It's 'Game On' In 28-Team ECHL October 22

October 5, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release

PRINCETON, N.J. – The ECHL has announced that on October 22 it will be "Game On!" for the Premier "AA" Hockey League as the coast-to-coast league and its 28 member teams celebrate the upcoming hockey season with the "Game On!" promotional campaign.

"The 2004-05 ECHL season has the potential to be the most exciting ever," said ECHL Commissioner Brian McKenna. "The level of play and overall skill level in the ECHL is at an all-time high and we invite hockey fans across the country to attend an ECHL game to experience the excitement firsthand."

Game On! is a multifaceted promotional campaign designed to increase interest and awareness for the start of the 2004-05 season, not only in each of the 28 ECHL markets but throughout North America as the league welcomes the Victoria Salmon Kings who become first ECHL team outside of the United States playing in Victoria, British Columbia. The "Game On!" campaign will be active in all 28 ECHL markets leading up to October 22 when the ECHL opens its 17th season. ECHL teams will utilize "Game On!" in radio and television commercials as well as in local promotions to celebrate the start of the 2004-05 hockey season. Originally developed and introduced by the National Hockey League in 1998 to distinguish the start of the hockey season during the crowded October sports calendar, "Game On!" has been used by the NHL and minor professional hockey each of the past five years.

The ECHL has affiliations with 22 of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League and 23 of the 28 teams in the American Hockey League, and in 2003-04 every team in the NHL and the AHL had an ECHL player play for it. In 2003-04, the ECHL had a record 40 players who played their first game in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, including a record 11 who played in both the ECHL and the NHL. There were 116 former ECHL players who played in the NHL in 2003-04, and there have been 256 ECHL alumni that have played in the NHL. For the fifth year in a row in 2003-04, the ECHL is represented on the NHL Stanley Cup Champion.

In 2003-04, there were over 90 players on AHL contracts in the ECHL and more than 220 players who played in both the ECHL and the AHL. The ECHL had 425 call-ups, involving 234 players, to the AHL during 2003-04 and for the 15th consecutive year the ECHL had representatives on the AHL Calder Cup Champion.

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