2021-22 ECHL Season Thread

JMCx4

Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Sep 3, 2017
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St. Louis, MO
Good place to set the scene ...
ECHL RELEASES 2021-22 SCHEDULE
ECHL News
11 May 2021

21-22schedule-card

LEAGUE’S 34TH SEASON OPENS ON THURSDAY, OCT. 21

The ECHL announced on Tuesday that the 2021-22 season will begin with one game on Thursday, Oct. 21 before continuing with seven games on Friday, Oct. 22, 13 games on Saturday, Oct. 23 and two games on Sunday, Oct. 24.

Began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states, the ECHL has grown into a coast-to-coast league that will have 27 teams in 20 states and two Canadian provinces playing 972 games from Oct. 21, 2021 to April 17, 2022.

Download the 2021-22 ECHL schedule

Download Team-by-Team schedules

One of the ECHL’s two new teams for the 2021-22 season will take center stage on opening night as Trois-Rivières will host Newfoundland in the first-ever ECHL game in the province of Quebec in the recently completed Le Nouveau Colisée.

Among the six home openers on Friday, Oct. 22 is the other new team in the league, Iowa, hosting Kansas City at Xtreme Arena in Coralville, Iowa. Other openers on the Oct. 22 schedule include Idaho hosting Utah, Maine taking on Worcester, Norfolk entertaining Reading, Rapid City meeting Tulsa and Wichita hosting Allen.

Twelve teams open their home schedules on Saturday, Oct. 23 as Adirondack entertains Newfoundland, Allen welcomes Wichita, Florida hosts Jacksonville, Fort Wayne takes on Wheeling, Indy entertains Cincinnati, Kansas City welcomes Iowa, Kalamazoo meets Toledo, Orlando hosts Atlanta, Reading meets Norfolk, South Carolina takes on Greenville, Utah entertains Idaho and Worcester welcomes Maine.

Friday, Oct. 29 sees three teams host their first home game of the season with Atlanta welcoming Orlando, Greenville hosting Jacksonville and Tulsa entertaining Allen while on Saturday, Oct. 30, Cincinnati opens its home schedule against Indy.

On Friday, Nov. 5, Newfoundland opens play on home ice against Adirondack, while the final three home openers for the 2021-22 season are set for Saturday, Nov. 6 with Jacksonville taking on South Carolina, Toledo hosting Kalamazoo and Wheeling welcoming Fort Wayne. ...
 
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JMCx4

Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
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The first oddity I noticed when the schedule first came out, ADK hosts Utah and FTW, and is at Idaho, all 3 game series. But no reciprocating 3 games against those same 3 teams.
I'd expect to see many "one-way favors" like that (though I haven't studied the schedule beyond my hopeful road trip destinations), as teams lobbied for their scheduling to minimize operating losses after the big hits in 2020 & 2021. Despite the ECHL membership growth, I reckon there are gonna be haves & have-nots for the foreseeable future.
 

Roadhog

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May 3, 2020
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I'd expect to see many "one-way favors" like that (though I haven't studied the schedule beyond my hopeful road trip destinations), as teams lobbied for their scheduling to minimize operating losses after the big hits in 2020 & 2021. Despite the ECHL membership growth, I reckon there are gonna be haves & have-nots for the foreseeable future.
There are a few or a bunch. I didn't look at the entire schedule, but Florida hosts T-R and Idaho, and doesn't play anyone else outside their division.
 

JMCx4

Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Sep 3, 2017
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There are a few or a bunch. I didn't look at the entire schedule, but Florida hosts T-R and Idaho, and doesn't play anyone else outside their division.
A long weekend visit to South Florida is more about a team owner wanting to sharpen their golf game than it is about strengthening League member bonds. :golfnana:
 

royals119

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A long weekend visit to South Florida is more about a team owner wanting to sharpen their golf game than it is about strengthening League member bonds. :golfnana:
And a nice bonus for the players to get away to Florida during a cold winter in northern climates.
 
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JMCx4

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SCOTT BURT NAMED FOURTH HEAD COACH IN RUSH HISTORY

4 hours ago (7 July 2021)

(RAPID CITY, SD) – The Rapid City Rush, proud ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, are excited to announce that Scott Burt has been named the team’s Head Coach/Director of Hockey Operations. Burt becomes the fourth person to assume the mantle as the team enters its 14th season of hockey this October. ...

Burt takes over as bench boss for the Rush following a season as the Assistant Coach of the division rival Idaho Steelheads alongside Everett Sheen. In his lone coaching season in Boise in 2019-20, he helped guide the Steelheads to a 36-18-3-4 record in 61 games prior to the season’s conclusion due to Covid-19. That year, Idaho was one of only seven teams in the entire ECHL to amass 20 or more wins on home ice. ...

Read more at: SCOTT BURT NAMED FOURTH HEAD COACH IN RUSH HISTORY
 
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JMCx4

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From: The ECHL > News
ECHL ANNOUNCES SEASON-ENDING ROSTERS
ECHL News
09 Jul 2021

The ECHL on Friday announced the Season-Ending Rosters as submitted by each of its Member Teams.

Season-Ending Rosters may include up to 20 players. Season-Ending Rosters cannot include any players who did not sign an ECHL contract in 2020-21.

Each team is entitled to reserve rights to a maximum of eight players from the list of 20 by extending a qualifying offer no later than July 23. Of the eight qualified players, no more than four can be veterans (260 regular season professional hockey games played as of the start of the 2021-22 Season). Players on open qualifying offers cannot be traded. Teams are not required to extend a qualifying offer to players who sign a contract prior to July 23.

The qualifying offer must remain open for acceptance until August 9 at which time the qualifying offer becomes null and void and the team may sign the qualified player to any salary or may elect to take no further action. Teams that extend a valid qualifying offer to a non-veteran player shall retain the rights to that qualified player for one playing season.

A team that extends a valid qualifying offer to a veteran player, or to a goaltender who has played more than 180 regular-season games, will retain the rights to that player until August 9. After August 9, if the veteran player or goaltender is not signed to a contract by the team, the veteran or goaltender shall be deemed a restricted free agent and shall be entitled to seek and secure offers of employment from other ECHL teams. Restricted free agents may not be traded. When a restricted free agent receives a contract offer from a team other than the team with the player’s rights and the restricted free agent wishes to accept the contract offer, the restricted free agent and the offering member must, within 24 hours, notify the ECHL, the team with the player’s rights and the Professional Hockey Players’ Association. The member with the player’s rights shall have seven days after the date it is notified to exercise its right to match the contract offer.

If a restricted free agent is not signed to either an offer sheet or a contract by an ECHL team by August 16, the player shall be deemed an unrestricted free agent. ...

See the 2020-21 Season-Ending Rosters at:
ECHL announces Season-Ending Rosters
 

Atlantian

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Dec 13, 2017
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Not entirely sure what’s going on in Newfoundland, but Deacon Sports and Entertainment (owner of the Growlers) is again fighting with St. John’s Sports and Entertainment (owner of Mile One). Long story short, yet again the Growlers may not have a place to play this season. From what I can tell, the 10 year agreement was never formally signed. I’m sure @Growlers knows the situation better than I do
 
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Atlantian

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Dec 13, 2017
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Atlanta, GA
Growlers reply to this article on Facebook. Starting to look pretty bad for this year.

“DSE continues to engage in this battle of the media releases in the (perhaps naive) hope that there is some reality where together we can change the trajectory such that the Edge and Growlers return to their fans at Mile One Centre this year. As the prospect of that grows dim, we thank you for your outpouring of support and turn our focus inward to look at what comes next. All we want to do is provide family entertainment for the hockey and basketball fans of the city. We’re sorry that it keeps coming to this.”
 

Atlantian

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Dec 13, 2017
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So what would happen if the Growlers are unable to play at Mile One this season? By possibility they’d relocate for the year or would they go dormant and have to completely redo the northeast division schedule?
 

GindyDraws

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So what would happen if the Growlers are unable to play at Mile One this season? By possibility they’d relocate for the year or would they go dormant and have to completely redo the northeast division schedule?

... apparently, they kicked out the Edge in favor of, get this, an American Basketball Association team. I'll give you the tl;dr version of this league; it tried to be legit as "ABA 2000", but none of the teams were successful in its first venture, so they rebranded as "You got cash, let's play ball?" type of sideshow league. And, lo and behold, it's a league that's had hundreds and hundreds of (dead) teams.

... so, they replaced a team in a league solely based in Canada with a team that will play in the ultimate carny league.

Yup.
 
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JMCx4

Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Sep 3, 2017
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St. Louis, MO
So what would happen if the Growlers are unable to play at Mile One this season? By possibility they’d relocate for the year or would they go dormant and have to completely redo the northeast division schedule?
I'll give you my opinion, since @JDogindy went off on a tangent ... A redo of the NE Division schedule could be preferable to forcing the Growlers into a temporary home with its costs & logistics. DSE will be plenty busy with two new ECHL franchises this coming season. If they can't get a resolution in St. John's within the next month, I could see dormancy being their next move.
 
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Atlantian

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Dec 13, 2017
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Atlanta, GA
... apparently, they kicked out the Edge in favor of, get this, an American Basketball Association team. I'll give you the tl;dr version of this league; it tried to be legit as "ABA 2000", but none of the teams were successful in its first venture, so they rebranded as "You got cash, let's play ball?" type of sideshow league. And, lo and behold, it's a league that's had hundreds and hundreds of (dead) teams.

... so, they replaced a team in a league solely based in Canada with a team that will play in the ultimate carny league.

Yup.
That league is a joke. Worse than the Fed. Since 2000, they’ve had over 550, not a typo, teams fold. A majority of the teams play in high school gyms and not every team plays to go to the playoffs. Just an absolute joke league. To go from one of, if not the highest level leagues in Canada to that joke of a league is definitely just a way to force them out of the building
 
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