Ice Pilots owner Mario Forgione has walked away from hockey before. In 2006 he sold his junior hockey team in Toronto to Eugene Melnyk, who owns the Ottawa Senators and also an Ontario Hockey League team, the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors. Melnyk sold it again 2007. The new owner moved the team to Niagara.
Forgione bought the Ice Pilots from Tim Kerr in 2005 after the team won the Brabham Cup for the ECHL’s regular-season championship. Kerr was named PSA’s Sportsman of the Year that year.
The team has not repeated that success under Forgione. Last season, they finished with the worst record in the ECHL, 19-44. They did the same the year before with a 20-46 record.