The Iowa Heartlanders will begin its 2022-23 regular season against the Idaho Steelheads on Friday at Xtream Arena.

Last season, the Heartlanders hosted a franchise-record 4,017 fans at Xtream Arena on opening night and downed the Kansas City Mavericks, 7-4. Now, the club is excited to begin its second season in Coralville.

“The fans give us that home-ice advantage,” Heartlanders defenseman Riese Zmolek said. “Makes it a lot better for us, and I think it’ll be phenomenal.”

Iowa head coach Derek Damon said he thinks the Heartlanders are ready to start the season. On Wednesday, he said the club was practicing well during the week with players catching on to Iowa’s systems.

Friday will mark Damon’s first game as the Heartlanders’ head coach after working as their assistant coach in 2021-22. The season-opener will be the first Heartlanders contest for associate coach Joe Exter.

“Our staff is really good,” Damon said. “I think our guys are really good. It’s just exciting just to be able to work with good people, and that’s what this organization strives to become, a really good organization top to bottom. There’s good people in it. If you have good people that are hard-working, you’re going to be successful.”

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Last December, Damon served as the acting head coach for three games with then-head coach Gerry Fleming in health and safety protocols. The Heartlanders went 2-1 over that stretch against the future ECHL Western Conference champion Toledo Walleye.

The Steelheads, who Iowa will also host Saturday, have never faced the Heartlanders. Idaho nearly missed the 2022 Kelly Cup Playoffs with a fifth-place finish in the ECHL Mountain Division.

“They’re always generally a good team,” Damon said. “So, that’s the thing about this league this year. Everybody’s good. There’s no off nights. Everybody in this league is good. There’s a lot of good players. Competition’s high. We got to be able to bring it every night.”

Boucher ready to contribute for Iowa

The Heartlanders added the 2020-21 ECHL Rookie of the Year, Matthew Boucher, to their roster last Friday.

The 5-foot-9, left-handed shooter recorded 25 goals and 27 assists during his rookie campaign with the Utah Grizzlies. In 2021-22, Boucher — the son of former NHL defenseman Philippe Boucher — returned to the Grizzlies and notched 13 goals and 10 assists over 21 games. He also made five appearances with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles.

Over the offseason, the Heartlanders recruited Boucher. With Boucher coming off left shoulder surgery, the forward said he was trying to keep his options open.

He was on a professional tryout contract with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, but the team released him on Oct. 12. Boucher said the Grizzlies treated him well but he ended up signing with the Heartlanders after the team followed him in the offseason.

“I’m a pretty loyal guy,” Boucher said. “[The Heartlanders] showed a lot of interest, and I really appreciate that, and I think them working hard to try to get me and figure something out was awesome for me.”

The day before Boucher decided to sign with the Heartlanders, he called former Heartlanders forward Kris Bennett, who was named the 2021-22 ECHL Rookie of the Year. The two skaters were linemates at the University of New Brunswick.

Though Bennett is now competing in Switzerland, Boucher noted Bennett had nothing but good things to say about the Heartlanders, which helped Boucher make his choice.

Damon happy with ECHL changes

The ECHL Board of Governors approved increasing game lineups from 16 to 17 skaters at its preseason meeting in September.

“I think it’s good for the league,” Damon said. “I think it’s good for the players. We should have more guys in the lineup when we have them in the stands that should be on the ice. It just keeps everybody more fresh. Guys don’t get as tired, which makes the pace of play higher and also cuts down on injuries.”

Damon mentioned the Heartlanders plan to insert 11 forwards and six defensemen into its lineups.

In the first month of the season, the Heartlanders can have 21 players — two of whom must be goaltenders — on their active roster. The number of active roster spots is cut down to 20 on Nov. 20.

For 25 percent of games in the 2022-23 regular season, the ECHL will implement a two-referee system. That rule was implemented at the ECHL Board of Governors’ June meeting. Each club will host nine games with two referees. Last regular season, the ECHL used one referee and two linesmen for all contests.

“It’s just going to cut out a lot of the extracurricular stuff that doesn’t need to be in the game,” Damon said. “It cleans up the game because there’s more eyes out there and guys won’t be able to get away with a lot of stuff, and I think it’ll just make the game a lot cleaner, which is what people want to see. They want to see fast hockey. They want to see good hockey.”