| Pensacola Ice Pilots | |
|---|---|
 | |
| City | Pensacola, Florida |
| League | ECHL |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Home arena | Pensacola Civic Center |
| Colors | Navy blue, gold |
| Affiliate | New York Islanders |
| Franchise history | |
| 1989–1996 | Nashville Knights |
| 1996–2008 | Pensacola Ice Pilots |
| Championships | |
| Regular season titles | 1 (2004–05) |
| Division titles | 1 (2004–05) |
| Conference titles | 1 (1997–98) |
| Kelly Cups | None |
ThePensacola Ice Pilots were a professionalice hockey team located inPensacola, Florida. The team was previously affiliated with theTampa Bay Lightning,Toronto Maple Leafs,New York Islanders (2006–07), and theChicago Blackhawks. They have also had a working agreement with theHouston Aeros of theAHL for the 04–05 season. On June 23, 2008, the ECHL announced that it had terminated the Ice Pilots' membership, effective immediately.[1]
The team's colors (navy blue and gold) and nickname were a tribute to the long history of Naval aviation in Pensacola (Naval Air Station Pensacola is home to the legendaryBlue Angels and theNational Museum of Naval Aviation).
The home of the Pensacola Ice Pilots was thePensacola Civic Center, which was referred to as "The Hangar", and has a capacity of 8,150.
The Ice Pilots were formerly theNashville Knights but moved to Pensacola following the 1995–96 season.
After the 2007–08 season, when the Ice Pilots had finished dead last for three consecutive years, team owner Mario Forgione announced he had no intention of fielding a team in Pensacola for theECHL during the 2008–09 season. Forgione announced plans to keep a team in Pensacola, but one in an unnamed, lower-level league. TheECHL then stated that it would revoke the franchise if need be, and theECHL made it official on Monday, June 23, 2008.[1] On April 4, 2009, theSPHL announced discussions between potential investors, key government officials, local fans and business leaders in Pensacola, Florida relative to the award of a franchise for the 2009–10 SPHL season. However, the press release stopped short of explicitly stating that this expansion team would not be the Ice Pilots franchise owned by Mario Forgione.[4] Instead the league formed a new team, thePensacola Ice Flyers, owned by formerNHL playerTim Kerr.[5]
Once the Nashville Knights had moved to their new location in 1996, Nashville was left with no ice hockey team to follow. However, this was changed in 1998 when the Knights' successors, theNational Hockey League'sNashville Predators were founded in the 1998 NHL expansion. The Predators have stayed in Nashville since theirinaugural season in 1998, spending 24 seasons in the city and league with their25th season currently in progress. Despite being their successors, the Predators do not actually have any kind of affiliation or tribute to the Knights.
The Predators have yet to win a Stanley Cup title. They did, however, make an appearance in the2017 Stanley Cup Finals, but ultimately lost to their opponent, thePittsburgh Penguins in the span of six games. Despite having almost always first round exits since then, the Predators have had great consistency with making the playoffs, clinching eight times in a row as of the 2022-23 season. Out of their 24 seasons, 15 of them ended with playoff appearances.
) - Artyukhin represented Russia on the U17, U18, and U20 teams but has only played sparingly for theRussian National Team due to his size and style of play not fitting the typical European style of hockey.
) - Baumgartner returned to his native Austria and went on to be a star in theErste Bank Eishockey Liga as well as make appearances for theAustrian National Team in World Championships and various tournaments.
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) - Canadian-born Chambers first played in theUnited Kingdom during the 2005–2006 season after spending 2004–2005 in Italy. He has played there ever since and acquired British citizenship and is now a member of theBritish National Team./
) - Hecimovic is Canadian by birth but his family still very much identified with their Croatian heritage. Hecimovic spent the 09-10 and 10–11 seasons withKHL Medveščak and was eligible to compete for theCroatian National Team at the 2012 IIHF World Championship Division II Group A tournament but a shoulder injury forced him to sit out. Hecimovic finally got his chance to skate for Croatia at the Olympic Preliminary Qualification tournament for the2014 Sochi Games held in September 2012 inZagreb.
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) - American-born to Hungarian parents, Holczy played most of his career in America before heading to his parents' native Hungary where he went on to play for theHungarian National Team.
) - Holmqvist has represented Sweden both before and after his time in Pensacola. He played on the Swedish U20 team in the World Junior Championship as well as playing for theSwedish National Team in many tournaments and exhibition games.
) - Ivanans represented Latvia in the Junior ranks before coming to the Ice Pilots. In 2008 (after his second fullNHL season), he played for theLatvian National Team in the 2008 IIHF Elite Division World Championship despite being known widely as an enforcer.
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) - Materukhin played for the Ice Pilots in 2004-2005 and has played in the 2005 and 2006 Elite Division World Championships as well as the 2008 Division 1 World Championship for theUkrainian National Team. In 2018, the IIHF approved a one-time nationality change for Materukhin after he requested to represent Belarus. He will make his IIHF debut for theBelarusian National Team at the2018 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships.[6]) - Metropolit played for the Ice Pilots in 1996-1997 before making it to the NHL 3 seasons later. Despite playing mostly a journeyman's career, Metropolit represented his home nation in the 2006 IIHF World Championship playing for theCanadian National Team./) - Neilson is Canadian born and even represented Canada for two games in a non-IIHF event during the 1999–2000 season. He moved to theUnited Kingdom prior to the 2006–2007 season and has lived there ever since. He waited some time to get his British Citizenship but has done so and is now a member of theBritish National Team and will compete with them for the first time in the2011 IIHF World Championship Division I Group B in Kyiv, Ukraine./
) - Canadian-born Tripp started his professional career in North America before signing withAdler Mannheim of theDeutsche Eishockey Liga. He acquired German citizenship and represented theGerman National Team in the 2010 Winter Olympics.^ - They coached four games while Clark was away tending to his ailing mother.