As a lifelong hockey fan who recently moved to Georgia from Michigan, you can imagine how excited I was when I found out there was a local professional hockey team in my area! The 2022-23 Atlanta Gladiators rekindled my love of the game, and I quickly jumped on the bandwagon and emersed myself in all things Gladiators. I spent way more money than I should have on autographed jerseys, was at the rest of the home games, and even traveled to Jacksonville for a must-win game to keep the Glads playoff chances alive. Unfortunately, the Glads missed out on the playoffs, but still had a record good enough that would have put them in the playoffs had they been in any other division in the ECHL. Like most Gladiators fans, I figured the team would lose some players as they switched NHL and AHL affiliates from the Arizona Coyotes to the Nashville Predators. As someone who was learning more and more about how the ECHL works, I knew the team would also lose some players who wanted a chance to play overseas. The Glads still do not have a final roster complied yet, as we get closer to the start of the regular season, but one thing is for sure.
The Gladators will not resemble the team they were last year.
As the roster looks right now, the Gladiators are only bringing back 6 players who were on the squad last season. Forward Cody Sylvester returns and will be the catalyst to a young team that has a total of 122 ECHL games played outside of the 6 returning 2022-23 Gladiators. Sylvester lost both of his linemates from last year; Michael Pelech, who is playing in the EIHL in the United Kingdom, and Sanghoon Shin who is playing in the Asia League. That’s a combined 141 points that the Gladiators will need to replace on their top line. The Gladiators also will not return Eric Neiley who will be behind the bench alongside former Captain Derek Nesbitt as an assistant coach. Neiley notched 25 goals and 19 assists before going down with an injury late in the season.
The Gladiators currently have one goaltender under contract, and that is 26-year-old Tyler Harmon from Ramsey, NJ. Harmon came on late with the Glads last year after the team had AHL callups and injuries. Harmon played in 10 games winning four. Harmon finished with a 3.31 GAA and a .910 save percentage. Harmon’s biggest moment of the season came against the eventual Kelly Cup Champion Florida Everblades where he posted a shutout victory. The Gladiators lost arguably their best goalie to a division rival in Joe Murdaca. Murdaca had a 2.46 GAA to go along with his .930 save percentage in 9 games during last year’s season. Murdaca will be between the pipes for the Jacksonville Icemen this season.
The Gladiators will be led by first-year coach Nesbitt who takes over for Jeff Pyle, who moves into a front office role as the Director of Operations with the team. Nesbitt, who was an assistant coach with the team last year, will have his work cut out for him with essentially a brand-new team. The key will be getting this group to bond together quickly as there will not be much on-ice chemistry to begin the season. The Gladiators will look to add more players through players not making the parent clubs as well as holding professional tryouts for those not attached to a team. The Gladiators will take the ice as a team for the first time in a preseason tilt against division foe Greenville Swamp Rabbits on October 15th at 3:00 pm at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.
It’s tough to make an educated guess at where the Glads will finish the season with such a turnover throughout the organization. I think I would be naive to assume that this team, as constructed now, will compete for a division crown. The Everblades are back-to-back Kelly Cup champions, and I like Jacksonville scooping up Murdaca. The Stingrays are also returning quite a few players from last year’s division-winning team. At this time, I would predict the Gladiators to finish 5th in the division behind the Ghost Pirates, Stingrays, and Everblades, and my prediction for the division winner, the Jacksonville Icemen. Let’s see those Glads prove me wrong! The regular season starts in less than a month on October 21st at home against the in-state rival Savannah Ghost Pirates.
Phil, you are right. This is a rebuilding time and why they did not re sign Murdaca is beyond me. Had they signed him, and the rest of the team played decently, I think they could have finished 4 th or maybe third. With Pelech and Shin Gone, this team is pretty much looking like an expansion team. Then again, in 2018, Newfoundland was an expansion team that played well, had two great goalkeepers and won the championship in their first yr of existence.
Being from a Detroit based sports experience my whole life, I am painfully aware of the term rebuilding. I truly hope the Gladiators are able to skate, score and play as a team of winners.
Great article by the way.
Based on the new player histories and the interviews we have had, I think Derek has built and young dynamic team that already has many connections. Many of the signed players have previously played together at some time in their Junior or College Careers. They also mostly have a history of being leaders on those teams who have good teamwork skills already. Last year people were calling for coaching changes, they got their wish. Now those same fans need to give Nesbitt’s vision time to mature. We don’t know for sure that the team will gel, but I think they have great odds. We need to support them. As far as Joe Murdaca. He is the nicest person that I ever had the privilege to meet, and I hope he does with with Jacksonville. But having too many Goalies signed at the beginning of the season when our affiliates , most likely will be sending their extra goalies to us for development and ice time, means that the extra ECHL signed players would spend a lot of time sitting out games, which is no good for any of them at the start of the season. We always get robbed when replacement players are needed late in the season, part of being a development team is that delicate balance of having to play players for the AHL/NHL that need ice time and honing their abilities, but also getting a preview at these players that may end up playing for in the AHL and the NHL. Being able to say, hey, I actually knew that guy before he made it big is fun. I know that many fans think that they could do the jobs of the coaches, back office staff, broadcasters etc. They like to pick at and be critical of everyone. But they really don’t realize how hard all these people work to do what they do. Frankly it boggles my mind all of the things they have to keep track of, and take into consideration, and I am sure our view is a just a small glimpse of the whole. Just remember that both the team, the staff and the back office employees need our support as fans of the team. I am personally really happy that outsiders don’t get to critique how I do my day job, and constantly tear my efforts down on a public forum. Go Glads.