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Seven Former ECHL Officials Working NHL Playoffs

April 24, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. - The ECHL has four former referees and three former linesmen working in the National Hockey League Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The referees are Mike Leggo, Wes McCauley, Kevin Pollock and Chris Rooney while the linesmen are Steve Barton, Jay Sharrers and Tim Nowak, who in 2003 became the first ECHL official to work in the Stanley Cup Finals. Barton, Leggo, McCauley, Nowak O'Rourke, Pollock and Sharrers all worked in the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In addition to the seven working in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, there were 10 former ECHL officials who worked as part of the NHL officiating team in 2007-08 with referees David Banfield, Chris Ciamaga, Dean Morton, Dan O'Rourke, Brian Pochmara, Kyle Rehman, Justin St. Pierre, Ian Walsh and Dean Warren, and linesman Brian Mach.

The ECHL was represented on all 16 teams competing for the Stanley Cup 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.

It is the fourth straight time that the ECHL has been represented by six coaches including Washington head coach Bruce Boudreau, who led Mississippi to the Kelly Cup championship in 1999, and Calgary associate coach Jim Playfair, who was ECHL Coach of the Year in 1994-95.

The ECHL has been represented on the last seven Stanley Cup champions including 2007 by Anaheim assistant head coach Dave Farrish, players Francois Beauchemin and George Parros and broadcasters John Ahlers and Steve Carroll.

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.

The Premier 'AA' Hockey League, the ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League 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 players who have played in the NHL after the ECHL and 210 who have made their debut in the last seven seasons. Twenty-six former ECHL players made their NHL debut in 2007-08 including six who played in both the ECHL and NHL: Chris Beckford-Tseu (Alaska and St. Louis), Adam Berti (Pensacola and Chicago), Joe Jensen (Wheeling and Carolina), Dan LaCosta (Elmira and Columbus), Jonathan Quick (Reading and Los Angeles) and Danny Taylor (Reading and Los Angeles).

There have been over 50 former ECHL players on NHL opening-day rosters each of the past five seasons including a record 69 players this season. In each of the past seven seasons there have been more than 100 players on NHL contracts who have played in the ECHL including 139 in 2007-08.

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 with 25 teams playing 900 games in 17 states and British Columbia in 2007-08.

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

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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