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.

• 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.

There were two other sets of cities that simply swapped the locations of the AHL and ECHL affiliates:

• 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.

Two teams also rebranded this season.

• 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.

Standings

Eastern Conference
North Division
Team	GP	W	L	T	OTL	SOL	GF	GA	PIM	P
Toledo Walleye	72	47	20	-	2	3	225	174	665	99
Wheeling Nailers	72	37	26	-	5	4	214	211	1037	83
Kalamazoo Wings	72	38	28	-	5	1	233	230	957	82
Brampton Beast	72	23	38	-	7	4	179	255	932	57
East Division
Team	GP	W	L	T	OTL	SOL	GF	GA	PIM	P
Manchester Monarchs	72	39	24	-	4	5	222	213	1004	87
Adirondack Thunder	72	38	28	-	2	4	197	189	990	82
Reading Royals	72	36	26	-	6	4	222	194	883	82
Elmira Jackals	72	37	30	-	3	2	206	214	934	79
Norfolk Admirals	72	30	37	-	4	1	201	232	1193	65
South Division
Team	GP	W	L	T	OTL	SOL	GF	GA	PIM	P
South Carolina Stingrays	72	44	18	-	7	3	224	162	1273	98
Florida Everblades	72	46	23	-	1	2	226	175	892	95
Orlando Solar Bears	72	33	30	-	4	5	224	232	845	75
Atlanta Gladiators	72	34	31	-	5	2	189	224	913	75
Greenville Swamp Rabbits	72	29	33	-	9	1	205	243	1081	68
Western Conference
Midwest Division
Team	GP	W	L	T	OTL	SOL	GF	GA	PIM	P
Fort Wayne Komets	72	40	23	-	7	2	240	200	1196	89
Cincinnati Cyclones	72	36	27	-	5	4	222	210	847	81
Quad City Mallards	72	37	29	-	4	2	203	203	1007	80
Indy Fuel	72	32	36	-	4	0	174	201	786	68
Evansville IceMen	72	29	33	-	7	3	207	242	1028	68
Central Division
Team	GP	W	L	T	OTL	SOL	GF	GA	PIM	P
Missouri Mavericks	72	52	15	-	3	2	234	162	855	109
Allen Americans	72	41	24	-	3	4	222	204	1189	89
Tulsa Oilers	72	37	30	-	3	2	191	191	1083	79
Wichita Thunder	72	18	41	-	7	6	150	240	1152	49
West Division
Team	GP	W	L	T	OTL	SOL	GF	GA	PIM	P
Colorado Eagles	72	41	27	-	3	1	232	193	1427	86
Idaho Steelheads	72	38	24	-	7	3	203	187	917	86
Utah Grizzlies	72	39	27	-	3	3	223	206	942	84
Rapid City Rush	72	30	35	-	3	4	177	210	974	67
Alaska Aces	72	27	38	-	4	3	189	237	1171	61

Kelly Cup Playoffs

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.

Bracket

Conference Quarterfinals

Conference Semifinals

Conference Finals

Kelly Cup Finals

E1

Toledo Walleye

3

E8

Reading Royals

4

E8

Reading

3

E5

Wheeling

4

E4

Florida Everblades

2

E5

Wheeling Nailers

4

E5

Wheeling

4

Eastern Conference

E2

South Carolina

3

E2

South Carolina Stingrays

4

E7

Kalamazoo Wings

1

E2

South Carolina

4

E6

Adirondack

3

E3

Manchester Monarchs

1

E6

Adirondack Thunder

4

E5

Wheeling

2

W4

Allen

4

W1

Missouri Mavericks

4

W8

Quad City Mallards

0

W1

Missouri

2

W4

Allen

4

W4

Allen Americans

4

W5

Idaho Steelheads

3

W4

Allen

4

Western Conference

W2

Fort Wayne

1

W2

Fort Wayne Komets

4

W7

Cincinnati Cyclones

3

W2

Fort Wayne

4

W6

Utah

0

W3

Colorado Eagles

2

W6

Utah Grizzlies

4

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)

2016 ECHL Kelly Cup Champions Allen Americans