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Atlanta Gladiators
2018–19 ECHL season
City	Duluth, Georgia
League	ECHL
Conference	Eastern
Division	South
Founded	1995
Home arena	Infinite Energy Arena
Colors	Garnet, gold, black
Owner(s)	Danor Vienna LLC[1]
General manager	Jeff Pyle
Head coach	Jeff Pyle
Affiliates	Boston Bruins (NHL) Providence Bruins (AHL)
Website	www.atlantagladiators.com
Franchise history
1995–2002	Mobile Mysticks
2003–2015	Gwinnett Gladiators
2015–present	Atlanta Gladiators
Championships
Division Championships	3 (2005–06, 2011–12, 2012–13)
Conference Championships	1 (2005–06)

The Atlanta Gladiators (formerly the Gwinnett Gladiators) are a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Duluth, Georgia, in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Gladiators play in the South Division of the ECHL's Eastern Conference. The Gladiators play their home games at the Infinite Energy Arena.

The franchise originated as the Mobile Mysticks in 1995. The team suspended operations in 2002 and moved to Duluth in 2003. They were the South Division and American Conference champions in 2006, falling four-games-to-one to the Alaska Aces in the Kelly Cup finals.

In 2015, the Gladiators became the affiliate of the Boston Bruins and their AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins.^[2] They also changed their name from the Gwinnett Gladiators to the Atlanta Gladiators that same year.^[3]

History

Birth of the Gladiators

The franchise originated as the Mobile Mysticks who played in Mobile, Alabama, from 1995 to 2002. It suspended operations in 2002 due to declining attendance. After a year off, Toby Jeffreys, the owner of the Mysticks, relocated his franchise to Gwinnett County, Georgia, in 2003 and was rebranded the Gwinnett Gladiators. He then sold minority stakes of the franchise to local business owners to create Gwinnett County Hockey, LLC.^[4]Jeff Pyle—who served as the Mysticks' head coach starting in 1998—returned to the franchise for their first season.

The Gladiators made an appearance in the 2006 Kelly Cup Finals, losing to the Alaska Aces in five games.

On July 13, 2011, Pyle was named head coach of the American Hockey League's Texas Stars.^[5] The Gladiators announced on August 3, 2011, that John Wroblewski, former assistant coach for the Wheeling Nailers, had been selected to take Pyle's place as the team's head coach. The Gladiators won the ECHL South Division in the two years of Wrobelski's tenure.^[6]

On August 7, 2013, Wroblewski was hired by the AHL's Rochester Americans as an assistant coach. Rick Emmett, a former defenseman for the Gladiators, took over as head coach.^[7]

Emmett was relieved of his duties as head coach on December 2, 2014. At the time, assistant coach, and former Gladiator captain, Andy Brandt was named the interim head coach.^[8] Brandt would remain the interim head coach through the remainder of the 2014–15 season before being named to head coach on March 21, 2015.^[9] Former Valpellice Bulldogs head coach Mike Flanagan also joined the coaching staff in December 2014, serving as the team's assistant coach.^[10]

Rebranding as Atlanta Gladiators

On September 9, 2015, the Gladiators organization announced that they would be known as the Atlanta Gladiators to expand their brand to include the entire Atlanta metropolitan area.^[11] As part of the name change, the Gladiators updated their “primary” and “wordmark” logos to reflect the Atlanta designation. The rest of the Gladiators logos remained the same, as did the team colors.

After two seasons as head coach, Andy Brandt left to take the associate coaching position with St. Norbert College in 2017. The Gladiators would then hire two-time Kelly Cup winning coach Chuck Weber as his replacement.^[12]

During the 2017–18 season, the franchise was purchased by Virginia-based ownership group called Danor Vienna LLC, headed by real estate developer P. Daniel Orlich.^[1] Head coach Weber left after one season to take an assistant coaching position with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) NCAA Div. I men's team in order to be closer to home.^[13]Jeff Pyle was then brought back as head coach and general manager after leaving for the AHL in 2011.^[14][15]

Affiliations

The Gladiators served as the ECHL affiliate of the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers and their AHL affiliate Chicago Wolves from their inception in 2003 until 2011, when the Thrashers franchise moved to Winnipeg and the Gladiators ended their affiliation with the franchise. The team also served as an affiliate for the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2008–09 season and for the Columbus Blue Jackets during the 2009–10 season.^[16][17]

On August 17, 2011, the Gladiators announced their affiliation with the Phoenix Coyotes and the Portland Pirates for the 2011–12 season.^[18] They later announced an affiliation agreement with the Buffalo Sabres, and their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans.^[19] That affiliation lapsed at the end of the 2011–12 season, leaving the Gladiators affiliated exclusively with Phoenix for the 2012–13 season.^[20] The Gladiators would carry that affiliation through the end of the 2014–15 season.

On August 6, 2015, the Gladiators announced a two-year affiliation deal with the Boston Bruins and their AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins.^[2] In February 2017, the Gladiators and Bruins extended their affiliation for another two seasons.^[21]

Season-by-season record

Regular season										Playoffs
Season	GP	W	L	OTL	SOL	Pts	GF	GA	Standing	Year	Wild Card Round Conf. 1st round (2006–08)§	1st round Conf. Quarterfinals	2nd round Conf. Semifinals	3rd round Conf. Finals	Kelly Cup
2003–04	72	42	22	0	8	92	248	193	3rd, Central	2004	No WC game in Western Conf.	W, 3–2, MIS	W, 3–1, LOU	L, 1–3, IDA	—
2004–05	72	40	24	1	7	88	241	202	3rd, South	2005	—	W, 3–1, MIS	L, 1–3, CHR	—	—
2005–06	72	50	15	0	7	107	304	208	1st, South	2006	BYE	W, 3–0, SC	W, 3–1, FLA	W, 4–1, TOL	L, 1–4, AK
2006–07	72	41	24	5	2	89	289	256	3rd, South	2007	BYE	L, 1–3, TX	—	—	—
2007–08	72	44	23	2	3	93	247	198	3rd, South	2008	W, 3–0, CHR	L, 2–3, SC	—	—	—
2008–09	72	31	35	1	5	68	214	246	4th, South	2009	—	L, 1–4, FLA	—	—	—
2009–10	72	31	33	5	3	70	243	277	4th, South	2010	—	Did not qualify
2010–11	72	30	34	3	5	68	203	250	4th, South	2011	—	Did not qualify
2011–12	72	41	20	7	4	93	214	200	1st, South	2012	—	L, 1–3, SC	—	—	—
2012–13	72	43	26	2	1	89	211	191	1st, South	2013	—	W, 4–0, SC	L, 2–4, CIN	—	—
2013–14	72	29	38	3	2	63	203	227	5th, South	2014	—	Did not qualify
2014–15	72	20	45	3	4	47	174	263	7th, East	2015	—	Did not qualify
2015–16	72	34	31	5	2	75	189	224	4th, South	2016	—	Did not qualify
2016–17	72	27	37	6	2	62	234	278	6th, South	2017	—	Did not qualify
2017–18	72	32	35	2	3	69	205	229	4th, South	2018	—	L, 0–4, FLA	—	—	—
2018–19	72	31	30	8	3	73	197	211	5th, South	2019	—	Did not qualify

• 
  ^§The ECHL used an unbalanced playoff format from the 1998–99 season to the 2003–04 season and again from the 2005–06 season to the 2007–08 season which resulted in five rounds.
  

Current roster

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#	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace	Contract
9		Tyler Andrews	D	R	24	2019	Anchorage, Alaska	Gladiators
35		Michael Bitzer	G	L	25	2019	Moorhead, Minnesota	Gladiators
8		Nick Bligh	C	R	26	2018	Boston, Massachusetts	Gladiators
1		Sean Bonar	G	L	28	2017	Delta, British Columbia	Gladiators
12		Kyle Chatham	D	R	26	2018	Belleville, Illinois	Gladiators
2		Vytal Cote	D	R	23	2018	Hollywood, Florida	Gladiators
34		Tyson Fawcett	C	R	25	2019	Barrie, Ontario	Gladiators
4		Jake Flegel	D	R	27	2018	Ajax, Ontario	Gladiators
10		Brady Fleurent	F	R	24	2019	Biddeford, Maine	Gladiators
11		John Furgele	D	R	26	2019	Glen Mills, Pennsylvania	Gladiators
26		Olivier Galipeau	D	L	21	2018	Montreal, Quebec	Providence
21		Matt Lane	C	L	25	2018	Rochester, New York	Milwaukee
37		Nolan LaPorte	RW	R	26	2018	Chicago, Illinois	Gladiators
7		Justin MacDonald	RW	R	28	2018	Newmarket, Ontario	Gladiators
27		Zach Magwood	RW	R	20	2018	Cambridge, Ontario	Predators
74		Zachary Malatesta	D	L	22	2017	Boston, Massachusetts	Gladiators
14		Brett McKenzie	C	L	22	2018	Ottawa, Ontario	Gladiators
25		Joel Messner	D	R	25	2018	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Providence
58		Kevin Montgomery	D	L	31	2018	Rochester, New York	Gladiators
17		Derek Nesbitt (C)	RW	L	36	2015	Egmondville, Ontario	Gladiators
18		Alex Overhardt	C	L	22	2018	Cherry Hills, Colorado	Milwaukee
19		Avery Peterson	C	L	23	2019	Grand Rapids, Minnesota	Gladiators
29		Filip Pyrochta	D	L	22	2019	Trebic, Czech Republic	Predators
16		Hugo Roy	C	R	21	2019	Fleurimont, Quebec	Milwaukee
5		Jack Stander	D	L	24	2018	Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan	Gladiators

Notable players

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gwinnett Gladiators.

• Official Atlanta Gladiators site


• Archive of ECHL standings and statistics