This will mark the first time in three seasons that
Wheeling will open the regular season at home. The Nailers
will play six of their first seven games at home including games
with Cincinnati (Oct 17, 24) , Trenton (Oct 25, 26), Dayton (Oct
31) and Johnstown (Nov 1).
The Nailers and Johnstown Chiefs will be very
familiar with one another, as the two will square off twelve times in the
regular season. Wheeling will also play the Elmira Jackals
and Dayton Bombers eleven times each in 2008-09.
Wheeling
will travel south for a four game road trip against Southern
Division foes Mississippi and Pensacola starting Nov.4 through
Nov. 8. The Nailers will end the 2008-09 season by playing seven
of their final eleven games at WesBanco Arena. They will
conclude the season in Trenton on April, 4th.
2008-09
Season Ticket packages are on sale now starting at just $324.
Kids Season Tickets only $180. For more information or
to order your season tickets call 304-234-GOAL or online at
www.wheelingnailers.com.
Began in
1988-89 with five teams playing in four states, the Premier ‘AA’
Hockey League has grown into a coast-to-coast league that will
have 24 teams in 16 states and British Columbia playing 864
games from Oct. 17, 2008 to Apr. 4, 2009. Nineteen of the 24
teams have played at least five years in their current city.
The
third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the
National Hockey League and the American Hockey League, the ECHL
averaged 4,174 per game last season, marking the fourth year in
row and the 16th time in the last 18 years that the league has
averaged over 4,000 fans.
The Premier
‘AA’ Hockey League welcomed 3,756,191 fans, marking the fifth
straight season and the 11th time in the last 12 years that it
has exceeded 3.75 million fans. The 51 sold out crowds are the
most in the last five seasons and mark the fourth time in the
last five years that the ECHL has had at least 40 sellouts.
The
conference and division alignments and the format for the 2009
Kelly Cup Playoffs will be determined and approved at a later
date by the ECHL Board of Governors.
The ECHL has
affiliations with 26 of the 30 teams in the NHL in 2007-08,
marking the 11th consecutive season that the league has had
affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.
There have
been 355 former ECHL players who have gone on to play in the NHL
after playing in the ECHL, including 99 in the last three
seasons. There have been 210 former ECHL players who have played
their first game in the NHL in the past seven seasons.
There are 15 coaches in the NHL who
have ECHL experience including former Wheeling
coach Peter Laviolette, who is head coach of the Carolina
Hurricanes, and former Mississippi
coach Bruce Boudreau, who is head coach of the Washington
Capitals.
The ECHL is
represented for the seventh consecutive year on the National
Hockey League championship team in 2007 with Anaheim assistant
coach Dave Farrish, players Francois Beauchemin and George
Parros and broadcasters John Ahlers and Steve Carroll.
The ECHL has
affiliations with 26 of the 29 teams in the American Hockey
League in 2007-08 and for the past 18 years there has been an
ECHL player on the Calder Cup champion.
In each of
the last two seasons there have been more than 225 players who
have played in both the ECHL and the AHL and there were over 800
call-ups involving more than 500 players. In the last five
seasons the ECHL has had more call-ups to the AHL than all other
professional leagues combined with over 2,000 call-ups involving
more than 1,000 players since 2002-03.
