WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, Sept. 9, 2025 (Gephardt Daily) — Officials with the Utah Grizzlies confirmed Tuesday that the professional minor league ice hockey team will move east after the 2025-2026 season.The team will relocate to Trenton, New Jersey, and will play at the CURE Insurance Arena.“This was a difficult decision, but it is one that we feel is in the best long-term interest of the franchise,” D.G. Elmore, the chairman of Elmore Companies, said in a news release.“Our focus right now is entir...
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah, Sept. 9, 2025 (Gephardt Daily) — Officials with the Utah Grizzlies confirmed Tuesday that the professional minor league ice hockey team will move east after the 2025-2026 season.
The team will relocate to Trenton, New Jersey, and will play at the CURE Insurance Arena.
“This was a difficult decision, but it is one that we feel is in the best long-term interest of the franchise,” D.G. Elmore, the chairman of Elmore Companies, said in a news release.
“Our focus right now is entirely on the fans and the community that have supported us for three decades. We are dedicated to delivering the best possible experience for our final season and celebrating the incredible memories we’ve made together.”
The Grizzlies team will begin its final Utah season at the Maverik Center on Oct. 25, playing against the Idaho Steelheads. The team’s last scheduled Utah game is April 11, against Rapid City Rush.
The Utah Mammoth, Utah’s professional major league ice hockey team since last year, will keep professional ice hockey in Utah, at the Delta Center.
ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) commissioner Ryan Crelin said he is excited to welcome another team to the North Division market for the 2026-2027 season.
“The original ECHL Team served as a catalyst to the opening of CURE Insurance Arena back in 1999 and growing the hockey community in New Jersey, and we look forward to reinvigorating the live entertainment experience in the marketplace with an ownership and operating group that is experienced in developmental league sports,” Crelin said, according to oursportscentral.com.
“On behalf of the League and myself, I would like to personally thank the Elmore Family, the late Kevin Bruder, Jill Roberts and the entire Grizzlies staff, for their commitment to the ECHL and the Utah fanbase for over 20 years in the League, as we are saddened by the unfortunate set of circumstances that will not allow them to be able to continue to entertain their fans and be a part of that community after the 2025-26 Season,” Crelin said.
The circumstances include the death of one owner and the declining health of another, the Utah Grizzlies posted on X in a June statement.
Bob Ohrablo, president of Pro Hockey Partners, LLC and Trenton ECHL Hockey, said he is “thrilled to reintroduce the ECHL to Trenton and Mercer County, a region known for its strong hockey culture and passion for the sport.”