Florida Everblades
The Florida Everblades are a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Estero, Florida, in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan area. They play in the ECHL and are affiliated with the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League and the Springfield Thunderbirds of the American Hockey League since the 2024–25 ECHL season. Their home games are played at Hertz Arena.
The Everblades were founded in 1998. They play in the South Division of the Eastern Conference in the ECHL. They have failed to qualify for the playoffs just once in team history and have made seven appearances in the Kelly Cup finals, winning in 2012, 2022, 2023, and 2024; the latter three appearances constituted the first three-peat in ECHL history.
History
The team was founded in 1998 by Craig Brush, Peter Karmanos Jr., and Thomas Thewes and was named based on the Florida Everglades. The Everblades' logo features a gator-head design fused in the form of an ice skate. Barnstorm Creative Group, a Vancouver graphic design company, designed the logo. Barnstorm was contacted by Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos Jr., who came up with the idea of choosing the Everblades' colors as blue and green, in tribute to the Hartford Whalers team that Karmanos moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. The Everblades' inaugural home opener featured a pre-game ceremony in which a large alligator was brought onto the ice to pay tribute to the team's name and logo, as well as Florida's vast population of reptile species. The Everblades won their first Kelly Cup on May 23, 2012, against the Las Vegas Wranglers. Brandon MacLean scored the championship-winning-goal in overtime during game five. Everblades goaltender, John Muse, was named the most valuable player of the 2012 Kelly Cup playoffs.2012 Kelly Cup Finals
Florida won the 2012 Kelly Cup playoffs with a 4–1 victory at home in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 7,290. The first period saw Las Vegas Wranglers goalie Joe Fallon beaten by Justin Shugg and Mike Ratchuk, but Las Vegas edged back to even the score by the third, with Ash Goldie and Peter MacArthur beating John Muse to force the overtime. At 4:54 into the overtime, after Ryan Donald passed to Matt Beca, who in turn sent the puck to Brandon MacLean, who beat Fallon and secured the victory.The win earned Florida the 2012 Kelly Cup and secured a perfect home record of 11–0 in the postseason. Additionally, John Muse earned the Kelly Cup Finals MVP award.
Ownership and affiliation changes
In April 2013, owner Peter Karmanos, Jr. announced he would be selling the team along with Germain Arena to "simplify things" in his life, as he had just retired from the company he founded, Compuware. The team was made for sale and was being shopped by Park Lane, a sports investment-banking firm that specializes in the sale of sports teams. In 2018, Karmanos gave up majority control of the Hurricanes to new majority owner Thomas Dundon. After the 2018–19 season, the Everblades dropped the Hurricanes affiliation for the first time and partnered with the Nashville Predators. It was then announced on August 5, 2019, that Karmanos had sold both the team and arena to David Hoffmann, a Naples, Florida, resident and real estate investor. Starting in the 2022–23 season, the Everblades ended their affiliation with the Predators and entered a multi-year agreement with the Florida Panthers. On June 13, 2024, team president Craig Brush announced that the team would not be renewing its agreement with the Panthers. On July 10 of that year, the Everblades announced a new multi-year agreement with the St. Louis Blues.Logos
Through the Everblades' history, they have had five anniversary logos: the fifth anniversary logo in 2002–03, the 10th anniversary logo in 2007–08, the 15th anniversary logo in 2012–13, the 20th anniversary logo in 2017–18, and the 25th anniversary logo in 2022–23.Season-by-season record
1 The 2008–09 team played 71 games because of scheduling changes caused by the Augusta Lynx and Fresno Falcons ceasing operations mid-season. Four of the five teams played 71 games, with Gwinnett playing 72.2 The 2019–20 ECHL season was suspended on March 12, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rest of the season was cancelled on March 14, 2020.
Players
Retired numbers
Berg and Buckley's numbers were retired during a pre-game ceremony on October 19, 2007, as the Everblades hosted the Mississippi Sea Wolves, in what would be the Sea Wolves' first official regular season game after being placed on a two-year hiatus due to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Banners made with their jersey numbers were hung to the rafters of Germain Arena.Hartlieb's number was retired in a ceremony before a game against the Orlando Solar Bears on October 19, 2012. Hartlieb was presented with an ECHL Championship ring, and hoisted the Kelly Cup. A banner made with his number was hung to the rafters of Germain Arena next to Berg and Buckley's.
Notable players
Florida Everblades alumni that advanced to play in the NHL after playing for the club:- Mike Angelidis
- Keith Aucoin
- Clark Bishop
- Patrick Bordeleau
- Eric Boulton
- David Brine
- Brett Carson
- Devin Cooley
- Scott Darling
- Kristers Gudlevskis
- Matt Hendricks
- Hayden Hodgson
- Tanner Jeannot
- Ty Jones
- Anton Khudobin
- Connor Knapp
- Greg Koehler
- Greg Kuznik
- Drew Larman
- Chad LaRose
- Martin Lojek
- Steven Lorentz
- Brett Lysak
- Jeff Malott
- Eric Manlow
- Kenndal McArdle
- Jason Morgan
- Alex Nedeljkovic
- Tommy Novak
- Doug O'Brien
- Ryan O'Byrne
- Justin Peters
- Justin Shugg
- Cole Smith
- Dalton Smith
- Jared Staal
- Mark Stuart
- Damian Surma
- Brody Sutter
- Rob Zepp
- Akim Aliu
- Ken Appleby
- Justin Auger
- Chris Beckford-Tseu
- Brad Brown
- Kevin Brown
- Barry Brust
- Brett Bulmer
- Mike Card
- Brad Church
- Matt Corrente
- Kevin Czuczman
- Trevor Daley
- Stefan Della Rovere
- Nicolas Deschamps
- Jon DiSalvatore
- David Dziurzynski
- Brad Fast
- Paul Healey
- Riku Helenius
- Shane Hnidy
- Josh Ho-Sang
- Brayden Irwin
- Bryce Lampman
- Nick Lappin
- Pat MacLeod
- Tom McCollum
- Grant McNeill
- Mike Morrison
- Kevin Quick
- Brian Rafalski
- Remi Royer
- Richard Shulmistra
- Matthew Spiller
- Nick Tarnasky
- Kris Vernarsky
- Allen York
Franchise records and leaders
All-time franchise record holders
- Games Played: Mathieu Roy – 374
- Goals: John McCarron – 152
- Assists: John McCarron – 212
- Points: John McCarron – 364
- Power play goals: Mathieu Roy – 40
- Penalty minutes: Kyle Neuber – 894
- Goaltender Games Played: Cam Johnson – 194
- Goaltender Wins: Cam Johnson - 119
- Goaltender Goals against average : Cam Johnson and Tyler MacKay – 1.92
- Goaltender Save percentage : Tyler MacKay –.928
Individual records and streaks
- Most goals - game: 4
- Most assists - game: 4
- Most points - game: 6
- Most shots - game: 12
- Most penalty minutes - game: 37
- Most saves - game: 58
- Most saves - period: 25
- Consecutive game goal scoring streak: 9
- Consecutive game assist streak: 10
- Consecutive game point streak: 16
- Consecutive games started streak: 15
- Longest winning streak: 10
- Longest unbeaten streak: 12
- Longest shutout streak: 163:43
ECHL Hall of Fame
Florida Everblades President and General Manager Craig Brush was inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame on February 5, 2016. Brush has served as the team's President and General Manager since the team's inception in 1998 and he oversees all aspects of both the hockey club and the sports complex. Brush also served as the Chairman of the ECHL Board of Governors for three seasons from 2003 through 2006.