United States ice hockey structure
The United States ice hockey structure includes elements from traditional American scholastic high school and college athletics, affiliated and independent minor leagues, and the unique "Major Junior" leagues. The hierarchy of the ice hockey league system forms a pyramid with a large number of regional minor and development leagues making up the base of the pyramid and a linear progression through the professional minor leagues leading to the Nation Hockey League at the top of the pyramid.
Major league professional hockey
The National Hockey League (NHL) is widely considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world with top players from multiple countries participating in the league.[1] It is one of the major North American professional sports leagues along with baseball, basketball, and football.[2] The NHL is a 'closed' league, meaning that teams are neither promoted nor regulated to other leagues, based on a franchise system. There are presently 30 teams in the NHL, with 22 located in the United States and 8 located in Canada. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season.
Minor league professional hockey
There have been professional ice hockey leagues of varying levels since the invention of the sport, and over time the leagues have settled into an unofficial hierarchy. The top of this hierarchy, however, was codified in the most recent NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement. In the top two minor leagues, the American Hockey League and the ECHL, teams act as a development farm system for the major league. While players are often sent between major and minor league teams, the teams themselves are never promoted or relegated. As professional leagues these minor leagues pay their players a salary. However the salaries are often much less than what the NHL pays.[3][4]
Today, the 30 teams of the American Hockey League (AHL) are considered to be the highest-level minor league, the 'AAA' minor league.[1] Most AHL teams have affiliation agreements with NHL teams, and many are owned by the same owners.[5] Most prospective NHL players will enter into a 'two-way contract' in which players can be sent back and forth between the NHL and AHL at will. Many AHL players enter the league after being drafted from juniors or after being scouted and signed by an NHL team and being assigned to the affiliated team to develop as a player. The AHL also recognizes a 'standard contract', which signs a player directly to the AHL though the affiliated NHL team has negotiating rights and can upgrade a player to a two-way contract if they so desire.
The ECHL, formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League, is considered a 'AA' minor league with the league's 28 teams residing entirely within the United States.[1] Most of the teams of the ECHL have affiliation agreements with NHL and AHL teams though generally players will be promoted to the AHL before moving on the NHL and non-entry level NHL players must consent to being relegated to the ECHL.[6]
In addition there are three class 'A' minor leagues, the Federal Hockey League (FHL), the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey (NLAH), and the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL). The FHL has 7 teams in the northeastern United States and considers itself a development league feeding mostly into the ECHL.[7] The NLAH is professional minor league in the province of Quebec consisting of 8 teams. The league stipulates that only players from Quebec or who played junior hockey there are eligible and the league boasts many ex-NHL players.[8] The SPHL is a development league in the southeastern and midwestern United States.
College hockey
Ice hockey's role within the United States college athletics system is closest to college baseball in that most NHL hockey players play Major Junior hockey, and so aren't eligible for NCAA play. The NCAA currently has two divisions for ice hockey, Division I and Division III. There are multiple Division I leagues (Western Collegiate Hockey Association, Central Collegiate Hockey Association, Atlantic Hockey Association, Hockey East and ECAC Hockey) which sponsor only ice hockey. The Big Ten Conference is currently the only traditional multi-sport conference to sponsor ice hockey. With Penn State ice hockey joining NCAA Division I hockey, the Big 10 Conference elected to sponsor an men's ice hockey league since it attained the NCAA mandated minimum six members for a sport. However, six of the eight Ivy Leagueschools sponsor Division I ice hockey for both sexes, but the conference does not directly operate a hockey league. The Ivy League's hockey programs compete along with those of six other schools in ECAC Hockey, with the Ivy League crowning its own champion based on performance in games involving Ivy League teams.
The separate American Collegiate Hockey Association was formed in 1991 in order to support uniform standards for college and university non-varsity club teams.
High school hockey
High schools in some states compete in sanctioned ice hockey leagues sponsored by State High School Association while other state compete in leagues not sponsored by their State High School Association. Typically, sponsored leagues exist in regions where ice hockey is traditionally popular, such as the Great Lakes Region (e.g., Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio) and the New England Region (e.g., Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island) while non-sponsored leagues typically exist in less traditional ice hockey regions, such as the Southeast Region and Rocky Mountain Region. However, some exceptions do exist, such as Colorado having a sponsored league and Illinois having a non-sponsored league.[9]
Junior and Major Junior hockey
Junior hockey is played by athletes between 16 and 20 years old. The leagues are normally organized on a franchise system, and can play many more games than are normally played at the high school or college level. Major Junior hockey is organized into three leagues run by the Canadian Hockey League with most teams in Canada, but with teams in the states of Maine, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington. Major Junior players lose NCAA eligibility because they have agents, sign contracts and are given stipends.[10] Two "Junior A" leagues based in the United States, USHL and NAHL, are run in a similar fashion to the Major Junior teams except that the players keep NCAA eligibility. The majority of current NHL players played Major Junior hockey. For a while, some NHL teams had agreements with amateur teams to help them develop players that would later play professionally, however this practice was stopped when the NHL expanded in 1967.
Minor hockey
Minor hockey in the United States is played below the junior age level (16 years old). Players are classified by age, with each age group playing in its own league. The rules, especially as it relates to body contact, vary from class to class. Unlike most American sports, athletes participate as part of clubs as opposed to schools.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bruce Peter (Jun 10, 2011). "The North American Hockey System". PuckWorlds.com.
- ↑ Marc Lavoie (2005). Wladimir Andreff; Stefan Szymanski, eds. Handbook on the Economics of Sport. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 542–551. ISBN 9781847204073.
- ↑ Evan Grossman. "The Lowest Paid Athletes in All of Professional Sports". Men's Journal.
- ↑ "How Much Do Minor League Hockey Players Make?". Artfulpuck. Oct 10, 2011.
- ↑ Jason Brough (Jan 29, 2015). "AHL announces new Pacific Division — who could go west next?". NBCSports.
- ↑ "Collective Bargaining Agreement Between National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players' Association". Feb 15, 2013.
- ↑ "Federal Hockey League - Mission Statement". Federal Hockey League.
- ↑ Jeff Z. Klein (2011-03-01). "A Place for Pro Hockey Players Fighting to Stay in the Game". New York Times. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
- ↑ http://www.ushsho.com/stateinf.htm
- ↑ http://news.therecord.com/Sports/article/633771
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