Coralville ECHL hockey team releases 2021-22 season schedule

CORALVILLE – It has an arena, a team president and now a schedule.

Iowa’s ECHL professional hockey club announced its inaugural season will begin Oct. 22 at Xtream Arena against the Kansas City Mavericks.

The club will play 72 games overall: 36 at home and 36 on the road. Iowa is affiliated with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild.

“We are excited to have a schedule in place as we continue to build to our home opener on October 22 against one of our closest rivals, the Kansas City Mavericks,” said Iowa President Brian McKenna. “Fans will see a number of exciting opponents that will help to provide an entertaining experience at Xtream Arena. We are also looking forward to announcing our team name and logo in the very near future.

The very near future is a week from Thursday, to be exact. The club will reveal its team name and logo at a press conference the afternoon of May 20.

Fans who are part of the club’s “Founding Fathers” program can come to Xtream Arena to take part in the ceremony. Anyone can be a “Founding Father” with a $50 deposit that acts as a down payment for season tickets.

Team merchandise also will be available beginning May 20. David Fine, Iowa’s director of communications, said individual tickets for 2021-22 games won’t be available until likely late summer.

The team recently hired Brian McKenna as team president. It has yet to hire a head coach, who will be responsible for recruiting and signing players to standard ECHL contracts who are not already property of the Wild.

According to Fine, generally seven to 12 players who belong to the Wild will play in Coralville at one time. Players draw a salary of between $490 and $530 a week, depending on if they are league rookies or veterans.

The ECHL’s league salary cap for the 2020-21 season was $13,300 per week after the first month of the season. The salary floor was $10,350 a week.

Players will begin being available to sign contracts in July, Fine said.

There will be 27 ECHL teams for the 2021-22 season, stretching from Utah, Idaho, Texas and Florida to Maine and Newfoundland. Iowa will be joined by Trois-Rivieres (Quebec) as a new team this coming season, with a club in Savannah, Ga., joining the following season.

Iowa will play the Cincinnati Cyclones, Indy (Indianapolis) Fuel and Kalamazoo Wings five times each at home, the Kansas City Mavericks, Toledo Walleye and Fort Wayne Komets four times, the Wheeling Nailers, Rapid City Rush and Allen (Texas) Americans three times apiece.

The home schedule features 12 games on Fridays and nine on Saturday. First puck drop is 7 p.m.

There will be two Sunday home games (3 p.m. start) and 13 Wednesday games (7 p.m. start).

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