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Crombeen Wins Kelly Cup In 2007, Battles For Stanley Cup In 2008

May 23, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. – B.J. Crombeen helped the Idaho Steelheads win the Kelly Cup in 2007 and less than 12 months later he was battling for the Stanley Cup as a member of the Dallas Stars.

The 2008 Stanley Cup Finals have former ECHL players Aaron Downey of Detroit and Dany Sabourin of Pittsburgh, meaning that the ECHL will have a representative on the Stanley Cup champion for the eighth straight time.

The ECHL had a representative on all 16 teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 34 former players and six former coaches. It is the third consecutive season that there have been more than 30 former ECHL players in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the fifth year in a row that more than 25 players with ECHL experience have played in the NHL postseason.

There are 13 former ECHL players whose names are on the Stanley Cup: Francois Beauchemin and George Parros (Anaheim – 2007), Chad LaRose and Andrew Hutchinson (Carolina - 2006), Ruslan Fedotenko, Nolan Pratt and Andre Roy (Tampa Bay – 2004), Corey Schwab (New Jersey – 2003), Manny Legace (Detroit – 2002), David Aebischer and Nolan Pratt (Colorado – 2001), Krzysztof Oliwa (New Jersey – 2000) and Kevin Dean (New Jersey – 1995). Pratt is the only ECHL player to have his name engraved twice on the Stanley Cup.

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.

ECHL
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2007-08, the ECHL is the Premier ‘AA' Hockey League and the third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League.

ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states and has grown to be a coast-to-coast league that will play with 24 teams in 16 states and British Columbia in 2008-09.

The league officially changed its name to ECHL on May 19, 2003.

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.

Further information on the ECHL is available from its website at ECHL.com.

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ECHL Stories from May 23, 2008


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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