The Evansville IceMen will be the eighteenth team to enter the league formed earlier this month when the International and Central Hockey Leagues joined together under the banner of the CHL for the 2010-11 season.  The IceMen arrive in the wake of the finalization of the purchase and transfer of the Muskegon Lumberjacks by IceMen owner Ron Geary. 

The IceMen join the Mallards and three other IHL clubs as well as 13 teams already skating in the CHL in forming the revamped circuit.  Evansville's Muskegon predecessors won the 2009-10 IHL Huber Trophy as the league's regular season first overall finisher.

"The chance to bring a storied team like Muskegon with its 50-year pro hockey history to Evansville was an opportunity that we could not pass up," said Geary.

The IceMen will play their first season of double-A hockey at Swonder Ice Arena in Evansville.
 
"This is great news for hockey fans in Evansville,” said IHL Commissioner Dennis Hextall. “Bringing the Muskegon history to Evansville creates instant credibility to the IceMen organization. This will not be an expansion team."

The IceMen played in the single-A All American Hockey League through this spring.  Evansville won last season's AAHL Davidson Cup Championship.