Wheeling Nailers are the first team in the Penguins’ organization to start 2020-21 season

As we wait to see decisions made and finalized in the NHL for the expected season to come in January, it turns out the first team on the ice in the Penguins’ organization in 2020-21 was the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL.

The Nailers, with no players on NHL contracts right now, opened their season at home on Saturday night. They dropped a 3-2 game to the Indy Fuel.

Attendance, which was limited to season ticket holders, was officially announced as 759. The Wesbanco Arena has a capacity of 5,400 for hockey, so that represents about 14% full on a building.

The Nailers are back in action on Friday at home.

Here are the game highlights, since we’re really hard up to see some hockey action:

The AHL season as the primary minor league has been pushed back to a February 5th start. It’ll be interesting to see if that is moved up with the expected NHL season start date of January 13th. For a few weeks though it’ll be the ECHL as the Pens’ only active team in the organization.