Sheppard (D) – Florida Everblades * Chris Collins (F) – Kalamazoo Wings * Steven Iacobellis (F) – Wichita Thunder * Myles Powell (F) – Cincinnati Cyclones

References

External links

ECHL website
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