The Victoria Salmon Kings, prior to 2014 the only Canadian franchise in league history, folded following their Western Conference finals loss in the 2011 Kelly Cup playoffs to make way for a Western Hockey League, (Victoria Royals) franchise at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. The ECHL has one independent team, the Norfolk Admirals. The league, which combined teams from the defunct Atlantic Coast Hockey League and All-American Hockey League, began play as the East Coast Hockey League in 1988 with five teams—the (Winston-Salem, North) Carolina Thunderbirds (now the Wheeling Nailers); the Erie Panthers (folded in 2011 as the Victoria Salmon Kings); the Johnstown Chiefs (now the Greenville Swamp Rabbits); the Knoxville Cherokees (ceased operations as the Pee Dee Pride in 2005; folded in 2009 following failed relocation efforts); and the Virginia Lancers (now the Utah Grizzlies). It is a tier below the American Hockey League. The ECHL has attempted to be more tech-friendly to its fans. [10] By the 2018–19 season, the ECHL had also expanded into other markets recently vacated by the AHL in the Maine Mariners, Newfoundland Growlers, and Worcester Railers. Ste 230 Princeton, NJ 08540 (609) 452-0770 ", "Venue flux to sideline Las Vegas Wranglers next season", "ECHL Concludes Mid-Season Board of Governors Meeting", "Board of Governors approves playoff format, reserve list", "Annual ECHL Board of Governors Meeting concludes", "ALIGNMENT, PLAYOFF FORMAT ANNOUNCED FOR 2015-16 SEASON", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ECHL&oldid=982865000, Organizations based in Princeton, New Jersey, Professional sports leagues in the United States, Multi-national professional sports leagues, Articles with dead external links from August 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 10 October 2020, at 20:59. However, NHL teams do sometimes lend contracted players to other unaffiliated ECHL teams for development and increased playing time. RG Properties opted to withdraw the franchise from the ECHL with full approval from the league's Board of Governors, folding the franchise instead of selling the club's ECHL rights to be moved to another market, marking the end of a franchise that began as the Erie Panthers, one of the ECHL's charter teams. [1] Additionally, the league's players are represented by the Professional Hockey Players' Association in negotiations with the ECHL itself. It is a tier below the American Hockey League. Following receipt at the ECHL, comments and questions will be directed to the appropriate individual(s) and will receive a response, if applicable, as quickly as possible. For dormant and existing franchises, the Board of Governors votes whether or not to extend a franchise's league license until the next Board of Governors Meeting. [14], In 2020, Newfoundland Growlers' majority owner Dean MacDonald came to agreements with the cities of Trois-Rivières, Quebec, and Coralville, Iowa, to place a team at their new arenas, the Colisée de Trois-Rivières replacement and Xtream Arena respectively, for an expansion team in each location, pending league approval, to start in the 2021–22 season. [17], While the ECHL has stated in recent years they would not grant voluntary suspensions of franchises for more than one year, both the Toledo Storm (now the Toledo Walleye) and Mississippi Sea Wolves (now defunct) were granted two-year suspensions—the Sea Wolves because of Hurricane Katrina and the Storm in order to demolish their present arena and construct a new one in downtown Toledo. The former American Conference (comprising eleven East Coast and Midwest teams) was renamed the Eastern Conference, while the National Conference (consisting of 8 West Coast teams, including the league's only Canadian team at the time) was re-designated the Western Conference. [4], At the annual ECHL Board of Governors Meeting on June 15, 2010, in Henderson, Nevada, the Board of Governors approved changes to the names of the conferences and divisions. The most recent ECHL champion is the Newfoundland Growlers, a 2018–19 expansion team that won the title in its inaugural season. [6], Seven former ECHL franchises have been directly replaced in their respective markets by American Hockey League franchises. For the 2020–21 season, 24 of the 31 National Hockey League teams have affiliations with an ECHL team[3] with the Boston Bruins, Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers, Los Angeles Kings, Montreal Canadiens, St. Louis Blues, and San Jose Sharks having no official ECHL affiliations. The alignment changed back to four divisions for the 2016–17 season, but the playoffs kept the divisional format. There was no champion in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. Representatives from all potential expansion franchises, markets that have been granted expansion franchises and franchises that have suspended operations must attend the league's annual Board of Governors Meeting between seasons and provide progress reports on their situations in order to keep their ECHL franchise rights.
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