The 2023–24 ECHL season was the 36th season of the ECHL. The regular season began on October 19, 2023, and ended on April 14, 2024, with the 2024 Kelly Cup playoffs to follow. Twenty-eight teams, all of which are affiliated with an NHL team, in 20 states and two Canadian provinces are scheduled to play 72 games.[1]
The league terminated the Newfoundland Growlers franchise by league bylaws on April 2, 2024, after the St. John's-based team's owners could not finalize the sale of the team (the Trois-Rivières Lions were sold, however, and they also owned the Lions). With this termination and following cancellation of their remaining games (3 v. Trois-Rivières and 3 v. Norfolk), the ECHL announced that the North Division standings would be decided by point percentage to make up for the missing games for Trois-Rivières and the Norfolk Admirals.[2][3]
x – clinched playoff spot, y – clinched regular season division title, z – Brabham Cup (regular season) champion e– indicates team has been eliminated from playoff contention, coi– ceased operations immediately
† Points percentage was used to determine playoff seedings due to the Newfoundland Growlers ceasing operations, causing the Norfolk Admirals and Trois-Rivières Lions to play three fewer games.
1Flooding on the banks of the Ohio River in Wheeling, WV led to three home Wheeling Nailers games affected — the April 5 game versus Fort Wayne (which was made up April 10 because there was a playoff implication), the April 12 game versus Toledo (cancelled because there were no remaining playoff implications), and the April 13 game versus Cincinnati (moved to Cranberry Township, PA at the parent club's training facility, the University of Pittsburgh Medical CenterMario Lemieux Sports Complex. As a result, the ECHL calculated seeding by points percentage.
The top four teams in each division at the end of the regular season advanced to the 2024 Kelly Cup playoffs and were seeded one through four based on their end-of-season division ranking. Each round was a best-of-7 series with the winner advancing to the next round. The first two rounds were played between teams in their same the division, with the first seed facing the fourth seed and the second seed facing the third seed. The winners of each division then played off to determine winners of each conference. In the final, the from the Eastern Conference defeated the Western Conference Kansas City Mavericks in five games. It was the third consecutive championship for the Florida Everblades.[4]
