The Eastern Hockey League is a Boston, Massachusetts based Tier III junior hockey league. The league was announced in the following twitter release on June 6, 2013: "The Atlantic Junior Hockey League has added six new members and is now the Eastern Hockey League!" The league is made up of teams from the former Atlantic Junior Hockey League and the Eastern Junior Hockey League.
The six teams joining from the EJHL were the Boston Bandits (based in Bridgewater, MA), the Connecticut Oilers (based in Norwalk, Connecticut, the New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs (based in Hooksett, NH), New York Apple Core (based in Brewster, NY), Philadelphia Revolution (based in Warwick Township, PA), and the Valley Jr. Warriors (based in Haverhill, MA).
The league's Director of Operations is Mark Kumpel. The chairman of the Board of Governors Executive Committee is Bill Flanagan of the Northern Cyclones.
Current Teams
Expansion/relocation/withdrawals
- The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights and New Jersey Junior Titans organizations discontinued their EHL teams when the organizations joined the North American Hockey League in 2015
- The Washington Jr. Nationals organization was sold and moved to Burlington, Vermont to become the Vermont Lumberjacks for the 2014-15 season
- Laconia Leafs organization moves to Waterville Valley, New Hampshire and are renamed the New England Wolves for the 2014-15 season
- The Bedford, Massachusetts based East Coast Wizards are added as an expansion franchise for the 2014-15 season
- The Connecticut Nighthawks are awarded as an expansion team for the 2015-16 seasoon
- An 18th team was added for the showcase events for the 2015-16 season to balance off the schedule: the New England Wolves (which is a team of the American Hockey Institute based in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire).
- On June 16th, 2016 the New England Wolves announced they had moved their higher level team back to Laconia, New Hampshire after having played out of Waterville Valley, New Hampshire for the past five seasons. The elite division team was already based out of Waterville Valley.
- The New York Bobcats were removed from the league listing in mid-July of 2016. The team's head coach was named the coach of the New Jersey Junior Titans of the North American Hockey League and the team was unable to name a new head coach in a reasonable amount of time to prepare for the season and the team had attempted to relocate to the Jr. Titans arena in Middletown, New Jersey but was unable to work out a workable arrangement. The team announced that they were sitting out the 2016-17 season and would be planning on returning for the 2017-18 season.
Formation of EHL Elite Division
The league announced the formation of the EHL Elite Division in December 2014 with a start up of league play for the 2015-16 season.The division will be made up of the elite level teams of the Boston Bandits, Boston Jr Rangers, New England Wolves, New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs, Northern Cyclones, Valley Jr. Warriors, Vermont Lumberjacks, and Walpole Express.
Reorganization of Elite Division for 2016-17
The league annouced on March 1, 2016 that the Elite Division was being reorganized as the 19U Elite Division. The Elite Division will focus upon development of players for higher levels of play. As part of this reorganization the league is adding seven teams from the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League (New Jersey Rockets, New York Applecore, Brewster Bulldogs, Connecticut Nighthawks, Hartford Jr. Wolfpack, Philadelphia Jr. Flyers, and Philadelphia Revolution, and the Lehigh Valley Jr. Rebels. As a result of this reorganization the membership of the MJHL was decimated. The MJHL was absorbed by the North American Hockey League and the league was reorganized as the North American 3 Atlantic Hockey League in a similar manner to what the former Northern States Junior Hockey League had done when they became the North American 3 Eastern Hockey League prior to joining the North American 3 Hockey League's Eastern Division for the 2016-17 season.