Evansville IceMen

This article is about the current ECHL Evansville IceMen franchise. For the defunct All American Hockey League franchise, see: Evansville IceMen (2008–2010).
Evansville IceMen
2015–16 ECHL season
City Evansville, Indiana
League ECHL
Conference Western
Division Midwest
Founded 1992 (1992) (In the CoHL)
Home arena Ford Center
Colors black, navy, white
              
Owner(s) Ron Geary
Head coach Al Sims
Captain Jarret Lukin
Media ESPN Radio
Affiliates Ottawa Senators (NHL)
Binghamton Senators (AHL)
Website Evansville IceMen.com
Franchise history
1992–2008 Muskegon Fury
2008–2010 Muskegon Lumberjacks
2010–present Evansville IceMen

The Evansville IceMen are a minor league ice hockey team in the ECHL. The team was originally a member of the International Hockey League before it merged into the Central Hockey League in 2010. The franchise has won four post-season championship titles in the UHL in 1999, 2002, 2004 and 2005. Formerly playing at the Swonder Ice Arena, since the 2011–12 season the IceMen have played at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.

The IceMen were formerly known as the Muskegon Fury from 1992 to 2008, and Muskegon Lumberjacks from 2008 to 2010. The current IceMen franchise replaced the original Evansville IceMen that were a part of the All American Hockey League before folding in 2010.

History

On February 8, 2010 it was announced that the Muskegon Lumberjacks would move to Evansville, Indiana as the Evansville IceMen at the conclusion of the 2009–10 International Hockey League season, replacing the team with the same name. The United States Hockey League would then award an expansion team to Muskegon taking on the name Muskegon Lumberjacks.[1]

On July 13, 2010, the International Hockey League merged with the Central Hockey League, retaining the name Central Hockey League. The merger had the Bloomington PrairieThunder, Dayton Gems, Evansville IceMen, Fort Wayne Komets and Quad City Mallards IHL franchises move to the Northern Conference of the CHL.

From 2011 to 2013, the IceMen practiced at Swonder, but played home games at the Ford Center.

On May 17, 2012, the IceMen were formally were accepted into the ECHL, with membership to begin in the 2012–13 season.[2] On June 15, 2012, the IceMen announced an affiliation with the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets and its primary AHL affiliate, the Springfield Falcons.[3] Before the resumption of the new season on August 30, 2012, the Peoria Rivermen announced that the IceMen would be their ECHL farm club, cutting ties with the Alaska Aces.[4]

The IceMen announced on June 5, 2014, that they had hired Dwight Mullins as the new head coach and was joined by former Icemen Player Josh Beaulieu as assistant coach. Prior to the 2014–15 season, the IceMen agreed to a new new affiliation contract with the Ottawa Senators and their AHL affiliate, the Binghamton Senators, after losing their Blue Jackets affiliation. In January 2015, Mullins was replaced by Al Sims due to an unacceptable start to the season (9-16-4).

On November 16, 2015, team owner Ron Geary wrote a letter to the IceMen fans that the team's operating lease with the Ford Center was ending after the 2015–16 season. Despite attempts to negotiate a lease extension with the city since February 2015, the two parties had not yet come to an agreement on new terms with the upcoming December 1 deadline (later extended to Dec. 15 and then again to January 6 when the 15th deadline was not met).[5] Evansville has been reported to have been paying the highest rent in the ECHL since moving to the Ford Center in 2011, with as much as $650,000 per season compared to the league median of about $152,000.[6] The City of Evansville and Geary were unable to come to an agreement before the ECHL deadline and Geary began relocation discussions with the City of Owensboro, Kentucky. On January 19, it was announced that Geary had agreed to terms with Owensboro and intended to relocate the team to the Owensboro Sports Center if the IceMen were forced to leave the Ford Center.[7] On February 8, 2016, the City of Evansville announced that it had secured an expansion team in the Southern Professional Hockey League to play at the Ford Center beginning in the 2016–17 season, thus displacing the IceMen franchise from Evansville.[8]

Seasons

Season GP W L OTL SOL Pts GF GA PIM Playoffs
Central Hockey League
2010–11 66 21 32 8 5 55 181 242 1240 Did not qualify
2011–12 66 40 22 1 3 84 215 192 1390 Lost 1st Round, 0-4 vs. Missouri Mavericks
ECHL
2012–13 72 25 40 3 4 57 207 272 1256 Did not qualify
2013–14 72 31 30 4 7 73 226 237 1059 Did not qualify
2014–15 72 15 48 6 3 39 169 271 1184 Did not qualify

Current roster

Updated November 4, 2015.[9]
# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace Contract
34 United States Anthoine, MarkMark Anthoine F L 25 2014 Lewiston, Maine IceMen
30 United States Asmundson, KeeganKeegan Asmundson G L 25 2015 Mayville, North Dakota IceMen
31 Sweden Bengtsberg, ChristofferChristoffer Bengtsberg G L 26 2015 Stockholm, Sweden IceMen
16 United States Carlisle, ChrisChris Carlisle D L 21 2015 Fort Lee, New Jersey Binghamton
8 Sweden Carlsson, JonathanJonathan Carlsson (A) D R 27 2015 Uppsala, Sweden IceMen
18 France Dieude-Fauvel, BenjaminBenjamin Dieude-Fauvel D L 29 2015 Bordeaux, France IceMen
25 Canada Dunn, VincentVincent Dunn C L 20 2015 Hull, Quebec Ottawa
13 Canada Fawcett, TysonTyson Fawcett C R 22 2015 Barrie, Ontario IceMen
35 Canada Greenham, ScottScott Greenham G L 28 2014 Ottawa, Ontario Binghamton
7 United States Himelson, AndrewAndrew Himelson D L 25 2015 Monroe, New York IceMen
5 Canada Humphries, SpencerSpencer Humphries D R 23 2015 Delta, British Columbia IceMen
27 United States Hussey, MattMatt Hussey (A) C L 36 2015 New Haven, Connecticut IceMen
9 Canada Leveille, DaultanDaultan Leveille C L 25 2015 St. Catharines, Ontario Binghamton
32 Canada Lukin, JarretJarret Lukin (C) C L 32 2014 Fort McMurray, Alberta IceMen
23 Canada MacDonald, JustinJustin MacDonald F L 25 2015 Newmarket, Ontario IceMen
12 Canada Moon, NathanNathan Moon F L 26 2015 Belleville, Ontario IceMen
6 Canada Noreau, SamuelSamuel Noreau D R 23 2015 Montreal, Quebec Rangers
19 Canada Penny, RyanRyan Penny LW L 21 2015 Fall River, Nova Scotia Binghamton
22 United States Rumble, ChrisChris Rumble D L 25 2015 Chesapeake, Virginia IceMen
2 Canada Rutkowski, TroyTroy Rutkowski D R 23 2014 Edmonton, Alberta Ottawa
21 United States Sims, JordanJordan Sims F L 26 2015 Fort Wayne, Indiana IceMen
10 Sweden Strandberg, SebastianSebastian Strandberg C L 23 2015 Visingsö, Sweden IceMen
41 Canada Trebish, MichaelMichael Trebish D L 26 2015 Yorkton, Saskatchewan IceMen
17 United States Zay, MatthewMatthew Zay LW L 25 2015 Glendale, New York Binghamton

See also

References

  1. ↑ "It's official Lumberjacks hockey in Muskegon". mlive.com. 2010-02-02. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
  2. ↑ Press Release. "Expansion Membership Approved for Evansville". ECHL. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  3. ↑ Press Release. "IceMen will be affiliated with NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets". Evansville Courier and Press. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  4. ↑ Press Release. "Rivermen cut ties with Alaska, sign Evansville as ECHL farm club". Peoria Journal Star. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  5. ↑ "A Letter To IceMen Fans, From Team Owner Ron Geary". Evansville IceMen. November 16, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Evansville's Hockey Team in Jeopardy". OurSportsCentral. November 16, 2015.
  7. ↑ "BREAKING: Evansville IceMen Announce Move". The Sin Bin. January 19, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Evansville will be home to Southern Professional Hockey League franchise". Evansville Courier & Press. February 8, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Evansville IceMen roster". Evansville IceMen. Retrieved March 11, 2015.

External links

Media related to Evansville IceMen at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 08, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.