ECHL Announces Stops For The Kelly Cup Tour

The coveted trophy given annually to the ECHL's post-season champion will make six stops over the next two months.

The 2025 Kelly Cup Tour is back, and its first stop will be in Bloomington, the league announced Wednesday.

The trophy that defines the ECHL post-season champion each season will visit six cities and travel a total of 6,828 miles in 44 days.

Every team in the ECHL aspires to win the Patrick J. Kelly Cup at the beginning of each season. The Florida Everblades have laid claim to it the past three seasons, becoming the first team in the ECHL to do so.

The Cup’s first stop in Bloomington will take place Saturday, Feb. 22. It will make appearances at games, schools, sponsors, radio and television stations and other events in each of its six stops.

The tour’s longest trek will encompass 2,394 miles from Reading, Pennsylvania on March 15 to Boise, Idaho on March 21. After the first stop in Bloomington, it will head to Cincinnati on Feb. 28, Maine on March 7 and 8, Reading March 14 and 15, Idaho March 21 and 22, and Iowa March 30 before wrapping up in Fort Wayne on April 6.

The Kelly Cup Tour offers fans of the ECHL the opportunity to view the coveted Patrick J. Kelly Cup, which has been awarded to the league post-season champion since the 1996-97 season. The ECHL retired its playoff championship trophy, the Jack Riley Cup, in 1996 and replaced it with the Kelly Cup. That award was first given to the post-season champion in 1997.

Standing an impressive 28 inches tall and weighing 19 pounds, the Kelly Cup features the names of players, coaches and support staff from each of the 35 ECHL champions. Accompanying the Cup will be a special display that highlights the intensity and excitement of the playoffs.

The Kelly Cup is named in recognition of Patrick J. Kelly, one of the ECHL’s founding fathers. He served as commissioner of the league for the first eight seasons before being named Commissioner Emeritus in 1996, a title he continues to hold.

Kelly is celebrating his 72^nd season in hockey in 2024-25, having begun his career with the St. Catherine Teepees of the Ontario Junior Hockey League in 1952. He played professionally for the Springfield Indians of the American Hockey League, the Troy Bruins of the International Hockey League and the Greensboro Generals of the Eastern Hockey League.

Kelly coached in the EHL from 1965-73 and was head coach and general manager of Charlotte in the Southern Hockey League from 1973-76. He also coached the Colorado Rockies of the NHL in 1977-78 and is the only coach to lead the Rockies to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Following coaching stints in the AHL, Kelly went to Peoria in the IHL, where he led the Rivermen to the Turner Cup in 1984-85, his first season.

In 2016, Kelly received the Lester Patrick Trophy from the NHL for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.