Don’t look now, but the Iowa Heartlanders suddenly are a factor in the ECHL.

When I think of the last three seasons, the first of the Heartlanders’ existence, two things come to mind: Poor win/loss records, poor attendance.

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Well, the announced attendance still is what it is – a league-worst average of 1,173 through seven home games at Coralville’s Xtream Arena, down from 2,015 over all 36 home games last season – but the success finally may be happening.

And with winning, fans usually follow.

The Heartlanders are 7-3-2 in the Central Division, which looks awfully tough this season, and they’re behind only the Toledo Walleye (9-3-1) and Fort Wayne Komets (9-3-0).

The Heartlanders have long had a reputation of being hard to play against, even if they’ve never finished above last place in the division and came into this season with a 78-106-32 all-time record. 

They’ve had highlight-reel goaltending in past seasons from the likes of Hunter Jones and Corbin Kaczperski. They were good on depth players, but lacked consistent top-line talent, despite having guys such as Kris Bennett, Kaid Oliver and Tommy Parrottino.

This season feels different.

Of course, having exciting rookie Matthew Sop has made a big difference. He had a goal and an assist in his pro debut against Fort Wayne and hasn’t slowed down. He has seven goals, 19 points and a plus-7 rating, tallying at least a point in 11 of his 12 games. He has three game-winning goals and has been good on the power play, collecting two goals and seven points.

In overall ECHL scoring, Sop is behind only Toledo’s Brandon Hawkins (10 goals, 20 points) in scoring and is tied with Wichita’s Michal Stinil (eight goals, 19 points). 

Sop was the Ontario Hockey League’s Overage Player of the Year with the Kitchener Rangers last season, and he signed with the American Hockey League’s Iowa Wild last summer.

It hasn’t been all Sop scoring since being assigned to the Heartlanders, however. 

Gavin Hain, William Calverley and defenseman Louka Henault have looked strong in that department. But the overall team defense has been better than in the past, and those strong depth players I mentioned, well, one of them was Yuki Miura, and he was named captain this season – the first Japan-born player in ECHL history to wear the ‘C.’

I’ve long been passionate about Miura’s style of play – at a frenetic pace, with solid defense and opportunistic offense – and he’s been a wonderful guy in the community, trying to grow the game and working with youth players. He’s been with the team since its inception. It seems as if the Heartlanders have taken on his identity.

There’s nothing flashy on paper other than Sop, though. 

The offense ranks 14th (3.17 goals per game) and the defense 13th (2.83 goals against). The power play is very good at No. 4 (26.3%), but the penalty kill is very bad at No. 26 (74.5%).

But the Heartlanders have been playing cohesive hockey.

I can poke holes in their schedule – namely their five games and 3-1-1 record against the expansion Bloomington Bison, or only having two games so far against either Fort Wayne or Toledo (going 0-1-1 against the Komets) – but there’s a signature win, 5-3 on the road against the Kansas City Mavericks. 

William Rousseau has played the most games in net, five, and is 2-2-1 with a 2.90 GAA and a .905 SP. Right now, Kyle McClellan is the other goalie, though Dylan Ferguson was down from the AHL for a game and had a 31-save shutout over Bloomington, while Samuel Hlavaj had another three appearances for the Heartlanders.

Someone said to me recently, “You know who’s sneaky good? The Heartlanders.” That was a perfect summation for a team that’s under the radar and could be a factor as the season progresses.

Here are some other sneaky good teams and players in the ECHL:

Wheeling Nailers

I always thought they’d be a factor in the North Division, even though it feels weird they’re not in the Central because of Bloomington’s arrival, but I expected some learning curve from the Nailers that hasn’t noticeably taken place; they’re 8-3-1 and lead the North with 17 points. 

The Adirondack Thunder still feel like the division favorite and have a 6-2-1 record for a division-best winning percentage of .722, but Wheeling could be a handful as this season rolls along.

We can talk about the goaltending of Sergei Murashov and Jaxon Castor or the playmaking of Matty De St. Phalle and Kyle Jackson, but it’s the home record that stands out. 

Wheeling ranks 25th in average announced attendance (2,960 through six home games, up from 2,301 through 36 last season), but the Nailers have a 5-0-1 home record. The only other team in the league that hasn’t lost in regulation at home is the South Carolina Stingrays.

If the Nailers keep building some momentum and get WesBanco Arena rocking, watch out.

Saves of Week 5🔥👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/o8wmPewI3R

— ECHL (@ECHL) November 18, 2024

Will Cranley, Florida Everblades

Everyone in ECHL circles is familiar with how good Florida’s No. 1 goalie, Cam Johnson, is. He backstopped the Everblades to the past three Kelly Cups and was Playoff MVP twice. 

This season, he’s already in remarkable form with a 6-1-0 record, a 1.42 GAA, .935 SP and two shutouts.

But in this league, in which playing three games in three nights is the norm, you simply must have a capable backup. Florida (9-3-0) has that.

Cranley is 3-2-0 with a 2.03 GAA, .931 SP and a 26-save shutout of the Atlanta Gladiators. The St. Louis Blues prospect looked good in spots last season, but he was with bad teams in Reading and Utah, as his save percentage was below .894 for both teams.

It helps that he has such a good defense in front of him, but so far, Cranley has been making big saves for the Everblades.

Todd Skirving, Reading Royals

I associate Skirving with the Newfoundland Growlers, with whom he played from 2018 to last season, when the Growlers were removed from the league. But to me, he always was a complementary piece to showstoppers like Zach O’Brien, Pavel Gogolev and Orrin Centazzo.

Skirving has become something more lately, even at age 32. 

He helped the Florida Everblades to the Kelly Cup last spring, his second time capturing the Cup, and he had two goals and four points in 22 playoff games.

This season, he has five goals and eight points in 16 games. Those may sound like modest numbers, but Reading (6-8-2) is a young team – its leading scorers, Connor McMenamin, Matt Miller, Gianfranco Cassaro and Sam Sedley, are all rookies – and certainly needs the veteran presence.

What a big move it was by Royals coach Jason Binkley to get a guy like Skirving, who’s been a captain with the Growlers. This season, he is fourth in the ECHL in faceoff wins (132), according to Hudl Instat, with a win percentage of 48.4%, which does need to improve. But he goes to the net hard and makes it challenging on opposing defenses.

Rapid City Rush

I certainly wouldn’t have imagined writing this a couple weeks ago, when I thought they’d be perhaps the worst team in the ECHL this season, but the Rush are looking sneaky good all of a sudden, too.

After a 0-6-3 start, the Rush have won four in a row and against some very good teams – one against the Kansas City Mavericks and three against the Idaho Steelheads in Boise, Idaho.

Let’s not overreact; the Mavericks and Steelheads still are the teams to beat in the Mountain Division, and the Tulsa Oilers are 8-3-1 and tied with the Mavericks for first place. But Rapid City, paced by Deni Goure, is starting to look like a factor. 

Goure, contracted to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers, has three goals and 10 points in 13 games, showing the offensive prowess that led him to 36 goals and 96 points in 68 games last season for the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack.

Special teams have been big for Rapid City, which had the third-ranked penalty kill (88.6%) and ninth-ranked power play (20.5%) heading into Tuesday.

Forward Brett Davis had a hat trick last week and now has five goals and nine points in 11 games, looking more of a force than last season when he had six goals and 25 points in 50 games for Rapid City and Florida combined.

And all three goalies on the Rush roster, Connor Murphy, Matt Radomsky and Christian Propp, have save percentages of .913 or better. 

Murphy is coming off a 37-save shutout of the Steelheads – Billy Constantinou had the lone goal of the game – and Radomsky has been in net for three of the Rush’s wins.

Jack Adams, Orlando Solar Bears

Last season, Adams was with the South Carolina Stingrays and had 27 goals and 62 points in 71 games, but he was overshadowed some by Austin Magera and Josh Wilkins.

Despite winning the ECHL’s Community Service Award for his impact in the North Charleston Community, Adams was traded in the offseason to Bloomington for future considerations and then flipped to the Orlando Solar Bears, again for futures.

Statistically, Adams is off to a good start – two goals and nine points through 12 games – and he’s been using his 6-foot-6 size by grinding in the corners and mucking things up in the slot.

With some playmaking talent around him, including Aaron Luchuk, Tyler Bird, Brayden Low and Darik Angeli, Adams doesn’t have to carry the scoring load. He just needs to be a handful for other teams. 

Orlando has started 5-7-1, so the whole team needs to get going, but Adams is one to watch in the South Division race.

Our @RbAFlorida Breakthrough Player of the Game with 2 assists, Jack Adams! 👊 pic.twitter.com/XMOFgXfG9B

— Orlando Solar Bears (@OrlandoHockey) November 14, 2024

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