United Hockey League

"International Hockey League (2007–2010)" redirects here. For other uses, see International Hockey League (disambiguation).

"UHL" redirects here. For other uses, see Uhl (disambiguation).

United Hockey League
Logo of the UHL from 1997-2006
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	1991
Ceased	2010
Replaced by	Central Hockey League (partial)
Countries	United States Canada
Last champion(s)	Fort Wayne Komets
Most titles	Fort Wayne Komets & Muskegon Fury (4)

The United Hockey League (UHL), originally known as the Colonial Hockey League from 1991 to 1997 and last known as the International Hockey League from 2007 to 2010, was a low-level minor professional ice hockey league,^[1]^[2] with teams in the United States and Canada. The league was headquartered in Rochester, Michigan, and in its last year, consisted of seven teams.^[3] It folded in 2010, with most of its teams joining the Central Hockey League, which in turn merged with the ECHL in 2014; the Quad City Mallards, Elmira Jackals, Evansville IceMen, Fort Wayne Komets, and Kalamazoo Wings are the only former UHL/IHL teams still active as of 2015.

History

The UHL was originally formed in 1991 as the Colonial Hockey League and had teams in Brantford, Ontario; Detroit, Michigan; Flint, Michigan; St. Thomas, Ontario; and Thunder Bay, Ontario; the avowed goal of the league organizers was to fill the low-level niche in the Great Lakes area abandoned by the original International Hockey League as the latter league engaged in upmarket expansion. As time passed, the CoHL moved eastward, into places like Glens Falls, NY; Danbury, CT; Utica, NY; Binghamton, NY; and Richmond, VA. During that expansion, the league was renamed United Hockey League (UHL) and the headquarters was moved to Lake St. Louis, Missouri in 1997.

The 2006–07 season was the last season of play for the league under the UHL name. Following the 2006–07 season, the league lost half of its ten teams. The franchises in Moline and Rockford, Illinois moved to the American Hockey League, the team in Elmira, New York, went to the ECHL, and the franchises in Chicago, Illinois and Port Huron, Michigan ceased operations. In June 2007 at the league’s Annual Meeting, the UHL announced that it was changing its name to the International Hockey League (IHL). Paul L. Pickard was named the first President and CEO of the new IHL. During that summer, the UHL headquarters moved from Lake St. Louis, Missouri to Rochester, Michigan. The UHL's rebranding was intended to evoke the original IHL, which had ceased operations in 2001 and covered much of the new IHL's footprint. The Fort Wayne Komets were a longtime member of the original league while the Kalamazoo Wings and Flint Generals franchises were revived names of the original Kalamazoo and Flint IHL teams. ^[4]^[5]

On July 13, 2010, the league announced an agreement with the Central Hockey League, the effects of which saw five IHL teams - the Bloomington PrairieThunder, Dayton Gems, Evansville IceMen, Fort Wayne Komets and Quad City Mallards - absorbed into the CHL. The remaining two franchises from the league's last season that were not absorbed into the CHL, the Flint Generals and the Port Huron Icehawks, folded.

Governance

UHL's IHL logo from 2007 until 2010

Dennis Hextall was named as the president and commissioner of the International Hockey League on September 2, 2009.^[6] Hextall was preceded by Paul Pickard, who served as commissioner for the first two years of the renamed league (2007–2009).

Several UHL teams had affiliations with the National Hockey League, American Hockey League, and the All American Hockey League.

Colonial/Turner Cup champions

The Colonial Cup was the league's championship trophy. The name was changed to the Turner Cup in 2007 to reflect the original IHL's championship trophy, also named the Turner Cup.

Teams

Expansion

Season	Teams	Expansion	Defunct	Suspended	Return from hiatus	Relocated	Name changes
Colonial Hockey League 1991–92	5	Brantford Smoke Flint Bulldogs Michigan Falcons Thunder Bay Thunder Hawks St. Thomas Wildcats
1992–93	7	Chatham Wheels Muskegon Fury					Detroit Falcons (Michigan)
1993–94	8	Flint Generals				Flint → Utica Bulldogs	Thunder Bay Senators (Thunder Hawks)
1994–95	8					Chatham → Saginaw Wheels St. Thomas → London Wildcats	Utica Blizzard (Bulldogs)
1995–96	9	Quad City Mallards Madison Monsters		London Wildcats
1996–97	10				London Wildcats	Detroit → Port Huron Border Cats London → Dayton Ice Bandits	Saginaw Lumber Kings (Wheels) Thunder Bay Thunder Cats (Senators)
United Hockey League 1997–98	10	B.C. Icemen Winston-Salem IceHawks	Utica Blizzard	Dayton Ice Bandits
1998–99	11				Dayton Ice Bandits	Brantford → Asheville Smoke Dayton → Mohawk Valley Prowlers	Saginaw Gears (Lumber Kings)
1999–2000	14	Fort Wayne Komets Madison Kodiaks Missouri River Otters				Madison → Knoxville Speed Thunder Bay → Rockford Icehogs Winston-Salem → Adirondack IceHawks Saginaw → Ohio Gears (mid-season)
2000–01	15	Elmira Jackals New Haven Knights	Ohio Gears Mohawk Valley Prowlers (mid-season)			Madison → Kalamazoo Wings
2001–02	14
2002–03	10	Port Huron Beacons	Asheville Smoke B.C. Icemen Knoxville Speed New Haven Knights Port Huron Border Cats
2003–04	12	Columbus Stars Richmond RiverDogs	Columbus Stars (mid-season)
2004–05	14	Danbury Trashers Kansas City Outlaws Motor City Mechanics					Adirondack Frostbite (IceHawks)
2005–06	14	Port Huron Flags	Kansas City Outlaws			Port Huron Beacons → Roanoke Valley Vipers
2006–07	10	Bloomington PrairieThunder	Adirondack Frostbite Danbury Trashers Missouri River Otters Motor City Mechanics Roanoke Valley Vipers			Richmond → Chicago Hounds
International Hockey League 2007–08	6	Port Huron Icehawks	Chicago Hounds Elmira Jackals (moved to ECHL) Port Huron Flags Quad City Mallards Rockford IceHogs (Replaced by an AHL team)
2008–09	6						Muskegon Lumberjacks (Fury)
2009–10	7	Dayton Gems Quad City Mallards	Kalamazoo Wings (moved to ECHL)
After 09–10 season	0 (League folded July 13, 2010)		Port Huron Icehawks (Folded June 10, 2010) Flint Generals (Folded June 10, 2010)^[7] Franchises merged into CHL: Bloomington PrairieThunder Dayton Gems Evansville IceMen Fort Wayne Komets Quad City Mallards			Muskegon Lumberjacks → Evansville IceMen (June 23, 2010)

Timeline

History of teams

Adirondack Frostbite 2004–06
Adirondack IceHawks 1999–2004, later Adirondack Frostbite
Asheville Smoke 1998–2002
Arctic Xpress 2000–01 (did not play), later Canton Xpress
B.C. Icemen 1997–2002
Bloomington PrairieThunder (2006–10), merged into Central Hockey League
Brantford Smoke 1991–98, later Asheville Smoke
Canton Ice Patrol 2002 (did not play)
Canton Xpress 2001–January 28, 2002 (did not play), later Canton Ice Patrol
Chatham Wheels 1992–94, later Saginaw Wheels
Chicago Hounds 2006–07
Columbus Stars 2003–January 9, 2004
Danbury Trashers 2004–06
Dayton Gems 2009-10, merged into Central Hockey League
Dayton Ice Bandits 1996–97, later Mohawk Valley Prowlers
Detroit Falcons 1992–96
Elmira Jackals 2000–07 ^[8]
Evansville IceMen 2010, merged into Central Hockey League
Flint Bulldogs 1991–93, later Utica Bulldogs
Flint Generals 1993-2010
Fort Wayne Komets 1999-2010, merged into Central Hockey League
Kalamazoo Wings 2000-09 ^[9]
Kansas City Outlaws 2004–05
Knoxville Speed 1999–2002
Lehigh Valley Xtreme 2000(did not play)
London Wildcats 1994–95, later Dayton Ice Bandits
Madison Kodiaks 1999–2000, later Kalamazoo Wings
Madison Monsters 1996–99, later Knoxville Speed
Michigan Falcons 1991–92, later Detroit Falcons
Missouri River Otters 1999–2006
Mohawk Valley Prowlers 1998– January, 2001
Motor City Mechanics 2004–06
Muskegon Lumberjacks 1992-2010, later Evansville IceMen
New Haven Knights 2000–02
Ohio Gears December 20, 1999 – 2000, later Arctic Xpress
Port Huron Beacons 2002–05, later Roanoke Valley Vipers
Port Huron Border Cats 1996–2002
Port Huron Icehawks 2007-10
Port Huron Flags 2005–07
Quad City Mallards 1995–2007
Quad City Mallards 2009-10, merged into Central Hockey League
Richmond RiverDogs 2003–06, later Chicago Hounds
Roanoke Valley Vipers 2005–06
Rockford IceHogs 1999–2007 ^[10]
Saginaw Gears 1998–December 19, 1999, later Ohio Gears
Saginaw LumberKings 1996–98, later Saginaw Gears
Saginaw Wheels 1994–96, later Saginaw LumberKings
St. Thomas Wildcats 1991–94, later London Wildcats
Thunder Bay Senators 1993–96, later Thunder Bay Thunder Cats
Thunder Bay Thunder Cats 1996–99, later Rockford IceHogs
Thunder Bay Thunder Hawks 1991–93, later Thunder Bay Senators
Utica Bulldogs 1993–94
Utica Blizzard 1994–97
Winston-Salem IceHawks 1997–99, later Adirondack IceHawks

Awards

UHL Best Goaltender

References

↑ "Lockout's true victims cry out," Sunaya Sapurji, Toronto Star, November 17, 2004
↑ Chicago News, Events and Culture | Chi-Town Daily News | Put theUHL on a dead pool list
↑ Official Website of the IHL
↑ http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20070621/SPORTS0601/706210314/1009
↑ http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/uhl-becomes-ihl-adds-team/article_ebc46a7d-9061-57cd-84d2-26e0f0ed6ac9.html
↑ "IHL Honored to Announce Hextall as New Leader" - IHL-Hockey.com
↑ "Flint Generals are history as Perani Arena chooses to give lease to NAHL's Michigan Warriors instead". mlive. June 10, 2010.
↑ Jackals moved to ECHL - http://www.echl.com/cgi-bin/mpublic.cgi?action=show_news&cat=1&id=10749 Archived September 26, 2008 at the Wayback Machine
↑ Wings moved to ECHL - http://www.echl.com/cgi-bin/mpublic.cgi?action=show_news2&id=19007
↑ Had assets bought out by Rockford IceHogs of American Hockey League - http://www.theahl.com/news/league/index.html?article_id=7559 Archived September 27, 2007 at the Wayback Machine

External links

International/United/Colonial Hockey League

Former Teams (as International)(2007–2010)	Bloomington PrairieThunder Dayton Gems Evansville IceMen/Muskegon Lumberjacks Flint Generals Fort Wayne Komets Quad City Mallards Kalamazoo Wings Port Huron Icehawks

Former Teams (as United)(1997–2007)	Adirondack Frostbite Adirondack IceHawks Asheville Smoke B.C. Icemen Brantford Smoke Chicago Hounds Columbus Stars Danbury Trashers Elmira Jackals Kansas City Outlaws Knoxville Speed Madison Kodiaks Madison Monsters Missouri River Otters Motor City Mechanics Ohio Gears Port Huron Beacons Port Huron Border Cats Port Huron Flags Quad City Mallards Richmond RiverDogs Roanoke Valley Vipers Rockford IceHogs Saginaw Gears Saginaw LumberKings Thunder Bay Thunder Cats Winston-Salem IceHawks

Former Teams (as Colonial) (1991–1997)	Brantford Smoke Chatham Wheels Dayton Ice Bandits Detroit Falcons Flint Bulldogs London Wildcats Madison Monsters Michigan Falcons Mohawk Valley Prowlers New Haven Knights Port Huron Border Cats Quad City Mallards Saginaw Lumber Kings Saginaw Wheels St. Thomas Wildcats Thunder Bay Senators Thunder Bay Thunder Cats Thunder Bay Thunder Hawks Utica Blizzard Utica Bulldogs

Proposed teams	Arctic Xpress / Canton Xpress / Canton Ice Patrol Lehigh Valley Xtreme

Related articles Colonial Cup Huber Trophy Other Professional Hockey leagues

Colonial/United/International Hockey League seasons

1991-92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10

Professional ice hockey leagues in North America

National Hockey League

Minor leagues

High level	American Hockey League

Mid level	ECHL

Low level	Federal Hockey League Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey Southern Professional Hockey League

Related article : List of ice hockey leagues

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