The Professional Hockey Players' Association and the ECHL announced on Wednesday that they have created a player relief fund following the cancellation of the 2019-20 season.
The fund will help players and their families financially since the cancellation of the season forced players to lose out on additional salary and playoff bonuses.
All players and their families will receive health insurance through June 30, but the unforeseen cancellation will carry more impact to certain players.
The ECHL-PHPA COVID-10 Relief Fund will be under control by administrators from both sides to make sure the funds are paid out to players accordingly.
"The support already received from the hockey community has been very encouraging and will go a long way in helping the Players, said PHPA Executive Director Larry Landon. "There are many players who are married and have children and will need financial support, while others rely on supplemental income from teaching hockey schools during the off-season which have now effectively been cancelled."
"From the on-set of the reality to determine to cancel the 2019-20 season, we knew that all parties would need to work together to get through this pandemic," said ECHL Commissioner Ryan Crelin. "The creation of this fund is one of the next steps in coming together to help our Players that are in the most need at this time."
An initial $200,000 contribution was approved by the PHPA Executive Committee, while more contributions are expected to be made in the coming weeks.
