League’s 31st Season opens on Friday, Oct. 12

The ECHL announced on Tuesday that the 2018-19 season will begin on Friday, Oct. 12 with six games and continues on Saturday, Oct. 13 with 13 games. Opening Weekend concludes on Sunday, Oct. 14 with three games.

View the 2018-19 ECHL schedule

(PDF download)

The ECHL season opens on Oct. 12 with six games, highlighted by the expansion team in St. John’s opening its home schedule against the Florida Everblades. Other games on Opening Night include Greenville hosting Toledo, Fort Wayne visiting Indy, Allen at Kansas City, Wichita home against Idaho and Rapid City travelling to Utah.

Among the eight teams opening their home schedules on Oct. 13 is the other newcomer for the 2018-19 season, the Maine Mariners hosting Adirondack at Cross Insurance Arena. Additional home openers on Saturday see Orlando hosting Atlanta, Jacksonville home against South Carolina, Wheeling visiting Norfolk, Reading entertaining Worcester, Manchester traveling to Brampton, Cincinnati hosting Fort Wayne and Idaho at Tulsa.

Five teams host home openers on Friday, Oct. 19 including Florida taking on Norfolk, Atlanta hosting Greenville, St. John’s visiting Manchester, Fort Wayne traveling to Kalamazoo and Idaho entertaining Utah.

Saturday, Oct. 20 sees six teams open the home portion of their schedule with South Carolina taking on in-state rival Greenville, Worcester hosting Maine, Brampton visiting Adirondack, Fort Wayne entertaining Kalamazoo, Allen hosting Wichita and Kansas City at Rapid City.

Toledo will open its home schedule at Huntington Center on Saturday, Oct. 27 against Fort Wayne while Wheeling is the final ECHL team to host its home opener when it takes on Indy on Saturday, Nov. 3.

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. 12, 2018 to April 7, 2019.

The third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League, the ECHL averaged 4,424 fans per game in 2017-18, marking the 14th consecutive season and the 26th time in the last 28 years that the ECHL has averaged over 4,000 fans.

About the ECHL

Began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states, the ECHL has grown into a coast-to-coast league with 27 teams in 21 states and one Canadian province for its 30th season in 2017-18. There have been  who have gone on to play in the National Hockey League after starting their careers in the ECHL, including 18 who have made their NHL debuts in the 2017-18 season. The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 31 NHL teams in 2017-18, marking the 21st consecutive season that the league had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL. Further information on the ECHL is available on its website at ECHL.com as well as on Twitter and Facebook.