The Awakening

If you were excited about the marketing that could be done for the ECHL's newest team, things are starting to really get started as the Greensboro Gargoyles have been busy over the last month. We still don't know who the first player will be that will wear the Gargoyles uniform, but we do have a schedule for the team for the 2025-26 ECHL season and we now know who will be coaching the Gargoyles as they take flight in their inaugural season! Let's dig into all the Gargoyles news posted so far!

The Gargoyles posted their first schedule on May 15, so this has been out there for a while. The good news is that we know who the Gargoyles will face in their inaugural game, and that would be the Jacksonville Icemen when they travel to Greensboro on October 18. The home- and season-opening game will see the teams clash at 7pm ET at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro on Friday before playing a second game on Saturday, and the Gargoyles will host the Reading Royals for two games the following weekend on Friday, October 24 and 25 before hitting the road for the first time in their history!

That first road trip takes them north of the border for a clash with the 2025 Kelly Cup champions in the Trois-Rivieres Lions on Halloween, November 1, and November 2 in a three-day, three-game affair. While I don't usually make a deal about the ECHL schedule, not having the Gargoyles play at home on Halloween in their first season seems like a crime against humanity, but that's the ECHL for you.

Two weeks after the Canadian road trip, the Gargoyles will host the Tahoe Knight Monsters for a three-game set starting on Thursday, November 13. Having the two new mythological teams battle could be a lot of fun for the Greensboro marketing team, but we'll have to see how they treat this three-game half of the six-game homestand during November. Frankly, it could be a lot of fun!

There are no games scheduled against the Fort Wayne Komets which seems like a miss, but the Gargoyles will visit the Idaho Steelheads for some reason on January 9 and 10. There's also just one singular game against the Savannah Ghost Pirates on the Gargoyles' schedule as well. Not having the Ghost Pirates and Gargoyles meet more often again seems like a miss for the ECHL, but that lone game will be played in Savannah, Georgia on Thursday, March 5, 2026. Let's hope the Ghost Pirates hype that meeting for the fun it could be!

The ECHL champs will return the favour with a visit to Greensboro as the Trois-Rivieres Lions visit for three games from March 13 to 15. Six games in one regular season against the lone Canadian ECHL team is six more games than the Toledo Walleye have played in their history against the Lions despite meeting them in the Kelly Cup Final, so the Gargoyles should be happy with that scheduling!

After having a few weeks to digest the schedule, the Gargoyles announced that they had found their first bench boss who will wrangle the Gargoyles for the 2025-26 season. On June 4, the Gargoyles announced that Scott Burt would be their inaugural head coach, and he brings a wealth of experience with him to Greensboro.

The 48 year-old Burt spent the last four seasons head coach and general manager of the ECHL's Rapid City Rush after being an assistant coach with both the ECHL's Idaho Steelheads and the Alaska Aces and the WHL's Spokane Chiefs for the previous nine seasons. As a player, Burt was a three-time Kelly Cup champion, winning with Idaho in 2004 and 2007 and with Alaska in 2011 while posting 356 points and 1067 penalty minutes in 586 ECHL games over 13 seasons.

"I am grateful for the opportunity to lead the Gargoyles into their first season," Burt said at his introduction. "There is a lot of buzz about hockey in Greensboro and across North Carolina as a whole and we are excited to make an impact in the region both on and off the ice. I am looking forward to beginning the process of building a team that will bring a competitive brand of hockey that Gargoyles Nation will be proud of."

While the Gargoyles landed themselves a solid head coach, we're still waiting on the unveiling of the team's jerseys. The good news is that the Gargoyles' online store has more shwag in it now, so I recommend checking out the various merchandise they have for sale in order to be ready for the first game. Maybe purple is your colour?

The schedule is set, the head coach is in place, and we'll soon start to see players being signed and added to the Gargoyles' roster. With their affiliation to both the Carolina Hurricanes and the AHL's Chicago Wolves, we could see some future Hurricanes assigned to the Gargoyles soon, and that should help sell a few more tickets. All of this will happen before October 18, 2025 when the Gargoyles come alive that night in their first regular season game, and here's hoping they find success both on and off the ice in Greensboro!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!