The ECHL is expected to announce that three teams will not be participating in this upcoming 2020-21 season. The Cincinnati Cyclones, Idaho Steelheads, and the Kalamazoo Wings will not be playing this season.
ECHL News – Expect the league to announce that the Cincinnati Cyclones, Idaho Steelheads and Kalamazoo Wings will not play this season.
— Jeff Marek (@JeffMarek) December 6, 2020
Cincinnati, Idaho, Kalamazoo won’t play this season
This announcement comes at a time in the league’s existence where a whole season is in jeopardy due to the pandemic. The league itself doesn’t accumulate a whole lot of money as it is. The ECHL already announced that the entire North division would be suspending operations for the 2020-21 season. For example, each team only has around $13 thousand to spend each week, with players getting $600 a week. These three teams closing their doors on the season is one of a series of side effects due to the pandemic. The ECHL and the AHL, both leagues feeding into the NHL, took a hard loss when they closed last March. The loss of that much revenue hurt a lot of teams in those leagues and jeopardized them playing this season.
Cincinnati and Kalamazoo both play in the league’s Central Division. Last season Cincinnati, the ECHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres, won the division with a 38-17-7 record. Kalamazoo, the ECHL affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks, was fifth in the division with a 23-30-7 record. Idaho, the Dallas Stars affiliate team, is a member of the league’s Mountain Division, where they placed second.
What This Means for the Future
As of right now, there is no sign that these teams won’t be able to play another game again. As stated before, minor hockey took a massive hit in March due to leagues closing out their seasons. Cincinnati is one of the more storied franchises in the league and will likely live to see another game, With Idaho and Kalamazoo, however, it’s a trickier story. In today’s hockey-economy, they will likely play next season and look back on this year as a blip on the radar. However this move for them is a big deal, they’re missing out on a year of revenue that could help them recover losses, which heavily jeopardizes their existence as a whole.
Marek added that two more teams the Toledo Walleye and Fort Wayne Komets are still undecided about whether or not they want to play the 2020-21 season.
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