The current bargaining agreement between the ECHL and the Professional Hockey Players Association came to an end earlier in 2025. The ECHL and the players union (PHPA) continued to play under the old agreement to start this season. Rumors of a player strike and ECHL lockout began on December 19th, 2025.
Those rumors would turn out to be true. Following no games during the Christmas break, ECHL players began a strike. ECHL games from December 26th began to be postponed. AHL and NHL contract players were being called up to the AHL at a large rate. The ECHL threatened to use SPHL players as replacement players. The PHPA was saying one thing. The ECHL was saying another. It was a mess.
Eventually they would come to an agreement. Several games were postponed. The ECHL was not going to resume without a deal with the PHPA. SPHL players seemed unwilling to play in the ECHL at the expense of the PHPA players. There were not enough AHL or NHL contracted players to resume play either. Some ECHL teams are made up mostly of players on AHL or NHL contracts and some teams have no players on AHL or NHL contracts. That would have made it difficult for the ECHL to resume play. Then a lot of AHL contracted players were called up. For some teams it was just a few players. For other teams it was almost their whole team. That made it impossible for the ECHL to resume without a deal with the PHPA. The ECHL and PHPA would eventually come to a deal. Players returned to their teams. Play resumed. There have not been any word yet on when games will be rescheduled for.
The lockout came to an end on December 30th, when the Jacksonville Icemen played the Orlando Solar Bears. I have not seen anything about rescheduled games. That will likely be updated on a team by team basis and not by a league wide statement. What the ECHl may do is that if postponed games are not rescheduled they could change the standings to go from points to win percentage. This would not be the first time the ECHL has done that. The AHL has done that as well. It is just a way for standings to be determined when not every team plays the same number of games. Postponed games is the biggest impact that this has had on the season. I am glad they came to an agreement relatively quickly. I don’t like that it had to come to this. Sometimes thats how it goes. I am glad that half the season wasn’t canceled.
Zac Electrifly 
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