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ECHL Florida Everblades

'Blades sign affiliation with Panthers

August 22, 2005 - ECHL (ECHL)
Florida Everblades News Release


ESTERO, FL - The Florida Everblades announced today, that the team has reached a one-year affiliation agreement with the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League. In addition, the Everblades will also remain affiliated with the Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL and their American Hockey League affiliate, the Lowell Lock Monsters.

"We are thrilled to be able to sign on with Florida for this upcoming season." Everblades president & general manager Craig Brush said. "We are obviously looking forward to seeing some of the Panthers' top prospects here in Estero."

The Everblades have made back-to-back trips to the Kelly Cup Finals and have qualified for the post-season in each of their seven seasons in the ECHL. The Everblades have also led the ECHL in regular season attendance for the past five seasons, and have averaged over 6,500 fans per game in their seven seasons.

Mike Keenan, who was named the sixth general manager in Florida Panthers history in May of 2004, also likes the partnership, saying, "As an organization, we are very happy to sign a deal for the upcoming season with the Florida Everblades. Mr. Brush and Coach Fleming have shown year after year the ability to put a quality, winning product on the ice, and that was very important to us. Overall the deal made perfect sense for us. We now have a quality affiliate to send our younger prospects to, but in addition, there's an added bonus that we will have plenty of opportunities to watch these players in action with the Everblades being only 90 minutes away."

The Premier "AA" Hockey League, the ECHL had affiliations with 23 of the 28 teams in the American Hockey League in 2004-05 and for the 16th consecutive season the Calder Cup Champion had former ECHL players on it. The ECHL had affiliations with 23 of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League and there were more than 100 players who played in the ECHL in 2004-05 who were under contract to NHL teams.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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