AA, AAA, PHL, Farm teams – what!?
I am Canadian. Things I know: NHL is top professional league. Farm teams are directly below but I am unsure what league that is. But I’m wondering actually about the leagues the kids play in before they get signed to a farm team or the NHL. There are just so many acronyms.
Honestly, if someone could even just list them in order from top to bottom would even be helpful.
Thanks in advance
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It’s a little complex. As far as Canada is concerned, the QMJHL (Quebec Maritimes), OHL (Ontario), and WHL (Western) hockey leagues are the top junior leagues, though they also have US-based teams in those leagues. These leagues as a collective are called the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) and do a yearly championship tournament with teams from all 3. There are 3 tiers of juniors below this with too many leagues to post, and they’re basically players trying to make the CHL teams.
In the US, you basically have the NCAA and USA Hockey. US Hockey has 3 tiers of juniors instead of Canada’s 4, with the USHL as their tier 1. The NCAA is obviously college teams while the USHL are considered amateurs. The NCAA doesn’t allow CHL players on their teams because they consider them halfway pros, but every other league I’ve mentioned are eligible.
In Europe, generally their junior teams are tied to their professional teams. They sign players who can move up as they age, and they don’t do a draft. The best of these junior players are often enticed to play for North American junior teams and the NCAA.
Below are what I would consider to be the most important leagues to be aware of. Not an exhaustive list by any stretch, but a good basis to know pro vs junior, and the overall tiers associated. I did not get into college hockey as that is generally similar to juniors, but generally similar, but slightly older age group in comparison.
Key pro leagues in North America:
NHL – National Hockey League – Top tier
AHL – American Hockey League – Second tier, affiliated with the NHL and the top development league for those that have aged out of college/junior level
ECHL – East Coast Hockey League – Third tier, teams are generally affiliated with an AHL/NHL team, some prospects go here if they are lower tier, have longer development paths, or are goalies (Goalies are voodoo and have very unique paths to stardom)
PWHL – Professional Women’s Hockey League – Top women’s hockey league. Just completed their first year. They stream their games for free on Youtube. If you haven’t watched any you are missing out.
Key junior leagues:
CHL – Canadian Hockey League – Overarching term for the Major Junior leagues in Canada. Players can generally play here up until age 20 with some exceptions for what are called overage years. Made up of the three listed below:
OHL – Ontario Hockey League – Teams are all located in the providence of Ontario with two US teams
QMJHL – Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League – Teams are located in the providence of Quebec and other eastern providences
WHL – Western Hockey League – Teams are located in providences west of Ontario along with a US division in Washington & Oregon
USHL – US top junior league. You also may see references to USNTDP which stands for the US National Team Development Program.
Non-North American leagues:
SHL – Swedish Hockey League
KHL – Russian based league with some teams from other nearby countries as well.
MHL & VHL – Lower level Russian leagues
DEL – German top league
SM-Liiga – Finnish top league
For professional teams, you have at top the National Hockey League (NHL). Then below them you have the American Hockey League (AHL) commonly referred to as the farm team. Then below them you have the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL). These 3 Leagues are both US and Canada. Then you have a couple small independent leagues in the States and a handful of semi-pro leagues that you just don’t need to worry about, because no one from them ever makes it to the NHL.
For junior players (15-20 years old), in Canada, you have the three Major Junior leagues. The Ontario Hockey League (OHL), the Western Hockey League (WHL), and the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) (yes they did just recently re-name to that). Collectively, these 3 leagues form the Canadian Hockey League or CHL.
Below the CHL are 3 more levels. Junior A, Junior B and Junior C. Depending on which province you are in, there might be 1, 2 or all 3 levels, and the names change slightly province by province.
Younger players then Junior play in Minor Hockey. Up until recently, these used to be named stuff like “bantam” or “midget,” but now they are named after the age (U-13 or U-8, etc.)
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