23-480: The Asheville Aces were a Southern Professional Hockey League ( SPHL ) team in Asheville, North Carolina . The team, which suffered limited success and low attendance, lasted only one year before disbanding. The team suspended operations on January 22, 2005. They had played only thirty-three out of fifty-seven games. The Asheville Aces were established in the summer preceding the 2004–05 season . The city of Asheville
46-718: A lease with the Asheville Civic Center. This American ice hockey team-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a sports team in North Carolina is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . SPHL The SPHL (formerly the Southern Professional Hockey League ) is a professional ice hockey independent minor league based in Huntersville, North Carolina , with teams located primarily in
69-680: A year and a half. In 2023, the league rebranded to the orphaned initialism "SPHL" to reflect the fact that the league's footprint had expanded beyond the southern United States. Notes As per minor leagues, there are some rule differences between the SPHL and the NHL (and even the ECHL and the AHL, the two official developmental leagues regulated by the Professional Hockey Players' Association ). Awarded to
92-863: The Bloomington Blaze , and the Peoria Rivermen , who were replacing an American Hockey League team of the same name in their market. In 2015, the Augusta franchise returned and relocated to Macon, Georgia as the Macon Mayhem . In November 2014, Shannon Szabados became the first female goaltender to win an SPHL game, when the Columbus Cottonmouths defeated the Fayetteville FireAntz 5–4 in overtime. In that same game Erin Blair and Katie Guay became
115-519: The ECHL had accepted the Central Hockey League's remaining seven teams as members for the 2014–15 season , officially signaling the end of the Central Hockey League after 22 seasons. The Allen Americans , who won the last two CHL President's Cups, won two consecutive ECHL titles following the folding of the Central Hockey League. The Mississippi RiverKings, Tulsa Oilers and Wichita Thunder were
138-805: The New Jersey Devils ), and had briefly been president of the previous Central Hockey League in 1976. In the inaugural 1992–93 season the league had six teams, including the Oklahoma City Blazers , the Tulsa Oilers , the Wichita Thunder , the Memphis RiverKings , the Dallas Freeze and the Fort Worth Fire . After Levins died, the league's championship trophy (awarded to the winner of
161-888: The Quad City Mallards , folded in 2018 in the ECHL. Brad Treliving , who co-founded the WPHL in 1996, became CHL commissioner following the merger, before leaving to join the Phoenix Coyotes . Duane Lewis was named the permanent commissioner in June 2008. In October 2013, the CHL appointed former president of the Pittsburgh Penguins Steve Ryan to succeed Lewis. On March 8, 2013, the Central Hockey League announced an expansion team in Brampton, Ontario . The Brampton Beast would become
184-707: The southeastern United States as well as Illinois and Indiana in the midwestern United States . Following the 2023–24 season , the Peoria Rivermen are the reigning President's Cup champions. As of 2024 , the Knoxville Ice Bears are the most successful team in SPHL history, having won five William B. Coffey Trophies as the regular season champions and four President's Cup playoff championships. The Peoria Rivermen have also won five William B. Coffey Trophies, while Pensacola has also won four President's Cups. The SPHL's history traces back to three other short-lived leagues. The Atlantic Coast Hockey League started play in
207-787: The 2002–03 season. After its only season, the ACHL dissolved with member teams forming the nucleus for two rival leagues, the South East Hockey League and the World Hockey Association 2 . After one season, the SEHL and WHA2 disbanded, with their surviving teams rejoining with two expansion teams to form the SPHL, commencing with the 2004–05 season. In 2009, the SPHL saw a large expansion with three new franchises, in Biloxi, Mississippi , Lafayette, Louisiana and Pensacola, Florida . In 2010,
230-521: The 2014 offseason, the ECHL accepted the remaining seven teams as members in October 2014, meaning the end for the CHL after 22 seasons. The Central Hockey League (CHL) was revived in 1992 by Ray Miron and the efforts of Bill Levins , with the idea of central ownership of both the league and the teams. Both men were from hockey backgrounds. Miron had been general manager of the Colorado Rockies (now
253-622: The 2018–19 season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , the 2019–20 season was curtailed and no champion was named. The following season, the league announced it would only play with five of the ten member teams due to pandemic-related capacity restrictions barring fans from attending games. During the season, the league approved of the Vermilion County Bobcats as a 2021–22 expansion team based in Danville, Illinois . The Bobcats folded after only
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#1733085316982276-540: The CHL for the 2001–02 season . However, several years of gradual contraction in the former WPHL markets claimed most of these teams in the ensuing years. The last active former WPHL team, the Fort Worth Brahmas , effectively ceased operations following the 2012–13 season . Subsequently, in 2010, the International Hockey League folded and all five remaining IHL teams joined the CHL; the last of these,
299-611: The CHL playoffs) was renamed the Levins Cup . After running the league for eight years, Miron retired in 2000 and sold the league. The Levins Cup was renamed the Ray Miron President's Cup . After experiments in expansion and an ongoing battle for players and markets with the Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL) throughout the late 1990s, the CHL merged with the WPHL in 2001, with 10 former WPHL teams joining
322-527: The city. Concerned with the financial viability of a team in the municipally-owned Asheville Civic Center , officials from the city of Asheville insisted that if a team was to play in the facility, it be part of a league that comprised at least six other teams. The SEHL at that time had only four teams. The SPHL had three teams in Jacksonville, Florida , Orlando, Florida , and Macon, Georgia , and promised more expansion teams were waiting to be announced until
345-502: The first Canadian team in the CHL's history. In October 2013, the Central Hockey League was purchased from Global Entertainment by all the team owners, putting the CHL business model in line with that of the NHL and AHL. On May 2, 2014 the St. Charles Chill ceased operations. Soon after, the Arizona Sundogs and Denver Cutthroats suspended operations. On October 7, 2014, it was announced that
368-612: The first female officials to referee an SPHL game. At the end of the 2015–16 season, the Louisiana IceGators announced a one-year leave of absence for renovations to their arena but never returned. The IceGators' franchise was sold and reactivated as the Quad City Storm in 2018. Then in 2016, the dormant Mississippi Surge franchise was relocated to Southwest Virginia to become the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs . One of
391-617: The inaugural SPHL teams, the Columbus Cottonmouths , suspended operations in 2017 after failing to find a buyer while an expansion team called the Birmingham Bulls were accepted into the league as the tenth team. Following the 2017–18 season, the Mississippi RiverKings suspended operations while the league searched for new owners. With the acceptance of the Quad City Storm , the league was able to remain at ten teams for
414-502: The last of the original six franchises still playing at the end of the CHL's tenure; the RiverKings since folded, in 2018. In the 2014–15 season, ten teams (Allen, Brampton, Colorado, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Missouri, Quad City, Rapid City, Tulsa, and Wichita) were in the ECHL, two teams (Mississippi and Columbus) were in the SPHL, and four organizations (Corpus Christi, Fort Worth Brahmas, Odessa, and Rio Grande Valley) fielded junior teams in
437-646: The league added an expansion team in Augusta, Georgia , another former long time ECHL market. For the 2011–12 season, the league added two-time Central Hockey League champions, the Mississippi RiverKings . For the 2013–14 season, the league lost the Augusta RiverHawks but also expanded northward with two franchises in Illinois : the Bloomington Thunder , a team also moving from the CHL, where they were known as
460-674: The league from 2000 to 2013, at which point it was purchased by the individual franchise owners. As of the end of its final season in 2014, three of the 30 National Hockey League teams had affiliations with the CHL: the Dallas Stars , Minnesota Wild , and Tampa Bay Lightning . Several teams of defunct leagues joined the CHL along its history, including the Southern Hockey League , Western Professional Hockey League and International Hockey League . After two teams suspended operations during
483-537: The league playoff champion. Originally known as the Commissioner's Cup, the regular season championship trophy was renamed in honor of league co-founder Bill Coffey during the 2007–08 season. Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which operated
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#1733085316982506-478: The sixth team came aboard. The city agreed and by the beginning of the 2004–05 season, the Asheville Aces were officially one of nine teams in the SPHL. Orlando's lease was revoked before the start of the season, but this still left the SPHL with eight teams. The Aces finished their only season with a record of 19–37–0, and missed the playoffs. The team then folded prior to the next season after failing to agree to
529-524: Was perceived as a strong candidate for a minor league team in spite of the limited success and subsequent demise of the Asheville Smoke , which lasted from 1998 to 2002. Florida real estate investor David Waronker, representing the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) began lobbying the city for rights to form a team. Meanwhile, John Cherney, the founder and first president of the South East Hockey League , also attempted to establish an SEHL team in
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