2015-16 ECHL season

The 2015–16 ECHL season is the 28th season of the ECHL. The regular season schedule will run from October  to April  with the Kelly Cup playoffs to follow.

Membership changes
As a result of a major shift of American Hockey League teams the ECHL also had a major shift of franchises as the league lost 3 California based teams to new AHL teams. There were two other sets of cities that simply swapped the locations of the AHL and ECHL affiliates: Two teams also rebranded this season.
 * As a result of the Edmonton Oilers purchasing the AHL's Oklahoma City Barons franchise and relocating  it to Bakersfield, California; the Bakersfield Condors were relocated to Norfolk, Virginia replacing the city's AHL franchise which was purchased by the Anaheim Ducks and relocated to San Diego, California as the San Diego Gulls.
 * The  Manchester Monarchs of the AHL swapped locations with the Ontario Reign with the teams keeping the same names. The new Manchester Monarchs franchise joined the league's East Division
 * The Stockton Thunder  of the AHL come into existence when the Calgary Flames relocated their Glens Falls, New York based Adirondack Flames and the ECHL's team is relocated to Glens Falls as the Adirondack Thunder
 * On August 25, 2015 the Greenville Road Warriors were renamed the Greenville Swamp Rabbits
 * On August 9, 2015 the Gwinnett Gladiators announced they were changing their name to the Atlanta Gladiators
 * The Evansville Icemen appear to be moving to Owensboro, Kentucky for the 2016-17 season, the team signed a lease with the city of Owensboro to play in the Edge Ice Center starting with next season.  The city of Evansvile has started work on trying to secure a new hockey tenant at the Ford Center for the 2016-17 season, most likely a Southern Professional Hockey League franchise.  The move of the team to Owensboro was approved by the ECHL along with a one year leave of absence since the arena would be undergoing renovations.
 * In the spring of 2016 the league announce the addition of the Worcester Railers for the 2017-18 season to be based out of the DCU Center.  The former home of the Worcester Sharks.
 * The league received an application for another expansion team to be located in Portland, Maine for the 2017-18 season to replace the AHL's Portland Pirates who relocated to Springfield, Massachusetts to replace the Springfield Falcons who were sold and relocated to Tucson, Arizona.
 * The Gwinnett Gladiators were rebranded as the Atlanta Gladiators to reflect the entire metropolitan Atlanta area rather than just Gwinnett County.
 * The Greenville Road Warriors were rebranded as the Greenville Swamp Rabbits to give the team a stronger local connection.

Rule changes
The league held its annual Board of Governors meeting in late June and announced the following changes:
 * The league changes the overtime format to five minutes of sudden death 3 on 3 play, followed by a 3 round shoot out followed by a sudden death shoot out if needed
 * The "spin-o-rama" move was eliminated during shootouts
 * The league will use two referees for all playoff games up from using them for the semifinal and final rounds the past three seasons.
 *  The Board of Governors approved changing the distance of the hash marks on the end-zone faceoff circles to 5 feet, 7 inches.

2015-16 League alignment

 * Notes


 * 1) An asterisk (*) denotes a franchise move. See the respective team articles for more information.

Format
As a result of the league re-aligning into 3 unbalanced divisions in each conference the playoff format was changed from a division based playoff to a conference based playoff with the division winners being seeded 1, 2, and 3 (based on points) and the next five highest point totals also qualify for the playoffs. All four rounds will be a best-of-seven format. This is the same format the NHL used prior to its most recent re-alignment.

Eastern Conference Quarterfinals

 * Reading Royals defeated Toledo Walleye 4 games to 3 (4-3, 3-4, 4-2, 1-3, 5-3, 1-3, 4-1)
 * South Carolina Stingrays defeated Kalamazoo Wings 4 games to 1 (4-1, 5-2, 3-5, 3-2, 5-1)
 * Adirondack Thunder defeated Manchester Monarchs 4 games to 1 (3-2, 4-3 (ot), 4-2, 1-2, 3-0)
 * Wheeling Nailers defeated Florida Everblades  4 games to 2 (6-3, 1-4, 3-6, 5-4, 4-3, 2-1)

Western Conference Quarterfinals

 * Missouri Mavericks defeated Quad City Mallards 4 games to none (6-3, 2-1, 4-2, 4-1)
 * Fort Wayne Komets defeated Cincinnati Cyclones 4 games to 3 (2-3, 2-3, 8-0, 3-2 (2ot), 4-5 (2ot), 2-1 (ot), 2-0)
 * Utah Grizzlies defeated Colorado Eagles 4 games to 2 (3-2, 4-5 (3ot), 3-2, 7-2, 2-5, 7-2)
 * Allen Americans defeated Idaho Steelheads 4 games to 3 (1-3, 3-1, 3-1, 1-3, 1-7, 4-2, 3-2 (ot))

Eastern Conference Semifinals

 * South Carolina Stingrays defeated Adirondack Thunder 4 games to 3 (4-5, 1-0, 1-3, 6-0, 2-3 (ot), 4-1, 3-2 (2ot))
 * Wheeling Nailers  defeated Reading Royals 4 games to 3 (4-1, 2-4, 1-4, 2-1 (3ot), 1-3, 8-3, 4-3 (ot))

Western Conference Semifinals

 * Allen Americans defeated Missouri Mavericks 4 games to 2 (2-0, 2-5, 5-1, 4-2, 1-3, 5-1)
 * Fort Wayne Komets defeated Utah Grizzlies 4 games to none (6-4, 5-3, 3-1, 5-3)

Eastern Conference Final

 * Wheeling Nailers defeated South Carolina Stingrays 4 games to 3 (0-3, 4-3 (2ot), 2-1, 2-4, 1-3, 4-3 (ot), 5-2)

Western Conference Final

 * Allen Americans defeated Fort Wayne Komets  4 games to 1 (5-3, 3-2 (ot), 1-2, 6-5 (ot), 6-4)

Kelly Cup Final

 * Allen Americans defeated Wheeling Nailers 4 games to 2 (5-3, 6-7, 2-3, 4-2, 3-2 (ot), 4-2)