Southern Professional Hockey League
The Southern Professional Hockey League is a professional ice hockey league based in Huntersville, North Carolina, with teams located primarily in the southeastern United States as well as Illinois and Indiana in the midwestern United States.
The Huntsville Havoc are the most recent President's Cup champions.
History
The SPHL's history traces back to three other short-lived leagues. The Atlantic Coast Hockey League started play in the 2002–03 season. After its only season, the ACHL dissolved with member teams forming the nucleus for two rival leagues, the South East Hockey League and the World Hockey Association 2. After one season the SEHL and WHA2 disbanded, with their surviving teams rejoining with two expansion teams to form the SPHL, commencing with the 2004–05 season.In 2009, the SPHL saw a large expansion with three new franchises, in Biloxi, Mississippi, Lafayette, Louisiana and Pensacola, Florida. In 2010, the league added an expansion team in Augusta, Georgia, another former long time ECHL market. For the 2011–12 season, the league added two-time Central Hockey League champions, the Mississippi RiverKings. For the 2013–14 season, the league lost the Augusta RiverHawks but also expanded northward with two franchises in Illinois: the Bloomington Thunder, a team also moving from the CHL, where they were known as the Bloomington Blaze, and the Peoria Rivermen, who were replacing an American Hockey League team of the same name in their market. In 2015, the Augusta franchise returned and relocated to Macon, Georgia as the Macon Mayhem.
In November 2014, Shannon Szabados became the first female goaltender to win an SPHL game, when the Columbus Cottonmouths defeated the Fayetteville FireAntz 5–4 in overtime. In that same game Erin Blair and Katie Guay became the first female officials to referee an SPHL game.
At the end of the 2015–16 season, the Louisiana IceGators announced a one-year leave of absence for renovations to their arena but never returned. The IceGators' franchise was sold and reactivated as the Quad City Storm in 2018. Then in 2016, the dormant Mississippi Surge franchise was relocated to Southwest Virginia to become the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs. One of the inaugural SPHL teams, the Columbus Cottonmouths, suspended operations in 2017 after failing to find a buyer while an expansion team called the Birmingham Bulls were accepted into the league as the tenth team. Following the 2017–18 season, the Mississippi RiverKings suspended operations while the league searched for new owners. With the acceptance of the Quad City Storm, the league was able to remain at ten teams for the 2018–19 season.
The Knoxville Ice Bears are the most successful team in SPHL history, having won four William B. Coffey Trophy championships as the regular season champions, and four President's Cup championships.
Teams
Current
;NoteTimeline
DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:01/01/2004 till:12/31/2019
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5
Colors =
id:barcolor value:rgb
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:barcolor from:07/01/2004 till:05/01/2005 text:Asheville Aces
bar:2 color:barcolor from:07/01/2004 till:05/03/2017 text:Columbus Cottonmouths
bar:3 color:red from:07/01/2004 till:05/01/2017 text:Fayetteville FireAntz
bar:3 color:red from:06/01/2017 till:end shift:-50 text:Fayetteville Marksmen
bar:4 color:red from:07/01/2004 till:end text:Huntsville Havoc
bar:5 color:barcolor from:07/01/2004 till:05/01/2008 text:Jacksonville Barracudas
bar:6 color:red from:07/01/2004 till:end text:Knoxville Ice Bears
bar:7 color:barcolor from:07/01/2004 till:05/01/2005 text:Macon Trax
bar:8 color:barcolor from:07/01/2004 till:05/01/2005 text:Winston-Salem Polar Twins
bar:9 color:barcolor from:07/01/2005 till:01/04/2007 text:Florida Seals
bar:10 color:barcolor from:07/01/2005 till:03/31/2007 text:Pee Dee Cyclones
bar:10 color:barcolor from:04/24/2007 till:03/31/2009 shift: text:Twin City Cyclones
bar:11 color:barcolor from:07/01/2006 till:05/01/2009 text:Richmond Renegades
bar:12 color:barcolor from:07/01/2009 till:06/30/2016 text:Louisiana IceGators
bar:12 color:red from:07/01/2018 till:end shift:-20 text:Quad City Storm
bar:13 color:barcolor from:07/01/2009 till:05/02/2014 text:Mississippi Surge
bar:13 color:red from:07/01/2016 till:end shift:-80 text:Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs
bar:14 color:red from:07/01/2009 till:end text:Pensacola Ice Flyers
bar:15 color:barcolor from:07/01/2010 till:05/14/2013 text:Augusta RiverHawks
bar:15 color:red from:07/10/2015 till:end text:Macon Mayhem
bar:16 color:barcolor from:07/01/2011 till:06/30/2018 text:Mississippi RiverKings
bar:17 color:barcolor from:07/01/2013 till:05/01/2014 text:Bloomington Thunder
bar:18 color:red from:07/01/2013 till:end text:Peoria Rivermen
bar:19 color:red from:07/01/2016 till:end shift:-60 text:Evansville Thunderbolts
bar:20 color:red from:07/01/2017 till:end shift:-20 text:Birmingham Bulls
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/2004
Defunct and relocated teams
- Asheville Aces
- Augusta RiverHawks Moved to Macon, Georgia, as the Mayhem for the 2015–16 season.
- Bloomington Thunder Membership terminated to make way for a team in the United States Hockey League.
- Columbus Cottonmouths Inaugural member of the SPHL, suspended operations when ownership could no longer fund the team; could return under new ownership; in 2019 Columbus moved to the FPHL league and became the Columbus River Dragons.
- Florida Seals Membership terminated in the middle of the 2006–07 SPHL season.
- Jacksonville Barracudas Suspended for the 2008–09 season and dissolved.
- Louisiana IceGators Suspended operations for the 2016–17 season claiming the arena needed the year for renovations but later dissolved. In 2018, the franchise was sold and became the Quad City Storm.
- Macon Trax
- Mississippi RiverKings Joined from the Central Hockey League in 2011, ownership suspended operations in 2018 while the league searches for new owners.
- Mississippi Surge Moved to Roanoke, Virginia, as the Rail Yard Dawgs for the 2016–17 season.
- Pee Dee Cyclones Moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
- Richmond Renegades
- Twin City Cyclones
- Winston-Salem Polar Twins
Key rule differences
- A team may dress eighteen regular players to a game. Two players dressed for the game will be goaltenders.
- A mouthpiece is required for all players except the goaltender.
- No curvature of stick limitations as in the NHL, AHL, and ECHL.
- Shootouts are five players. After five different players have made an attempt, teams may reuse anyone including those who have previously attempted in later rounds, even using the same player in consecutive rounds if desired.
Champions
President's Cup
Awarded to the league playoff champion.Team | Titles |
Knoxville Ice Bears | 4 |
Huntsville Havoc | 3 |
Pensacola Ice Flyers | 3 |
Columbus Cottonmouths | 2 |
Fayetteville FireAntz | 1 |
Macon Mayhem | 1 |
Mississippi Surge | 1 |