Toledo Walleye Weekly No. 1: October 20, 2025
ECHL Toledo Walleye

Toledo Walleye Weekly No. 1: October 20, 2025

Published on October 20, 2025 under ECHL (ECHL)
Toledo Walleye News Release


Overall Record: 1-0-0-0, 3rd Central Division, Current Streak: 1 Win

LAST WEEK'S RESULTS

Saturday, October 18 at Indy (4-1 Win)

THIS WEEK'S GAMES (All Times Eastern)

Friday, October 24 at Bloomington (8 p.m., Fox Sports Radio 1230, FloSports)

Saturday, October 25 at Bloomington (8 p.m., Fox Sports Radio 1230, FloSports)

Walleye Notes

Starting Off With Speed: The Toledo Walleye opened the 2025-26 regular season with a strong win over the Indy Fuel, beating them 4-1 and scoring all four goals on special teams. The Walleye finish the week with two points, good for third in the Central Division. They only trail Fort Wayne and Iowa, who each won their first two games this past weekend.

More Milestones From Hawkins: Forward Brandon Hawkins has had himself a week. After bringing home his second consecutive ECHL MVP award in the 2024-25 season, Hawkins was named the team's 9th captain in Walleye history on Wednesday, becoming the first to wear the "C" since John Albert in the 2022-23 season. Additionally, Hawkins recorded two assists in Saturday's contest against Indy. His first assist was his 400th ECHL point between his time as a Walleye, a Fort Wayne Komet, and a Wheeling Nailer. His second assist put him in sole possession of third place on the all-time points leaderboard in Toledo hockey history (both Storm and Walleye), passing former Storm players Andrew Williamson and Rob Thorpe, with 329 points as a Walleye.

Special Teams, Special Performance: All four of Toledo's goals, and all five goals scored in Saturday's game against Indy, were scored with at least one man sitting in the penalty box. Toledo's power play was 2-for-4, with Denis Smirnov scoring both goals. Both of Brandon Hawkins's assists yesterday came on Smirnov's PP goals. Toledo also killed off 6 of 7 standalone penalties they took, scoring two short-handed goals. Darby Llewellyn scored the first one a minute into a 5-minute major kill with assists from Tanner Palocsik and Will Hillman, and Nolan Moyle scored the second on a 2-on-1 breakaway with Nick Andrews. Toledo stands as the only team in the league to record two short-handed goals so far in the fresh season.

He's That Gylander: It took Carter Gylander 119 minutes and 24 seconds (and 45 shots faced) to allow a goal in the 2025-26 season (including preseason). He stopped all 20 shots he faced against Kalamazoo in the team's lone preseason contest at Huntington Center and stopped 25 of 26 of Indy's shots in the season-opening contest at Fishers Event Center on Saturday. Gylander is coming off a 2024-25 season where he posted a 2.61 GAA and .907 SV% and looks to carry that dominance into the 2025-26 season.

Off to Bloomington: The Walleye will travel to Bloomington, IL for their only two games next week, facing off Friday and Saturday night at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Bloomington took a 6-5 loss in the shootout to Iowa in their season-opener and will be entering this weekend's games with an 0-0-0-1 record. Bloomington and Toledo faced off 10 times last season, with the Walleye posting a 9-1-0-0 record against the Bison.

Walleye Player of the Week:

Denis Smirnov (2 PPG)

Walleye Goaltender of the Week:

Carter Gylander (1-0-0, 1.00 GAA, .962 SV%)

Check out the Toledo Walleye Statistics

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