As of noon Eastern on December 26th, the ECHL players have officially gone on strike. The ECHL has issued the following statement.
“On December 25, 2025, the ECHL made its last, best, and final offer to the Professional Hockey Players’ Association (PHPA). The ECHL made clear to union leadership that this was the best offer and that any future offers likely will need to account for losses in revenue attributable to missed games from a player strike. While we did not receive a formal response, we have heard from certain players that they will not be reporting for their scheduled games. We strongly encouraged union leadership to submit our offer to a vote of its membership, but we do not believe that happened.
This deal rewards players and ensures the sustainability of our teams and league so that it can continue to offer an entertaining and financially accessible product to our fans, and provide our incredible players with as many opportunities to play and compete.”
Your perspective here is going to depend on who you believe. If you believe the PHPA you’re going to think the ECHL is being a greedy bully. If you believe the ECHL you’re going to think they made a fair offer and the PHPA has gone rogue and isn’t relaying their offer to their players. Either way, the immediate result means players lose their health insurance and must immediately vacate their team housing. Whether or not teams start using FPHL and SPHL players to avoid cancelling more games remains to be seen.
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