The ECHL’s holiday break is a tough time for coaches and a great time for players.

The ECHL has two expansion teams this season – the Bloomington Bison and Tahoe Knight Monsters – with another on the way in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The 2024-2025 ECHL season is off and running, and the opening weekend didn’t disappoint.

For the vast majority of players in the NHL, they're going to need a stop playing within the farm system of the club that either drafted or signed them. Some will get their start in the ECHL, the premier "AA" hockey circuit, while many will spends some time in the American Hockey League, the last step for most players before they realize their NHL dreams.

So what happens after an NHL team drafts a player?

The Indy Fuel’s Ross MacDougall, backtracking in front of his own net, coughed up the puck to the Wheeling Nailers’ Matt Koopman.

It’s only natural that we give a lot of love to the players who score highlight-reel goals and make snazzy 100-foot passes. We also love the goaltenders who make acrobatic saves. Fighters, we never stop talking about them, do we?

Of course, South Carolina Stingrays forward Jack Adams wants to be a hockey coach someday. With that name, how could he not?

We all give a lot of love to the big scorers in the ECHL, the Brandon Hawkins and Wade Murphys of this world. And, of course, we love those big-shooting defensemen like Matt Register and Jalen Smereck. And the highlight-making goaltenders, such as Cam Johnson.

Any hockey team that hopes to have success in the postseason knows it must have a reliable goalie, someone who can steal a big game when the pressure is at its highest.

We’re not far away from the ECHL expanding to 32 teams.

I’m based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and whenever I watch the ECHL’s Komets play these days, I find myself pondering this question: What the heck is Jack Dugan doing at this level?

Unless it’s, oh, Dec. 15, it’s too early to panic about any ECHL team. That’s what I always tell people, anyway.

ECHL teams are only allowed to dress four veterans in games, a rule that used to seem incredibly important. But as the ECHL has evolved into a younger, faster developmental circuit for the NHL, the veteran limit has become increasingly inconsequential.

I can’t say I was all that surprised to turn on the TV and see Hunter Shepard manning an NHL net Oct. 25. He was a fine goalie in the ECHL for the South Carolina Stingrays, helping them to the 2021 Kelly Cup finals.