The Quad City Storm is a professional

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nort ...

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. They began play in the 2018–19 season as a member of the

SPHL The SPHL (formerly the Southern Professional Hockey League) is a professional ice hockey independent minor league based in Huntersville, North Carolina, with teams located primarily in the southeastern United States as well as Illinois and India ...

. The team is based in the

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of five cities (originally Tri-Cities, later four, see #History, History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport, Iowa, Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, Bettendorf (the fifth to be included) in southeaster ...

area of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

and

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

, with home games at the

Vibrant Arena at The MARK The Vibrant Arena at The MARK, formerly known as The MARK of the Quad Cities, the iWireless Center, and the TaxSlayer Center, is a 12,000-seat multi-purpose arena located in Moline, Illinois. The facility opened in May 1993, under the name The MA ...

Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in the 2020 census, it is the largest city in Rock Island County and the List of municipalities in Illinois, ninth-most populous in Illinois outside ...

. The team replaced 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 ...

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 United Hockey League, International Hockey League, Central Hockey League and ECHL. They were named aft ...

after the ownership ceased operations of the team in 2018. Due to the effects of 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 Storm were one of several SPHL teams to not participate in the 2020–21 season; they returned to play the following season.

History

In 2018, the

' owner Jordan Melville stated he was folding the team after losing about US$4 million since he became the sole owner in 2013. On May 24, 2018, local ownership consisting of Ryan Mosley and John Dawson obtained a franchise in the

Southern Professional Hockey League The SPHL (formerly the Southern Professional Hockey League) is a professional ice hockey independent minor league based in Huntersville, North Carolina, with teams located primarily in the southeastern United States as well as Illinois and Indian ...

to replace the Mallards at the TaxSlayer Center for the 2018–19 season by purchasing the franchise rights of the defunct Louisiana IceGators. Former original Mallards' owner Howard Cornfield was brought on as a consultant. The team hired longtime SPHL player Dave Pszenyczny as their inaugural head coach. As the Mallards name was unavailable due to the ECHL retaining the trademark, the new team held a name-the-team contest with new name announced as the Quad City Storm on June 21. In May 2024, Shayne Toporowski was name new head coach of the Quad City Storm replacing Dave Pszenyczny after a long 6 years with the Storm.

Records

2018–19

The Storm finished their inaugural season in ninth place out of ten teams, missing the 2019 President's Cup playoffs. The team had a final record of 18–33–5, scoring an average of 2.55 goals per game and allowing an average of 3.45 goals against per game.

2019–20

The sophomore season for the Storm, the team fared slightly better with a final record of 16–20–8. The team was in seventh place out of the ten teams due to points percentage, but was tied for last in the league in total points, before the

curtailed the 2019–20 season on March 15, 2020.

2021-22

The Senior season for the Storm, the team did much better with a final record of 32-15-5. The team was in fifth place out of the ten teams and made into the 2022 playoffs, but lost to the Rivermen in the Semifinals 1-2.

2022-23

During the SPHL 2022-23 season, the team would miss the playoffs with a record of 23-32-1 with the team in ninth place out of eleven teams.

2023-24

During the 2023-24 season, the Storm made it into the playoffs with a record of 32-23-1 with the team placed in sixth place out of ten teams. But the team lost in the first round of the playoffs against Roanoke. 2024-25 During the 2024-25 season, the Storm made it into the playoffs with a record of 24-27-5 with the team placed in eighth place out of ten teams. But the team lost in the first round of the playoffs against the Rivermen in a 0-2 sweep.

References

External links

Official Storm website
{{Illinois Sports Professional ice hockey teams in Illinois SPHL teams Ice hockey clubs established in 2018 2018 establishments in Illinois Moline, Illinois