The ECHL announced on Thursday that the 2018-19 season will begin on Friday, Oct. 11 with seven games and continues on Saturday, Oct. 12 with 12 games. Opening Weekend concludes on Sunday, Oct. 13 with one game.





Download the 2019-20 ECHL schedule (PDF version)

Opening Night is highlighted by the Newfoundland Growlers raising their 2019 Kelly Cup championship banner when they open defense of their title against Reading. Other games on Oct. 11 include Allen hosting Rapid City, Adirondack visiting Maine, Norfolk entertaining Florida, Kansas City at Tulsa, Idaho travelling to Utah and Wichita hosting Indy.

Seven teams open their home schedules on Saturday, Oct. 12 as Brampton entertains Toledo, Cincinnati hosts Wheeling, Kalamazoo travels to Fort Wayne, Greenville is at Jacksonville, Kansas City entertains Indy, South Carolina visits Orlando and Worcester hosts Adirondack.

Friday, Oct. 18 sees three teams host their first home game of the season with Atlanta welcoming South Carolina, Greenville hosting Jacksonville and Idaho entertaining Wichita.

Six teams play their first home game of the 2019-20 season on Saturday, Oct. 19 as Adirondack hosts Worcester, Florida welcomes Norfolk, Cincinnati visits Kalamazoo, Maine travels to Reading, South Carolina entertains Orlando and Wheeling hosts Indy.

On Friday, Oct. 25, Indy takes its home ice for the first time against Cincinnati and Rapid City hosts Utah.

The final home opener for the 2019-20 season sees the Toledo Walleye raise their Western Conference championship banner at Huntington Center as they welcome Florida on Saturday, Nov. 2.

Began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states, the ECHL has grown into a coast-to-coast league that will have 26 teams in 19 states and two Canadian provinces playing 936 games from Oct. 11, 2019 to April 5, 2020.



The third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League, the ECHL averaged 4,445 fans per game in 2018-19, marking the 15th consecutive season and the 27th time in the last 29 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 31st season in 2018-19. There have been 661 players who have gone on to play in the National Hockey League after starting their careers in the ECHL, including 19 who made their NHL debuts in the 2018-19 season. The ECHL has affiliations with 25 of the 31 NHL teams in 2018-19, marking the 22nd 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.