The North Eastern Hockey League was a semi-professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

league from 2003 until 2008. It was created by entrepreneur Jim Cashman, who served as league president. The NEHL was built to focus on giving players that were not quite ready for the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a minor professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams across the United States and Canada. Competitively, it is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...

United Hockey League 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, with teams in the Unite ...

, and the

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

a place to play and develop after their Junior and college careers had finished. In the 2003-04 season, nine total players moved up to the "AA" level and remained there and six of those players came from the York IceCats alone.

History

The League started with four franchises, the York IceCats out of

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, Jamestown Titans out of Jamestown,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Mohawk Valley Comets The Mohawk Valley Comets are a former professional ice hockey team based in Utica, New York. They were a member of the North American Hockey League The North American Hockey League (NAHL) is one of the top junior hockey leagues in the Uni ...

out of Whitestown,

and the Poughkeepsie Panthers out of

Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ) is a city within the Poughkeepsie (town), New York, Town of Poughkeepsie, New York (state), New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, New York, Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie i ...

. After very low attendance in the first few games in Poughkeepsie, the team was to be relocated to Connecticut and renamed the Connecticut Cougars but negotiations with an arena broke down and the Cougars finished as a road team for the remainder of the season. When concerns of Comets players not being available for the final month of the season due to their summer jobs starting, Coach Brett Boake requested a schedule change and the season was shortened a month. The Comets decided two days before the playoff weekend that they were not going to participate as not enough players were available and they had financial concerns. With the Comets as the league regular season leaders, they were to get a bye straight to the finals, which was to be played on Sunday. York and Jamestown (the second and third place teams) were to play on the Saturday to see who went on to face the Comets. Once the Comets had informed the league that they would not be playing, the league changed the playoff structure. York and Jamestown would play a two-game series that weekend. If there were a tie after the two games they would play a mini-game lasting twenty minutes. York won the opening game, 8-5. Jamestown defeated York 9-1 in the second game and then won a 20-minute tiebreaker game 6-1. As league champions, the Titans received the

Herb Brooks Herbert Paul Brooks (August 5, 1937 – August 11, 2003) was an American ice hockey player and coach (ice hockey), coach. His most notable achievement came in Ice hockey at the 1980 Winter Olympics, 1980 as head coach of the gold medal-winning Un ...

Memorial Trophy. The league went dark for the 2004-05 season, then attempted to return in 2005-06 as the Continental Professional Hockey League with teams in

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and the

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. The regular 44-game season was supposed to start in early November 2005, was postponed, saw six games played, and was cancelled in mid-December 2005. In the 2006-2007 season, The New England Stars finished first with a record of 20-0, and cruised in the Championship series beating the Mohawk Valley Icecats 2 games to 0 (8-5 and 9-2) to capture the 2006-2007 NEHL Crown. The league announced on January 23, 2008 that it was suspending operations for the remainder of the 2007-08 season.

Teams

;2003–2004 * Jamestown Titans *

(resurrected as the Copper City Chiefs 2007-08) * Poughkeepsie Panthers (later known as the Connecticut Cougars) *York IceCats (relocated to St. Catharines, ON for 05-06) ;2005–2006 ''(teams only played six games until the league suspended operations for a season)'' *

Philadelphia Comets Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

(travel team) *

Pittsburgh Pounders The North Eastern Hockey League was a semi-professional ice hockey league from 2003 until 2008. It was created by entrepreneur Jim Cashman, who served as league president. The NEHL was built to focus on giving players that were not quite ready ...

(became Danville Pounders for 06-07) *St. Catharines IceCats *Sault Ste. Marie Stampede ;2006–2007 *

Danville Pounders The North Eastern Hockey League was a semi-professional ice hockey league from 2003 until 2008. It was created by entrepreneur Jim Cashman, who served as league president. The NEHL was built to focus on giving players that were not quite ready ...

(relocated to Detroit/Brighton, Michigan for 2007–2008) *

Findlay Freedom The North Eastern Hockey League was a semi-professional ice hockey league from 2003 until 2008. It was created by entrepreneur Jim Cashman (ice hockey), Jim Cashman, who served as league president. The NEHL was built to focus on giving players t ...

: ''(

Findlay, Ohio Findlay ( ) is a city in Hancock County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The second-largest city in Northwest Ohio, Findlay lies about 40 miles (64 km) south of Toledo, Ohio, Toledo. Its population was 40,313 at the 2020 United Sta ...

)'' *Mohawk Valley IceCats (relocated to Simcoe, ON for 2007–2008) * New England Stars ''(

Danbury, Connecticut Danbury ( ) is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2020 was 86,518. It is the third-largest city in Western Connecticut, and the seventh-largest ...

)'' ;2007–08 *

Copper City Chiefs The North Eastern Hockey League was a semi-professional ice hockey league from 2003 until 2008. It was created by entrepreneur Jim Cashman, who served as league president. The NEHL was built to focus on giving players that were not quite ready ...

: ''(

Rome, New York Rome is a city in Oneida County, New York, United States, located in the central part of the state. The population was 32,127 at the 2020 census. Rome is one of two principal cities in the Utica–Rome Metropolitan Statistical Area, which lie ...

)'' *

: ''(

)'' *

Kensington Valley Pounders The North Eastern Hockey League was a semi-professional ice hockey league from 2003 until 2008. It was created by entrepreneur Jim Cashman, who served as league president. The NEHL was built to focus on giving players that were not quite ready ...

: ''(

Brighton, Michigan Brighton is a city in Livingston County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, its population was 7,446. Brighton forms part of the South Lyon-Howell-Brighton Urban Area. It is one of two incorporated cities in Livingston County ...

)'' *Norfolk IceCats: ''(

Simcoe, Ontario Simcoe is an unincorporated community and former town in Southwestern Ontario, Canada near Lake Erie. It is the county seat and largest community of Norfolk County. Simcoe is at the junction of Highway 3, at Highway 24, due south of Brantford ...

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Previous NEHL

A previous league was also known as the Northeastern Hockey League during the 1978-79 season. This league renamed itself the

Eastern Hockey League The Eastern Hockey League was a minor professional United States ice hockey league. Eastern Amateur Hockey League (1933–1953) The league was founded in 1933 as the Eastern Amateur Hockey League (EAHL). The league was founded by Tommy Lockhart ...

for the 1979-80 season.

References

External links

NEHL website
{{NAProHockey Sports leagues established in 2003 Defunct ice hockey leagues in the United States Minor league ice hockey 2003 establishments in Canada 2003 establishments in the United States 2008 disestablishments in Canada 2008 disestablishments in the United States Defunct ice hockey leagues in Canada