This is the 2024-25 Federal Prospects Hockey League season. This is the league's 15th season.
League Business On June 11 the league released a fifteenth anniversary logo.https://www.federalhockey.com/news/fphl-enters-its-15th-season As part of the announcement the league indicated an expansion draft will be held for the four expansion teams and that the division alignments have not been finalized but indicated in its wording it would likely be North and South Divisions On June 12, 2024, the league announced that it would hold 4 neutral site games at the Stormont Vail Events Center in Topeka, Kansas during the 2024–25 season. The events will gauge a possible expansion team for the arena in the not too distant future.https://www.federalhockey.com/news/stormont-vail-events-center-in-topeka-ks-to-host-4 During the off season the league officially cancelled the Delaware Thunder franchise. The team had lost its' lease for their arena and were attempting to build a new arena in Dover, Delaware. The team had also considered relocation prior to going inactive for the 2023–24 season.https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/weekly-sports-league-and-franchise-report/n-6132489
Membership Changes The former owner of the Danville Dashers franchise has indicated he would like to place another team in Danville, Illinois' David S. Palmer Arena for the 2024–25 season. The arena board replaced his previous team with new franchise in the Southern Professional Hockey League in 2020. That franchise the Vermilion County Bobcats would end up folding in February 2023. The arena board put out a lease proposal request for potential teams in the ECHL, SPHL, Federal Prospects Hockey League, or the junior level United States Premier Hockey League.https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/weekly-sports-league-and-franchise-report/n-6028768 On March 28, 2024, the league announced that addition of a team to be based out of the soon to be opened Classic Center Arena in Athens, Georgia, which will begin play with the 2024–25 season.https://www.federalhockey.com/news/fphl-announces-athens-ga On May 15, 2024, the name of the team was announced as the Athens Rock Lobsters as a tribute to the locally based band the B-52's and their famous song.https://apnews.com/article/athens-rock-lobsters-b52s-hockey-4502c97c01c0158524e9c0b45cbac844 On May 1, 2024, the junior level North American Hockey League announced the addition of the Elmira Aviators to begin play in the East Division with the 2024–25 season. The team will be based out of the First Arena in Elmira, New York.https://nahl.com/news/story.cfm?id=38750 This called into question the future of the Elmira River Sharks beyond the 2023–24 season. On May 16, 2024, it was announced that the franchise was sold and would be relocating to another city in New York State for the 2024–25 season.https://www.elmirariversharks.com/news/thank-you-fans On May 20, 2024, it was announced that the Elmira River Sharks was sold to the owner of the semi-pro Hudson Valley Vipers. The team will be renamed the Hudson Valley Venom and play their games out of the 3,200 seat McCann Ice Arena in Poughkeepsie, New York.https://www.federalhockey.com/news/hudson-valley-venom-to-join-federal-prospects-hock It was later announced that the Venom will play at the Ice Time Sports Complex in Newburgh, New York.https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0AW7e6w7G666rhtqFfoSkK3pfAcmSDVz1pVAsXmab2ocGJvkaaAKPb5rpjCfdFCqBl&id=100092898678212&rdid=Be5ENL67aHwrQUo6&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2Fp%2FXHcYHdBWWaddAy1W%2F On June 5, 2024, the league announced the addition of the Monroe Moccasins to the league for the 2024–25 season. The team will be based out of the Monroe Civic Center in Monroe, Louisiana.https://www.federalhockey.com/news/the-fphl-welcomes-the-monroe-moccasins The Akins Ford Arena was due to host the opening home games for the Athens Rock Lobsters on December 6 and 7; but, the arena failed its certificate of occupancy inspection and the games had to be cancelled. The fire system had not been fully tested was the reason for the failure. The team had already played its' first 11 games on the road prior to the arena issues and due to the complexity of the system it was unknown when the team would be able to play in the arena.https://www.onlineathens.com/story/news/2024/12/06/akins-ford-arena-denied-certificate-of-occupancy-rock-lobsters-cancelled/76826973007/ The team's December 12 game was also postponed but the team would be able to play its' first home game on December 13. The Hudson Valley Venom apparently ran into issues with the Ice Time Sports Complex and were forced to relocate several home games to the home rink of their opponents https://www.hudsonvalleyvenom.com/news/hudson-valley-venom-announce-schedule-updates after it was announced that the November 22nd game was postponed due to unforeseen arena and logistical issues.https://www.federalhockey.com/news/fridays-game-in-hudson-valley-postponed A source indicated later on that the team may have in fact been evicted from the arena citing financial issues as the reason.https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/ weekly-sports-league-and-franchise-report/n-6171743 It was announced on December 9, 2024, that the team was sold to PKB LLC, and rebranded as HC Venom and would be planning to play the remainder of the season as a traveling team playing the remainder of their schedule as either the visiting team or playing as the home team in potential expansion markets for the league.https://www.federalhockey.com/news/hudson-valley-venom-acquired-by-pkb-llc As of December 16 the only remaining games the team had listed on the website were for game as the visiting team against existing league teams. For a while the team was playing some games in potential new markets for the league. On January 17, 2025, the team would announce that they found a home in the McCann Ice Arena in Poughkeepsie, New York, which was the original intended home for the franchise.
On January 7, 2025, the league announces that it would be staging four neutral site games at the Stormont Vail Events Center in Topeka, Kansas between January 24 and February 1. The release also indicated "plans for a permanent FPHL team in Topeka for 2025."https://www.federalhockey.com/news/fphl-brings-professional-hockey-back-to-topeka A February 2025 report indicated that a group in Columbus, Indiana was awarded a conditional expansion team to be known as the Indiana Sentinels. The same report indicated that the Motor City Rockers had been sold and was planning to undergo a rebranding following the season but backed off due to unfavorable feedback from fans.https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/weekly-sports-league-and-franchise-report/n-6183109 On February 13, 2025, the league announced the addition of a team to be based out of the Stormont Vail Events Center in Topeka, Kansas for the 2025–26 season. The announcement was made after the league's two neutral site games averaged over 3,200 fans per game.https://www.federalhockey.com/news/the-fphl-welcomes-topeka-kansas The team named would be announced on May 5 as the Topeka Scarecrows.https://topekakansas.hockeyshift.com/news/fans-have-voted-and-topeka-pro-hockey-has-a-name On April 16, 2025, the league announced the addition of an expansion team to be based out of the Florence Civic Center in Florence, South Carolina for the 2025–26 season.https://www.federalhockey.com/news/fphl-welcomes-florence-sc On May 5 the team would be announced as the Pee Dee Icecats.https://www.peedeeprohockey.com/news/pee-dee-icecats-name-unveiled-honoring-local-hocke The league considered the team a relocation of the HC Venom team from the 2024–25 season and the team did not participate in the league's expansion draft to stock the other two teams to join the league for the 2025–26 season.https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/weekly-sports-league-and-franchise-report/n-6232443 In April 2025 reports surfaced that the Danville Dashers would not be returning to the David S. Palmer Arena for the 2025–26 season.https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/weekly-sports-league-and-franchise-report/n-6217215 The league would later indicate it was looking for new ownership for the team and was planning on returning to that market in the future.https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/weekly-sports-league-and-franchise-report/n-6232443 On May 7, 2025, the Motor City Rockers announced that they would in fact be going dormant for the 2025–26 season.https://www.mcrockershockey.com/news/standing-together-a-message-from-the-motor-city-ro On May 8, 2025, the league officially announced the addition of the Columbus, Indiana based Indiana Sentinels. The team will be based out of the 1,150 seat Hamilton Community Center & Ice Arena with the city already having plans for a new 2,500-seat arena to be built in the cityhttps://www.federalhockey.com/news/fphl-announces-the-indiana-sentinels On June 2, 2025, the recently sold Mississippi Sea Wolves announced that they would be renamed the Biloxi Breakers.https://www.biloxibreakers.net/news/mississippi-pro-hockey-announces-rebrand
Teams Team Home arena Capacity City Joined League Continental Division Athens Rock Lobsters Akins Ford Arena 5,500 Athens, Georgia 2024 Baton Rouge Zydeco Raising Cane's River Center Arena 8,900 Baton Rouge, Louisiana 2023 Blue Ridge Bobcats Hitachi Energy Arena 5,300 Wytheville, Virginia 2023 Carolina Thunderbirds LJVM Coliseum Annex 4,000 Winston-Salem, North Carolina 2017 Columbus River Dragons Columbus Civic Center 7,459 Columbus, Georgia 2019 Mississippi Sea Wolves Mississippi Coast Coliseum 9,150 Biloxi, Mississippi 2022Monroe Moccasins Monroe Civic Center 5,600 Monroe, Louisiana 2024 Empire Division Binghamton Black Bears Visions Veterans Memorial Arena 4,710 Binghamton, New York 2021 Danbury Hat Tricks Danbury Ice Arena 3,000 Danbury, Connecticut 2019 Danville Dashers David S. Palmer Arena 2,350 Danville, Illinois 2024 Hudson Valley Venom/HC Venom Ice Time Sports Complex 1,288 Newburgh, New York 2024 Motor City Rockers Big Boy Arena 3,330 Fraser, Michigan 2022 Port Huron Prowlers McMorran Place 3,400 Port Huron, Michigan 2015 Watertown Wolves Watertown Municipal Arena 2,000 Watertown, New York 2010
Standings Continental Division Team GP W L OW SW OL GF GA Pts % Carolina Thunderbirds 56 38 11 0 3 4 223 127 124 .738 Athens Rock Lobsters 56 32 10 4 7 3 220 137 121 .720 Columbus River Dragons 56 28 16 4 2 4 192 159 100 .617 Blue Ridge Bobcats 56 28 21 1 0 6 194 172 92 .548 Baton Rouge Zydeco 56 23 19 5 3 6 194 173 91 .542 Monroe Moccasins 56 18 25 1 3 9 185 199 71 .423 Mississippi Sea Wolves 56 10 41 0 1 4 122 256 36 .214
Empire Division Team GP W L OW SW OL GF GA Pts % Binghamton Black Bears 56 44 6 3 2 1 289 141 143 .851 Danbury Hat Tricks 56 28 15 1 4 8 245 191 102 .607 Port Huron Prowlers 56 24 18 2 5 6 200 161 92 .558 Watertown Wolves 56 23 23 3 2 4 230 215 83 .503 Motor City Rockers 56 13 31 3 3 5 174 237 56 .339 HC Venom 56 10 36 2 2 3 153 258 41 .258 Danville Dashers 56 2 49 0 1 4 126 321 12 .071
Note: Three points for a regulation win, two for an overtime win, one for an overtime loss, none for a regulation loss.
Commissioners cup Playoffs The top four teams in each division qualify for the playoffs. The fourth and fifth place teams meet in a wild card play-in game. The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds are best-of-three with the league final being best-of-five.
Wild Card Blue Ridge Bobcats defeated Baton Rouge Zydeco 5–2 Watertown Wolves defeated Motor City Rockers 4–2
Quarterfinals Carolina Thunderbirds defeated Blue Ridge Bobcats 2 games to none Columbus River Dragons defeated Athens Rock Lobsters 2 games to none Binghamton Black Bears defeated Watertown Wolves 2 games to none Port Huron Prowlers defeated Danbury Hat Tricks 2 games to 1
Semifinals