Team History
The Florida Everblades have served the Southwest Florida community since 1998, providing family-fun entertainment for fans of all ages.
Since their inception in 1998, the Florida Everblades have hosted more than 4.5 million fans in over 750 regular season games, with an average of almost 6,000 fans per game, and have finished in the top five in league attendance in 14 of their 21 seasons, leading the league five times.
The Everblades serve as a developmental affiliate for the National Hockey League’s Nashville Predators and their primary developmental affiliate, the American Hockey League’s Milwaukee Admirals, starting with the 2019-20 season.
“We are thrilled to have the Nashville Predators as our new NHL affiliate,” Everblades President/GM Craig Brush said. “Nashville’s President of Hockey Operations and General Manager David Poile has done a remarkable job developing an expansion franchise into one of the most prominent teams in the NHL. We are looking forward to becoming an integral part of the development of players for the Predators and Milwaukee Admirals.”
Founded in the same year as the Everblades in 1998, the Predators have become a strong force in the Western Conference over the last five seasons and have qualified for the postseason in each of those campaigns. After falling short of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in their first five seasons since joining the NHL as an expansion franchise, the Predators have now advanced to the postseason in 12 of the last 15 seasons.
There have been 33 Everblades players have gone on to play in the NHL.
The Everblades have qualified for the postseason in 20 of 21 seasons of their existence in the ECHL. On May 23, 2012, the team won its first ECHL Championship with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Las Vegas Wranglers in Game 5 of the 2012 Kelly Cup Finals in front of a standing room only crowd at Hertz Arena.
During the 2003-04 season, the Everblades captured the Eastern Conference title and made their first ever trip to the Kelly Cup Finals, and followed that up by becoming the first team in Kelly Cup history to make back-to-back trips to the Kelly Cup Finals after capturing the 2004-05 American Conference Championship. Florida has also been awarded the Brabham Cup in 1998-99, 2008-09 and 2017-18 for finishing with the best regular season record in the ECHL. The team has won over 900 games in its history.
The Everblades are coming off the third-highest regular season win total in team history after totaling a 50-16-5-1 mark in the 2018-19 campaign. Florida qualified for the playoffs for the 20th time in team history and advanced to the Eastern Conference Final for the second straight year and sixth time in franchise history.
Contact
For more information about the Everblades, season ticket packages, and community events, please contact the Everblades office at 239-948-7825. The Everblades Main Office is located inside Hertz Arena and open Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Everblades Game Tickets: Everblades tickets may be purchased at the Hertz Arena Box Office or online at www.ticketmaster.com
Discounted Group Tickets: Bring your group of 10 or more to a game at a discounted price! Group tickets are available in advance for all Everblades home games. For more information on group packages, call 239-948-7825.