2026-27 ECHL Official Guide & Record BookWatch ECHL action on FloHockey

The 39th season of the ECHL begins on Friday with eight games, continues on Saturday with 14 games and concludes with five games on Sunday.

The ECHL welcomes two new markets for the 2026-27 season, giving the League 30 teams in 23 states and one Canadian province. The New Mexico Goatheads play their first game on Friday, hosting the Idaho Steelheads at Rio Rancho Events Center, while the Trenton Ironhawks open the season on the road this weekend before playing their first game at CURE Insurance Arena on Oct. 24 against Adirondack.
 
In addition to New Mexico’s opener on Friday, the other games on that night’s schedule include Greensboro hosting Reading, Savannah entertaining Norfolk, Trois-Rivières welcoming Trenton, Jacksonville taking on South Carolina, Greenville hosting Atlanta, Indy entertaining Wheeling and Kansas City welcoming Rapid City.
 
Nine teams open their home schedule on Saturday with South Carolina taking on Greenville, Worcester hosting Maine, Adirondack entertaining Trenton, Florida raising its 2026 Kelly Cup championship banner against Orlando, Wichita welcoming Tahoe, Atlanta taking on Norfolk, Fort Wayne hosting Toledo, Bloomington entertaining Kalamazoo and Tulsa taking on Allen.
 
On Sunday, Orlando opens the home portion of its schedule in the back end of a home-and-home series against Florida.
 
Formed in 1988-89 with five teams in four states, the ECHL has grown into a coast-to-coast league that has 30 teams in 23 states and one Canadian province playing 1,080 games from Oct. 16, 2026 to April 11, 2027. The ECHL is the third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League, and last season welcomed an average of 5,018 fans per game, marking the first time the League has surpassed the 5,000 mark per game since 1997-98, when the average was 5,013 per game. It was the fourth time in 38 seasons that the ECHL exceeded 5,000 fans per game, with the all-time highest average of 5,312 occurring in 1994-95 and 5,273 in 1996-97. Additionally, between the regular season and Kelly Cup Playoffs, an all-time record of 5,810,411 fans attended ECHL games.
 
The ECHL has affiliations with 29 teams in the National Hockey League in 2026-27, marking the 30th consecutive season that the league had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.
 
New faces behind the benches
 
Nine of the 30 ECHL teams will have a new coach in charge as the 2026-27 season gets underway.
 
Ben Boudreau returns as head coach in Fort Wayne for the first time since 2022-23. Boudreau was 134-96-27 in four seasons with the Komets in his first stint as head coach, and led the team to the 2021 Kelly Cup title.
 
Mitch Giguere takes over as head coach in Greensboro after spending the previous three seasons as an assistant coach with Wheeling.
 
In Indy, Jesse Messier assumes his first head-coaching role after serving as an assistant coach in Bloomington for the last two seasons.
 
Zack Stortini is the first head coach in New Mexico team history. Stortini joins the Goatheads after four seasons as an assistant with Tucson of the American Hockey League, and a 16-year professional playing career, which included 257 NHL games with Edmonton and Nashville.
 
After three seasons as head coach in Fort Wayne, Jesse Kallechy moves to South Carolina for the 2026-27 season. Kallechy has posted a 121-69-26 record in his three seasons as an ECHL head coach.
 
Connor Jones makes his professional coaching debut as head coach in Tahoe. Jones has spent the previous two seasons as an assistant coach at Princeton University.
 
Chuck Weber, who spent last season as head coach in Iowa and previously led Cincinnati to Kelly Cup titles in 2008 and 2010, is the first head coach in Trenton team history.
 
In Wheeling, Nate DiCasmirro makes his head coaching debut after spending eight seasons as an assistant coach in the United States Hockey League, American Hockey League and in Europe.
 
After serving as the team’s assistant coach the last two season, Travis Clayton takes over as head coach in Wichita. During his playing career, Clayton spent 11 of his 14 seasons with the Thunder.
 
Approaching milestones
 
Wheeling’s Justin Taylor, who last season set the ECHL record for career games played, enters 2026-27 with 935 career league games on his resume. He is 65 games shy of becoming the first player in ECHL history to reach the 1,000-games played plateau. Taylor ranks eighth all-time with 310 goals, and with 16 goals, would move into third place all-time. With 610 points, he enters the season seventh in ECHL history, and with 25 points he would move into the top five.
 
Wichita’s Anthony Collins is 37 games shy of becoming the seventh player in ECHL history to reach the 700-games played mark.
 
Florida goaltender Cam Johnson enters the 2026-27 season with 20 career shutouts, which is tied for third all-time, and just five behind the career record which is shared by Jeff Jakaitis and Marc Magliarditi. Johnson’s 154 career wins are eighth in ECHL history, and with 20 wins, he would move into sixth place.
 
On the coaching front, Florida’s Brad Ralph, who is the league’s all-time leader with 121 career postseason wins, enters the season third all-time with 584 regular-season wins, and needs 32 wins to move into second place.
 
Allen’s Steve Martinson is two games away from becoming the fifth coach in league history to reach the 1,000 games mark and enters the season fourth with 561 victories.
 
Tulsa’s Rob Murray enters the season third all-time with 1,070 games coached and fifth with 520 wins.