North American 3 Atlantic Hockey League
Formerly | Metropolitan Junior Hockey League |
---|---|
Sport | Ice hockey |
Founded | 1966 |
Commissioner | Craig Barnett |
No. of teams | 6 |
Country | United States |
Most recent champion(s) | Philadelphia Junior Flyers (2015–16)[1] |
Official website | NA3AHL.com |
The North American 3 Atlantic Hockey League (NA3AHL), formerly known as the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League, is an American Tier III Junior ice hockey league with 6 teams throughout the eastern United States. The MJHL was part of the Atlantic Metropolitan Hockey League organization. Founded in 1966 by New York Rangers GM, Emile Francis, the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League played its 50th season in 2015–16 prior to the league becoming operated by the North American Hockey League and changing names.
Contents
History
The MetJHL was affiliated with higher level Atlantic Junior Hockey League (AJHL), a Tier III Junior A league, while the MetJHL was sanctioned as a Tier III Junior B league until 2011 when USA Hockey dropped the letter designations in Tier III. In May 2012, the AJHL left the Atlantic Metropolitan Hockey League family and became its own entity managed by the team owners. In 2013, as part of a large re-organization of Tier III junior hockey, the AJHL re-branded itself to the Eastern Hockey League (EHL).
The league does place a number of players into NCAA colleges, with most going to Division III, and some to Division I.[2]
During the summer of 2014, several new organizations joined the MET League and it became a 23 team league and added a fourth division. In December 2014, the Eastern Hockey League (EHL) announced the formation of an Elite Division for the 2015–16 season, which effectively removed eight developmental teams for the EHL from the MJHL. The Metropolitan league planned to offset the loss with the return of New Jersey Rockets and the addition of teams from the New Jersey Colonials organization. The Metropolitan Junior Hockey League would also drop its MET League and MetJHL monikers to just MJHL[3] (likely due to the Minnesota Junior Hockey League (MnJHL) and Midwest Junior Hockey League (MWJHL) ceasing operations after the 2014–15 season).
After the league's 50th season in 2015–16, the league lost another eight teams to the EHL-Elite Division (then renamed to EHL-19U Elite).[4] On March 29, 2016, the league announced that its operations had been acquired by the Tier II North American Hockey League and was renamed to the North American 3 Atlantic Hockey League (NA3AHL).[5][6]
Current teams
Teams that are currently announced as part of the 2016–17 NA3AHL season
Teams announced pending USA Hockey approval
Team | City |
---|---|
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights | Pittston, Pennsylvania |
Teams that have not announced plans for 2016–17
Team | City |
---|---|
New Jersey Colonials | Somerset, New Jersey |
North Jersey Avalanche | Hackensack, New Jersey |
Former teams
<templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/>
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.atlantichockey.org/mjhl_sub.htm?content=mjhl_commitments MJHL 2009 College Commitments
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.