Moving To The East Coast

While they still were missing a large chunk of the west coast in their push to be a national league, the ECHL appeared to be shedding their "east coast" bias with teams starting to dot the Mountain Time Zone. The Idaho Steelheads have been one of the top ECHL clubs for a long time, the newly-founded Tahoe Knight Monsters are looking to build on their first season's success, and the Utah Grizzlies have been a strong franchise since they moved from the AHL to the ECHL in 2005. However, with the Mammoths occupying a large chunk of the Utah hockey landscape since their arrival from Arizona, the Grizzlies seemed like they were in danger of being extirpated from Utah, and that scenario became reality on Tuesday as the Grizzlies announced that this season would be their last in Utah.

Announced by the league today, Grizzlies Hockey Club, LCC transferred controlling interest to Pro Hockey Partners, LLC who will move the team from West Valley City, Utah - a suburb of Salt Lake City in its southwest corner - to Trenton, New Jersey for the start of the 2026-27 season. Trenton has not ruled out Grizzlies as their name for next season, but I suspect the "Titans" may be a name that gets adopted by the team thanks to the former ECHL team that played in Trenton. Either way, the ECHL is leaving Utah next spring.

For me, this is a bitter pill to swallow since the 1994 IHL season saw the introduction of the Denver Grizzlies. Butch Goring led that team to an incredible 57-18-6 record that season with Kip Miller leading the team in scoring, notching 46 goals and 106 points in 71 games. Among other notable names who played in Denver that season were second-leading scorer Chris Taylor who would skate for the Islanders and Sabres, longtime NHLer Andy Brickley, NHL defenceman Doug Crossman, and some kid named Zigmund Palffy. Gord Dineen, a young Derek Armstrong, and Norman Rochefort also were Grizzlies, and they had some Swedish guy named Tommy Salo stopping pucks for them.

After winning the IHL's Turner Cup in 1995, the announcement of the Quebec Nordiques moving to Denver was dropped on the franchise, so the Grizzlies moved west to Salt Lake City's Delta Center while the E Center in West Valley City was built. That move didn't hurt the Grizzlies' chances of winning because they rallied in 1996 to win their second-straight Turner Cup playing much better defence with a much younger team. Utah swept the Orlando Solar Bears in the Turner Cup Final that saw the Grizzlies defeat two other IHL teams with 110 points or more - Orlando (110 points) and Las Vegas (122 points)!

Things never were as good as those first two seasons for the Grizzlies, and the eventual merger of the failing IHL into the AHL saw them join the new league in 2001-02. They affiliated with the Dallas Stars for the first three seasons before the Phoenix Coyotes jumped into that affiliation agreement, but the Grizzlies struggled both on the ice in all four seasons and with the costs of running a minor-league franchise while having the rest of their division playing one or two time zones away from Utah. As the red ink on financial statements grew in 2005, something needed to change sooner rather than later.

The article above omits some important information. The Grizzlies applied for and received permission to suspend their franchise in May 2005 before the franchise was sold to an ownership group led by Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who relocated the franchise to Cleveland to become the Lake Erie Monsters in 2007. A new ownership group in Utah bought the Utah Grizzlies names and rights, and the ECHL granted a franchise to this group who would operate the team out of the E Center in West Valley City. That's brief, but the ECHL team is not the same franchise as the IHL/AHL team.

The Grizzlies would jump into the ECHL in 2005-06 where they were solid, but never quite championship-calibre. The 2007-08 Grizzlies fell in the semifinals to the Las Vegas Wranglers while the 2021-22 Grizzlies would fall in the ECHL quarterfinals to the Toledo Walleye. The team never got out of the divisional rounds in any other season during its two-decade run, missing the playoffs in just four seasons. Two of those seasons, however, were the last two seasons.

Last season saw the landscape change, though, as the Mammoths stampeded into Utah as the "Utah Hockey Club", making the market for minor-league hockey considerably smaller. Obviously, the Grizzlies were facing challenges before the Utah Hockey Club landed in Salt Lake City, but it's hard to overcome an NHL team's power as an independent minor-league team. In saying that, this move probably shouldn't surprise anyone. It just sucks that it's happening.

As for moving to Trenton, the ECHL has a history in that city. The Trenton Titans played there from 1999-2007, winning a Kelly Cup in 2005 while falling in the Kelly Cup Final in 2001. The New Jersey Devils affiliated with the team in 2007 and immediately changed their name to the Trenton Devils which still annoys me to this day.

Those four seasons saw the Devils make the playoffs once, and the Devils sold the franchise after piling up financial losses amidst poor attendance numbers. Blue Line Sports, LLC purchased the team, immediately changed the name back to the Titans, and re-affiliated with the Philadelphia Flyers. That was short-lived, however, as the team missed the playoffs in both seasons before the franchise folded on April 23, 2013. That final season, though, saw a future NHL goalie by the name of Scott Wedgewood start his professional career!

To Grizzlies fans in Utah, I empathize with you because losing your favorite team sucks. I assure you that your support was appreicated by the team, but it still doesn't fill that hole left by the team. As the graphic to the right says, get out there for "The Final Hunt" this season, cheer loudly, and make this season as memorable as possible. Some version of this team - IHL, AHL, or ECHL - has been a mainstay in the Salt Lake City community for two decades, so get down to the E Center and see them play before they're gone from Utah for good. Take the kids, head down to the rink, and let the Grizzlies hear you roar!

If the stands are full, who knows what can happen. Maybe the Grizzlies can rekindle some of that magic from their first season in Utah when they were champions? How awesome would that be?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!