For the 32nd consecutive season, the ECHL is represented by the American Hockey League champions as four of the 24 players who played for the Hershey Bears in the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs played in the AA Hockey League.
There have been 146 former ECHL players in the last 17 AHL Champions.
ECHL had affiliations with 20 or more teams in the AHL in the last 22 years. The South Carolina Stingrays served as an ECHL affiliate for Hershey during the 2022-23 season.
Previous ECHL players who won the 2023 Calder Cup are Zach Focale (Brampton, 2016-18; Fort Wayne, 2018-19; Orlando, 2019-20 and South Carolina, 2020-21), Jake Massey (Greenville, 2019-21 and South Carolina , 2021-22), Mason Morelli (Kansas City, 2019-20 and South Carolina, 2020-21) and Hunter Shepard (South Carolina, 2020-22).
Each of Hershey’s assistant coaches has extensive ECHL experience. Patrick Wheeler is one of seven individuals in ECHL history to win three Kelly Cup titles with Alaska in 2006, South Carolina in 2009 and Reading in 2013. He was an assistant coach with Cincinnati in 2016-2017 and Reading in 2017-18 prior to that. Joining the Bears in 2018-19. Nick Bootland is in his first season with the Hershey Crew after 12 seasons as head coach at Kalamazoo. He ranks seventh in ECHL history with 437 career wins.
Head athletic trainer Sean Flezar previously worked in the ECHL with Norfolk while assistant athletic trainer Max Finley spent time with South Carolina. Director of Media and Broadcast Relations Zack Fish was in a similar role with South Carolina in 2015-16 while media specialist Jesse Lippman worked in Ontario in 2014-2015 and with Orlando from 2015-22.
Shepherd was named the Jack Butterfield Award as the most valuable player in the Calder Cup playoffs becoming the sixth player to receive the award after playing in the ECHL, and the first since Travis Morin in 2013-14.
Seven of the 26 runner-up Coachella Valley Firebirds have ECHL experience with Joey Daccord (Brampton, 2019-20), Luke Henman (Allen, 2021-22), Jeremy McKenna (Wichita, 2020-21; Newfoundland, 2021-22 and Kansas City, 2022-23), Ian McKinnon (Jacksonville, 2019-22 and Maine, 2022-23), Nick Pastogoff (Kansas City, 2020-23), Austin Bojanski (Tulsa, 2018-19) and Eddie Wicchu (Manchester, 2016-2017) and South Carolina, 2019-20).
Through the 2022-23 season, 344 ECHL players were called up to the American Hockey League for a total of 612 call-ups. The Newfoundland Growlers led the ECHL with 23 players called up and 52 total pullouts.
11 times in the last 23 years, the winner of the AHL Coach of the Year award has been a former ECHL coach including former South Carolina Stingrays coach Spencer Carberry, who won the award in 2020-21, and former Reading Royals and Ontario Reign coach Carl Taylor who won the award In the 2019-20 season. Roy Sommer, former head coach of the Roanoke Valley Rebels and Richmond Renegades, won the award in 2016-17 while the former Trenton Devils head coach Rick Kowalskirecruited 2017 at ECHL Hall of Fame, won the award in 2015-16. Former ECHL coaches Scott Gordon and Mike Haviland won the award in 2006 and 2007. The former ECHL coaches won the award four straight years from 2001-2004 along with Don Granato, Bruce Cassidy, Jeff Ward and Claude Noel. The first former ECHL coach to win the award was Peter Laviolette in 1999.
For the 16th consecutive season, six former ECHL players have been named at least AHL Player of the Week with former Orlando Solar Bears goaltender Hugo Alnefelt, former Alaska Ice and Bakersfield Condors goaltender Laurent Brossuyt, and former Gwinnett Gladiator goaltender Luis Domingo, former Wichita Thunder , And the. Newfoundland Growler Bobby McMahon, Ex-Wheeling Knickers forward Gage Quiney and Ex-Cincinnati forward Logan Shaw
Ten of the 32 NFL coaches during the 2022-23 season previously served as coaches in the ECHL with Bakersfield’s Colin Cholk, Troy Mann-Belleville, Brent Thompson of Bridgeport, Ben Simon of Grand Rapids, Jean-Francois Holly of Laval, Manitoba’s Mark Morrison, and Carl Taylor from Milwaukee, Ryan Muginell from Providence, Roy Somer from San Diego, and Neil Graham from Texas.
Former ECHL announcers working in the American Hockey League during the 2022-23 season include Ryan Holt of the Bakersfield Condors, Alan Furing of the Bridgeport Islanders, Jason Schaefer of the Chicago Wolves, Tony Brown of the Cleveland Monsters, Ivan Pevnik of the Coachella Valley Firebirds, Kevin McGlue of the Colorado Eagles, Brian McCormack of the Henderson Silver Knights, Zack Fisch of the Hershey Bears, Bob Rotruck of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Jared Shafran of the Ontario Reign, Mike Folta of the Rockford IceHogs, Andy Zilch of the San Diego Gulls, Lucas Faval of the Syracuse Crunch, John Peterson of the Texas Stars, Adrian Denney of the Tucson Roadrunners and Jason Chaia of the Utica Comets.
Forty-two of the 80 referees working in the American Hockey League have come from the ECHL, while 79 of the 155 referees in the AHL have worked at ECHL games.