The 2016–17 ECHL season was the 29th season of the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). Th ...

. The regular season schedule ran from October 14, 2016 to April 9, 2017, with the

Kelly Cup The Patrick J. Kelly Cup goes to the playoff champion of the ECHL. The Kelly Cup has been awarded to teams since 1997. Prior to 1997, the playoff winner was awarded the Riley Cup, named after former American Hockey League president Jack Riley. Th ...

playoffs following. Twenty-seven teams in 21 states and one Canadian province each played a 72-game schedule.

League business

Team changes

*The

Evansville IceMen The Evansville IceMen were a minor league ice hockey team in the ECHL in Evansville, Indiana. The franchise was originally a member of the United Hockey League before it merged into the Central Hockey League in 2010. The franchise has won four po ...

voluntarily suspended operations for the 2016–17 season. The IceMen franchise was approved for relocation to

Owensboro, Kentucky Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of Lo ...

, following arena issues in Evansville but would have needed at least a year to finish renovations to the

Owensboro Sportscenter The Owensboro Sportscenter is a 5,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Owensboro, Kentucky. It is the home of the basketball teams of Kentucky Wesleyan College and Owensboro Catholic High School. It has been the home to three minor-pro basketball tea ...

. However, the IceMen's deal to move into the Sportscenter fell through in September 2016. In January 2017, various media sources reported that the franchise had been sold to an ownership group based out of

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

, and was approved by the league on February 8. The team returned in 2017–18 as the

Jacksonville Icemen The Jacksonville Icemen are a minor league ice hockey team in the ECHL in Jacksonville, Florida, that began play in the 2017–18 season. The team is affiliated with the New York Rangers and plays their home games at VyStar Veterans Memorial Are ...

Conference realignment

The ECHL returned to a four division alignment for the 2016–17 season with the removal of the East and Midwest Divisions. Two teams, the

Kalamazoo Wings The Kalamazoo Wings, nicknamed the K-Wings, are a mid-level professional ice hockey team in Kalamazoo, Michigan. A member of the ECHL's Western Conference, Central Division, they play in the 5,113-seat Wings Event Center. They are the affiliate ...

and

Toledo Walleye The Toledo Walleye are a professional ice hockey team based in Toledo, Ohio. The Walleye are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the ECHL. The Walleye were founded in 1991 as the Toledo Storm and play their home games at ...

, were moved from the Eastern to the Western Conference and the

Cincinnati Cyclones The Cincinnati Cyclones are a professional ice hockey team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The team is a member of the ECHL. Originally established in 1990, the team first played their games in the Cincinnati Gardens and now play at Heritage Bank C ...

were moved to the Eastern Conference. The West Division was also renamed the Mountain Division while adding the

Allen Americans The Allen Americans are a professional ice hockey team headquartered at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas, which currently plays in the ECHL. The team was founded in 2009 in the Central Hockey League (CHL) where they played f ...

and

Missouri Mavericks The Kansas City Mavericks are an ice hockey team in the ECHL. Founded in 2009 as the Missouri Mavericks of the Central Hockey League, CHL, the team plays in Independence, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, at the Cable Dahmer Arena. H ...

. The Central Division added the

Fort Wayne Komets The Fort Wayne Komets are a minor league ice hockey team in the ECHL. They play their home games at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This team was previously a member of the Central Hockey League, the original Inter ...

Indy Fuel The Indy Fuel are a minor league ice hockey team in the ECHL that began play in the 2014–15 season. Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Fuel play their home games at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum on the Indiana State Fairgrounds. They are ...

, Kalamazoo Wings,

Quad City Mallards The Quad City Mallards were a minor league professional ice hockey team based in the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa that competed in the International Hockey League, Central Hockey League and ECHL. They were named after the Mallards team ...

, and Toledo Walleye. The South Division added Cincinnati and the Norfolk Admirals. The North Division added the former East Division, except Norfolk. Due to the season schedule being set in May 2016 and the realignment announced after the July Board of Governors meetings, the new alignment had several divisional scheduling oddities. One of the most egregious examples being Cincinnati having more games against Western Conference teams than in their own Eastern Conference and would not even play inter-divisional members

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

, Norfolk, and

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures r ...

during the regular season.

Affiliation changes

Annual Board of Governors meeting

The annual ECHL Board of Governors meeting was held at the

Monte Carlo Resort and Casino The Park MGM, formerly Monte Carlo Resort and Casino, is a megaresort hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The hotel, with a height of , has 32 floors, including a casino floor with 1,400 slot machines, 60 ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

, in July 2016. The ECHL Board of Governors unanimously re-elected

' president Ray Harris as chairman for a second season. The Board also approved of the rule change for no timeouts allowed following an icing penalty, a rule that had also been approved by the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

All-star game

The 2017 CCM/ECHL All-Star Classic was held on January 18, 2017, at the

Glens Falls Civic Center The Cool Insuring Arena (originally called Glens Falls Civic Center) is a 4,794-seat multi-purpose arena located in downtown Glens Falls, New York, that currently serves as the home of the Adirondack Thunder of the ECHL. Built in 1979, it was orig ...

Glens Falls, New York Glens Falls is a city in Warren County, New York, United States and is the central city of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,700 at the 2010 census. The name was given by Colonel Johannes Glen, the falls re ...

. The event featured the ECHL All-Stars playing against the host

Adirondack Thunder The Adirondack Thunder are a professional ice hockey team in the ECHL that began play in the 2015–16 season. The team is based in Glens Falls, New York, and affiliated with the NHL's New Jersey Devils. The Thunder play their home games at the ...

. The format for the match consisted of two 25-minute halves with a skills competition during the intermission. The skills competition had a fastest skater, a hardest shot, and a puck skills relay. The first half of the game was played under the standard 5-on-5 player rules while the second half was ten minutes of 5-on-5, five minutes of 4-on-4, and finished with 3-on-3 player hockey. Both goals scored during play and points made during the skills competition counted towards the final score of All-Star Classic. The ECHL All Stars defeated the Thunder 8–7.

Matt Garbowsky Matt Garbowsky (born July 26, 1990) is a Canadian professional ice hockey center. He is currently an unrestricted free agent who most recently played with the Graz99ers of the Austrian Hockey League (EBEL). Playing career Junior Garbowsky play ...

of the

Colorado Eagles The Colorado Eagles are a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Loveland, Colorado. The Eagles play in the Pacific Division of the American Hockey League. The Eagles were founded as an expansion franchise in 2003 in the Central ...

was named the All-star game Most Valuable Player. Steven McParland of the

South Carolina Stingrays The South Carolina Stingrays are a professional minor league ice hockey team based in North Charleston, South Carolina. The Stingrays play in the South Division of the ECHL's Eastern Conference. They play their home games at the North Charleston Co ...

won the fastest skater competition. Stepan Falkovsky of the Adirondack Thunder won the hardest shot competition with a shot measuring at 99 miles per hour. The Adirondack Thunder won the puck relay competition.

Standings

Final standings.

;Eastern Conference

;Western Conference – clinched playoff spot, – clinched regular season division title, –

Brabham Cup The Henry Brabham Cup is the trophy awarded annually by the ECHL to the team that finishes with the most points in the league during the regular season. The Brabham Cup has been awarded 33 times to 16 different franchises since its debut in 1989. ...

(regular season) champion

Postseason

2017 Kelly Cup playoffs format

At the end of the regular season the top four teams in each division qualifies for the 2017 Kelly Cup playoffs and be seeded one through four based on highest point total earned in the season. Then the first two rounds of the playoffs are held within the division with the first seed facing the fourth seed and the second seed facing the third. The division champions then play each other in a conference championship. The Kelly Cup finals pits the Eastern Conference champion against the Western Conference champion. All four rounds are a best-of-seven format.

Bracket

Awards

All-ECHL teams

All-First Team * Riley Gill (G) – Allen Americans *

David Makowski David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

(D) – Allen Americans *

Matt Register Matthew Register (born September 2, 1989) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who currently plays with the Idaho Steelheads in the ECHL. Playing career Register made his professional debut on January 25, 2012, playing defence for th ...

(D) – Colorado Eagles * Chad Costello (F) – Allen Americans *

(F) – Colorado Eagles *

Casey Pierro-Zabotel Casey Pierro-Zabotel (born November 8, 1988) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre who is currently an unrestricted free agent. He most recently played for the Adirondack Thunder of the ECHL. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in t ...

(F) – Colorado Eagles All-Second Team *Jake Paterson (G) – Toledo Walleye *Jake Marto (D) – Colorado Eagles * Kevin Schulze (D) – Wheeling Nailers * Shane Berschbach (F) – Toledo Walleye * Brendan O'Donnell (F) – Florida Everblades *

David Vallorani David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

(F) – Brampton Beast All-Rookie Team * Landon Bow (G) – Idaho Steelheads * Kevin Schulze (D) – Wheeling Nailers * Nolan Zajac (D) – Toledo Walleye * Mike Cazzola (F) – Fort Wayne Komets * Tylor Spink (F) – Toledo Walleye *

Tyson Spink Tyson is a male given name of old French origin meaning 'high-spirited', 'fire'. It is from this that a surname arose 'son of Tyson'. Surname *Alan Tyson (1926–2000), British musicologist *Barbara Tyson (born 1964), Canadian actress * Bill Tyso ...

(F) – Toledo Walleye

References

External links

ECHL website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Echl Season 2015-17 2016-17 3 3