ECHL announces 2020 Hall of Fame Class

The ECHL announced on Monday that the 2020 inductees for the ECHL Hall of Fame are Jared Bednar, Dany Bousquet, Derek Clancey and Glen Metropolit.

The four will be formally inducted as the 13th class of the ECHL Hall of Fame at a banquet that will be held in conjunction with the 2020 Warrior Hockey/ECHL All Star Classic presented by Toyota. The 2020 ECHL Hall of Fame ceremony, presented by BFL CANADA and Sutton Special Risk, will take place on Tuesday, January 21 at 5:30 p.m. at the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview in Wichita, Kansas, the Official Host Hotel of the 2020 ECHL All-Star Classic. CLICK HERE to purchase tickets to the ceremony.

“This is a really special class of inductees that have dedicated their life to hockey and made their mark on the ECHL,” said ECHL Commissioner Ryan Crelin. “This 13th induction class embodies the role of our League in the development of hockey talent.”

Jared Bednar had a 15-year association with the ECHL as a player, assistant coach and head coach. He was the first person to win three Kelly Cup titles, capturing titles as a player with South Carolina in 1997 and 2001, and one as the Stingrays’ head coach in 2009. A rugged defenseman as a player, he suited up in 434 career games with Huntington and South Carolina, totaling 173 points (43g-130a) and 1,210 penalty minutes. After retiring following the 2001-02 season, he joined the Stingrays’ coaching staff in 2002-03, and was named the team’s head coach prior to the 2007-08 season. In two seasons as South Carolina’s head coach, he went 89-45-9, leading the Stingrays to the 2008 American Conference Finals before winning the Kelly Cup title the following season. Bednar led Lake Erie to the American Hockey League Calder Cup championship in 2016, joining Bruce Boudreau as the only coaches to win both an ECHL and AHL title. He is currently in his fourth season as head coach of the National Hockey League’s Colorado Avalanche.

Dany Bousquet put up an impressive 550 points in just 389 career ECHL games over six full seasons with Birmingham and Pee Dee. He took the league by storm in his rookie season, capturing ECHL Rookie of the Year honors, being named to the All-ECHL Second Team and finishing third in the league scoring race, with 107 points (54g-53a) in 68 games with Birmingham. He scored at least 35 goals in each of his six seasons, earned a spot on the All-ECHL First Team in 2000-01 and was named to the ECHL All-Star Game in 1998, 2000 and 2001. Bousquet ranks 10th in ECHL history with 254 goals, is tied for 16th with 550 points and is 30th with 296 assists.

Derek Clancey spent all but 50 games of his 441-game professional career in the ECHL, totaling 524 points (157-367a) over eight seasons with Winston-Salem, Erie, Toledo, Columbus and Chesapeake. He is tied for seventh in league history in assists while ranking 23rd in all-time points. He is tied for the most assists in a single game in ECHL history, recording seven helpers for Columbus on Jan. 13, 1996 against Johnstown. After completing his playing career following the 1998-99 season he immediately joined the coaching ranks, and went on to compile a 180-136-42 record in six seasons with Jackson and Reading, advancing to the Kelly Cup Playoffs in each season. Clancey is in his 13th season in the front office of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, and prior to this season was promoted to the club’s director of player personnel. 

Glen Metropolit played his first two professional seasons in the ECHL, tallying 61 points (30g-31a) in 58 games with Nashville in 1995-96 and adding 82 points (35g-47a) in 54 games with Pensacola the following season. After spending the next two seasons in the International Hockey League, he made his NHL debut with the Washington Capitals during the 1999-00 season and went on to record 159 points (57g-102a) in 407 career NHL games with Washington, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, St. Louis, Boston, Philadelphia and Montreal. Metropolit also spent extensive time in Europe, appearing in 458 career games in various leagues in Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

The inaugural ECHL Hall of Fame class inducted in 2008 was Henry Brabham, Patrick J. Kelly, Chris Valicevic and Nick Vitucci; the class of 2009 was John Brophy, Blake Cullen, Tom Nemeth and Rod Taylor; the 2010 ECHL Hall of Fame class was Cam Brown, E.A. “Bud” Gingher, Olaf Kolzig and Darryl Noren; the 2011 class was Richard Adams, Phil Berger, Luke Curtin and Joe Ernst; the Class of 2012 was Bill Coffey, Sheldon Gorski, John Marks, Dave Seitz and Bob Woods; the 2013 class was David Craievich, Marc Magliarditi, Steve Poapst and Darren Schwartz; the class of 2014 was James Edwards, Wes Goldie, Al MacIsaac and John Spoltore; the class of 2015 was Darren Colbourne, Louis Dumont, Scott Sabatino and Carl Scheer; the class of 2016 was Daniel Berthiaume, Craig Brush and Allan Sirois; the class of 2017 was T. Paul Hendrick, Rick Kowalsky and Brad Phillips; the 2018 class was Steve Chapman, Sam Ftorek and Jason Saal and the class of 2019 was Jim Bermingham, Alex Hicks, Rick Judson and Brian McKenna. Inductees are enshrined in the ECHL Hall of Fame, which is open around the clock online at ECHLHallOfFame.com, as well as being recognized at the league office in Princeton, N.J. and in the ECHL section at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario.

The third-longest tenured professional hockey league, behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League, the Premier ‘AA’ Hockey League has grown from five teams in four states in 1988-89 into a coast-to-coast league with 26 teams in 19 states and two Canadian provinces for its 32nd season in 2019-20.

Hall of Fame members are selected in four categories: Player, Developmental Player, Builder, and Referee/Linesman. No more than five candidates may be elected to the ECHL Hall of Fame each year with no more than three Players, one Developmental Player, two Builders and one Referee/Linesman. The Developmental Player, Builder and the Referee/Linesman categories are dependent upon the number of candidates in the Player category.

The nomination and/or selection of candidates will be determined by the Hall of Fame Selection Committee and its Chairman Patrick J. Kelly.

Only members of the Selection Committee, the Board of Governors, teams or persons affiliated with the ECHL may submit official nominations which must be made in writing to the league office. Fans are encouraged to contact their team to propose names for nomination.

About the ECHL

Began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states, the ECHL has grown into a coast-to-coast league with 26 teams in 19 states and two Canadian provinces for its 32nd season in 2019-20. There have been 666 players who have gone on to play in the National Hockey League after playing in the ECHL, including four who have made their NHL debuts in the 2019-20 season. The ECHL has affiliations with 25 of the 31 NHL teams in 2019-20, marking the 23rd consecutive season that the league had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL. Further information on the ECHL is available at ECHL.com as well as on Twitter and Facebook.