New professional hockey team to officially kick off in North Carolina in 2026
With 29 teams already calling the ECHL home, the league have now offiicially announced expansion, with a brand new team coming to North Carolina.
There's been plenty of talk surrounding expansion in the hockey world as of late, and while the Board of Governors shut down that talk for the NHL recently, it appears there's movement in other leagues. According to an announcement from the ECHL, expansion will take place in that league beginning in 2025/26, with a brand new team coming to Greensboro, North Carolina, officially making it an even 30 teams in the league after adding Bloomington and Tahoe a year ago to bring it to 29.
This will be the first time the ECHL is in North Carolina since the Monarchs between 1989 and 1995 and the Generals from 1999 to 2004, and while they won't officially be aligned with the Hurricanes, the NHL team do not have an ECHL affiliate of their own, so it makes sense that things would go that way in the future. The excitement in North Carolina is through the roof for this new team, with Zawyer Sports, the new owners of the team just as thrilled as the people of Greensboro.
As for the currently unnamed team, they will reportedly play at the former Greensboro Coliseum, now named the First Horizon Coliseum, which also plays host to the NBA G-League's Greensboro Swarm as well as several entertainment events throughout the year. The arrival of this new team officially gives the league 30 teams, with just two NHL teams (Columbus and Ottawa) not having affiliates in the league, and with the success of the league growing, another expansion may be on the way in the coming years.
