The Maine Mariners are a professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team in the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a minor professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams across the United States and Canada. Competitively, it is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...

that began play in the 2018–19 season. Based in

Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...

, the team plays their home games at Cross Insurance Arena. The team participates in the North Division of the Eastern Conference. The team replaced the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America that serves as the primary developmental league of the National Hockey League (NHL). The league comprises 32 teams, with 26 in the United States and 6 in Cana ...

's Portland Pirates after the franchise became the

Springfield Thunderbirds The Springfield Thunderbirds are a professional ice hockey team based in Springfield, Massachusetts. They are the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the National Hockey League's St. Louis Blues. The Thunderbirds play their home games at th ...

in 2016.

History

Efforts to bring hockey back to Portland

On May 23, 2016, the Portland Pirates' franchise was sold and relocated to

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

, and became the

. A team of investors headed by former Pirates executives W. Godfrey Wood and Brad Church — the latter a former Portland player as well — announced their intentions to put an

team in Portland to fill the void, joining as early as 2017. However, progress to attain a franchise by the Portland group stalled until four groups, none of which involved Wood, submitted their own proposals at the end of February 2017. By March 8, the arena owners had narrowed their choices to the proposals submitted by Spectra and National Sports Services, with both groups having been involved with managing ECHL teams in their past. In June 2017, Comcast Spectacor, Spectra's parent company and the operators of the Cross Insurance Arena and the NHL's

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team play ...

— the founders and NHL affiliate for years of the original Maine Mariners AHL franchise in Portland — purchased the franchise rights of the recently dormant Alaska Aces of the ECHL. The league approved of the sale and relocation of the franchise to Portland on June 15. Philadelphia Flyers president Paul Holmgren would serve as the team's governor with former player

Daniel Brière Daniel Jean-Claude Brière (born October 6, 1977) is a Canadians, Canadian former professional ice hockey player and current general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers. He was drafted in the first round of the 1996 NHL Entry Draft by the Arizona ...

overseeing the day-to-day operations. In August 2017, the team announced their five finalists for a team name: the Mariners, Watchmen, Lumberjacks, Puffins, and Wild Blueberries. The name was announced as the Mariners on September 29. On November 29, the Mariners' logo and color scheme were revealed. On February 17, 2018, the Mariners hired Riley Armstrong as head coach and Keith Rosenberg as on-ice assistant coach. On April 9, 2018, the Mariners announced they would be affiliated with the NHL's

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York City. The Rangers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team plays ...

Early seasons

The new Mariners played their first game on October 13, 2018, a 6–3 loss to the Adirondack Thunder. Their inaugural game was at home with a reported attendance of 5,291. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the ECHL cancelled the Mariners' final ten games of the 2019–20 season and the playoffs. Due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic, the Mariners voluntarily suspended operations for the

2020–21 ECHL season The 2020–21 ECHL season was the 33rd season of the ECHL. Due to the ongoing restrictions in the COVID-19 pandemic, the start of the regular season was pushed back to December 11, 2020. The Fort Wayne Komets were the Kelly Cup champions, de ...

. The team would return for the 2021–22 season, and on June 30, 2021, the Mariners entered an affiliation agreement with the NHL's

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...

and their AHL affiliate, the

Providence Bruins The Providence Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Providence, Rhode Island. They are the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL). They play at the Amica Mutual Pavilion. Hi ...

, beginning with the 2021–22 season. The Bruins were the affiliate of the original AHL Mariners from 1987 to 1992, until the Bruins relocated the Mariners' franchise to Providence. In August 2021, head coach Armstrong was hired by the

as an assistant coach with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the AHL and was replaced by the University of Maine men's hockey assistant coach and former NHL player Ben Guité. On April 16, 2022, the Mariners clinched their first-ever playoff berth thanks to the Worcester Railers dropping their game to the Trois-Rivières Lions in OT and the Mariners beating the

Newfoundland Growlers The Newfoundland Growlers were a professional minor league ice hockey team in the East Coast Hockey League, ECHL based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The team began play in the 2018–19 ECHL season, 2018–19 season with home games ...

, clinching the final (4th) playoff spot in the North Division. In their first playoff series in team history, the Mariners lost to the Reading Royals, losing the series 4–2. Guité departed the Mariners after the season to become the head hockey coach of

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. It was chartered in 1794. The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. In a ...

, and he was replaced as head coach by Terrence Wallin on July 27, 2022. The Mariners were able to clinch a playoff spot again in the 2022–23 ECHL season, getting the third seed in the division. They again played the Reading Royals in the first round and lost the series 4–2. In the 23–24 season, because of the termination of the

's franchise rights with a couple of games to go, ruining the scheduling, the ECHL announced that they would base the divisional standings (for the North only) on point percentage, keeping the top four teams into the playoffs. Thanks to this, and the tiebreaker over the Worcester Railers, the Mariners made the playoffs again, this time losing in seven games to the Adirondack Thunder.

Paine ownership

On July 23, 2024, businessman Dexter Paine of nearby North Conway, New Hampshire, announced that he had reached an agreement to purchase the Mariners from

Comcast Spectacor Comcast Spectacor is an American sports and entertainment company and division of Comcast based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, the Philadelphia Wings of the National Lacrosse League ...

. The deal was finalized on September 30, 2024. The team finished with 70 points, their worst points total in franchise history excluding the pandemic-shortened 2019–20 season, and failed to make the playoffs in Paine's first year of ownership. It was the first time the team missed the playoffs since their inaugural season. Despite the on-ice struggles, the team set a single-game attendance record for their final home game of the season, a 4–2 win over the Adirondack Thunder.

Season-by-season records

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" , - !colspan=10, Regular season !colspan=5, Playoffs , - ! Season !! GP !! W !! L !! OTL !! SOL !! Pts !! GF !! GA !! Standing !! Year !! 1st round !! 2nd round !! 3rd round !! Kelly Cup , - , 2018–19 , , 72 , , 37 , , 32 , , 2 , , 1 , , 77 , , 221 , , 247 , , 6th, North , ,

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, , colspan=4, ''did not qualify'' , - , 2019–20 , , 62 , , 32 , , 26 , , 3 , , 1 , , 68 , , 182 , , 186 , , 4th, North , , 2020 , , colspan=4, Season cancelled , - , 2020–21 , , colspan=9 , ''Opted out of participating due to the

'' , ,

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, , colspan=4 , ''did not participate'' , - , 2021–22 , , 72 , , 33 , , 31 , , 5 , , 3 , , 74 , , 230 , , 236 , , 4th, North , ,

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, , L, 2–4, REA, , —, , —, , — , - , 2022–23 , , 72 , , 42 , , 27 , , 2 , , 1 , , 87 , , 267 , , 210 , , 3rd, North , ,

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, , L, 2–4, REA, , —, , —, , — , - , 2023–24 , , 72 , , 32 , , 32 , , 8 , , 0 , , 87 , , 250 , , 260 , , 4th, North , ,

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, , L, 3–4, ADR , , —, , —, , — , - , 2024–25 , , 72 , , 33 , , 35 , , 4 , , 0 , , 70 , , 196 , , 237 , , 6th, North , ,

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

, , colspan=4, ''did not qualify''

References

External links

* {{Comcast Maine Mariners (ECHL) players ECHL teams Ice hockey teams in Maine Ice hockey clubs established in 2017 2 New York Rangers minor league affiliates 2017 establishments in Maine Comcast subsidiaries