Zack Stortini

The New Mexico Goat Heads are set to open their inaugural season tomorrow, hosting the Idaho Steelheads at the Rio Rancho Event Center.

The ECHL expansion team has 72 regular season games ahead, with first-year head coach Zach Stortini leading a roster featuring a mix of young players and veterans with AHL experience.

The Goat Heads are also affiliated with the NHL's Colorado Avalanche and the AHL's Colorado Eagles and have acquired six players from the Eagles last month.

New Mexico will compete in the Western Conference's Mountain Division, where the Kansas City Mavericks have won the division for three straight seasons.

So, uh, got my foot in the door last year on the coaching side.

And, uh, now what, uh, got the opportunity with, uh, Zach Stortini here to be as assistant and, uh, uh, help, uh, take this program off the ground and, uh, and, uh, get it going here in New Mexico.

Well, if someone like yourself who has an extensive playing history in the ECHL, and of course, very close with this team now, uh, that you've been able to assemble, kind of give fans an idea of the kind of sort of the playing style or the, the tone of play that they can expect in the ECHL.

Yeah, it's super exciting.