ECHL 2024-25 Season Preview: Tahoe Knight Monsters

Heading into the 2024-25 season, the ECHL is welcoming two new expansion teams, one of which is the Tahoe Knight Monsters. There’s been a lot of hype around Tahoe as they will be playing at Tahoe Blue Event Center, a brand-new arena that opened in September 2023. There’s a lot to like about this team as they have a lot of ECHL experience on the ice and off the ice with a well experienced coaching staff. Tahoe will begin their inaugural season the same way Savannah did, as they will be affiliated with the Vegas Golden Knights after signing a multi-year affiliation agreement this Summer. Let’s dive deeper into the 2024-25 Tahoe Knight Monsters.

The Coaching Staff

Heading into the 2024-25 season, the Knight Monsters will have a coaching staff that has had a decent amount of ECHL experience, as Head Coach Alex Loh spent six years with the Adirondack Thunder, including three years as a Head Coach before spending the past two seasons with the Savannah Ghost Pirates before taking over as the interim Head Coach on February 1st. Joining Loh will be Brett Boeing, who spent three years as a player in the ECHL before spending last season as an assistant coach with the Dubuque Fighting Saints.

The Roster

Familiar Faces

There’s a lot to like about the roster that the Knight Monsters have put together up to this point, which consists of 19 players. Building an expansion team can be a challenge for any team. Still, Head Coach Alex Loh wasted no time adding some familiar faces, as Anthony Collins, who has 12 years of ECHL experience, including the 2023-24 season in Savannah, was the first-ever signing by the Knight Monsters. Defenseman Elijah Vilio, who played 38 games for Savannah during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, also signed with Tahoe. It is expected that Tahoe will get some help from the Henderson Silver Knights, so there should be a handful of familiar faces on the roster next season. 

Lots of ECHL Experience in Tahoe

Despite being a brand new team in the league, the Knight Monsters will have nine players with previous ECHL experience, including two who spent last season with the Newfoundland Growlers before the team folded in April. They also have two players with 10+ years of ECHL experience, which is very rare to find in this league: Anthony Collin and Logan Nelson.

Logan Nelson- The Rogers, Minnesota, will be entering his 11th season in the ECHL and has spent the past three seasons in Rapid City. He wore a letter in all three seasons and was the captain for the Rush last season. In 510 career games, he’s put up 139 goals and 233 assists for 372 points while spending time with eight different ECHL teams over the course of his career. Heading into next season, expect Nelson to be a guy who will get top-line minutes and be one of the key offensive pieces for the Knight Monsters.

Anthony Collins- The 35-year-old forward will be one of the names that Knight Monster Fans will be very familiar with. Collins may not be a guy who will be a force offensively, but with 12 games of ECHL experience under his belt, he will provide leadership from the Knight Monsters. At 6’4,216lb, Collins showed last season that he has no problem throwing the body around as he racked up 140 penalty minutes in just 53 games. I would expect Collins to be one of the candidates for captain, and if not named captain, I would expect him to still have a letter on his chest come opening night.

Goaltending

The Knight Monsters will likely get some help from Henderson when it comes to goaltending. Henderson currently has four goaltenders signed, including Jesper Vikman and Jordan Papirny. Both spent time in Savannah last season, but neither put up numbers that really stood out. Vikman went 7-8 with a 3.01 GAA, .899SV%, and one shutout in 15 games with Savannah, while Papirny went 8-7-4 with a 3.47 GAA and .881 SV% in 19 games. I believe that goaltending is going to be the biggest question for Tahoe when the season kicks off in April.

Expectations

As the Knight Monsters get set to begin their inaugural season, I would expect them to be fighting for a playoff spot come March. They have a lot of experienced skaters, but the one question mark for this team will be to see how the goaltending shakes out. I expect the Knight Monsters to finish third or fourth in the Mountain Division this season.