Wilmington's Joe Pendenza Named ECHL Player Of The Week

ESTERO, FL — Wilmington native Joe Pendenza, a minor league hockey player for the Florida Everblades, was named the Inglasco ECHL Player of the Week for Jan. 16-23.

Inglasco is the exclusive puck supplier of the ECHL, and the company donated a case of pucks to a Florida youth hockey organization in Pendenza's name.

Pendenza, a forward, scored three goals and had four assists (7 points) in three games last week for the Everblades, who are based near Ft. Myers, Florida. The ECHL is considered a mid-level minor league, below the high-minor AHL.

The 32-year-old Pendenza, who played collegiately at UMass Lowell, had two big games in back-to-back wins over the Savannah Ghost Pirates last weekend.

Pendenza had a goal and three assists in a 9-4 win over Savannah on Friday. He found the net twice and added a helper in a 6-2 win over the Ghost Pirates the following evening.

With the three-point performance on Saturday, Pendenza extended his point streak to a team-best 11 games, dating back to Dec. 28.

Though Pendenza's point streak came to an end in a 2-1 loss to the Orlando Solar Bears on Sunday night, Pendenza's 17 points in January rank him among the most productive forwards in the ECHL this month.

Entering Wednesday night's game against the South Carolina Stingrays, Pendenza led the Everblades with 36 points, 13 goals, and a team-high 23 assists.

The Everblades entered Wednesday's game with 51 points in 37 games and in first place in the ECHL's Southern Division.

In his professional career, Pendenza has played over 500 games, tallying 228 points (94 goals, 134 assists) in 262 ECHL games with Florida, Idaho, Manchester and Cincinnati, and adding 76 points (34 goals, 42 assists) in 255 career games in the American Hockey League with Milwaukee and Cleveland.

The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Pendenza once seemed like a longshot just to make the professional ranks.

"At the end of the day, I only had one scholarship offer to go to college, so I don't think I thought I'd be playing (so many) professional games after that," Pendenza said in a 2021 interview posted on the Everblades website. "But it's been quite a ride and it's humbling that it's (so many games). I'm getting old over here."