Recently announced by The Hockey News, a new junior hockey league is set to begin on the west coast in the 2023-24 season. Currently unnamed, the league is aiming to start with an initial six teams and work their way up to 12 teams over the following years.
The league is being headed up by Ben Robert, a Montreal-native currently living in California. Robert was once President and Managing Partner of the Omaha Lancers USHL team as well.
From The Hockey News’ report, the league appears to have aspirations for a Tier-1 level league to help fill the hockey gap in the western states. As of now, the farthest west USHL team is the Tri-City Storm in Kearney, Nebraska – and the closest Canadian Hockey League major junior teams are the five Western Hockey League teams in Oregon and Washington.
Even in the NAHL, excluding the Alaskan teams, the farthest west teams are the New Mexico Ice Wolves and El Paso Rhinos.
The area was previously mostly represented by the Western States Hockey League, which has seen its hold in the area dwindle in the past two seasons. Ignoring the toll that COVID took on the league, the exit of eight teams to the USPHL, and two teams to the NA3HL, decimated the league. An attempt at revival this 2021-22 season resulted in the six remaining teams jumping ship and creating their own league.
Another question mark with the league will be its involvement, if any, with USA Hockey. The USHL currently holds rights as the exclusive Tier-1 league in USA Hockey, so it would be tough to have a competing league move in under the USA Hockey umbrella.
Four NHL teams released a joint statement backing the league shortly after the initial announcement as the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Vegas Golden Knights have joined in support of the league.
Franchise locations are yet to be announced, but with an entire season to get started, there remains plenty of time for news and announcements to be released.
Don’t forget to follow Tend The Farm on Bluesky and Facebook! Any shares, likes, and retweets are much appreciated.
Tend The Farm 
Leave a comment