Director of Operations Bob Black Founded 2016 | Deputy Commissioner Peter Preteroti No. of teams 6 | |
Recent Champions Rochester Rebels (2016–17) Headquarters Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | ||
The National College Prospects Hockey League junior ice hockey league based in Northeast United States and Ontario. The NCPHL is sanctioned as a Tier III league by the United Hockey Union, the Junior hockey branch of the Amateur Athletic Union.
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History
The NCPHL was announced in the spring of 2016. Originally announced as an eight team league, twelve different teams have been announced for the 2016–17 season with several team changes before making it to opening night. Several teams have announced an affiliation with teams from the Western States Hockey League.
Leading up to the first season, several of the original announced teams were changed. The Buffalo Hornets of Buffalo, New York, were first replaced by the New York Sharks of Niagara Falls, New York in July and then again by the Mississauga Bruins in Rexdale, Ontario, in September. The Pittsburgh Royal Knights were also removed from the NCPHL website in July and replaced with the Ottawa Sharpshooters U-18, the developmental team of the Almonte Jr Sharpshooters of the Canadian Premier Junior Hockey League.
The Lake Erie Warriors later garnered media attention when the logo was largely criticized for its depiction of a Native American warrior and was called racially insensitive. The team quickly rebranded as the Lake Erie Gulls for one day and then again to the Lake Erie Eagles on July 30.
On August 29, the House O' Hockey Mallers were renamed the Blyth Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets, however, just before the season began the team was removed from NCPHL leaving the league with seven teams. One week later, the Niagara Red Cats also were removed before their first game reducing the league to six teams.
On October 8, 2016, the Toronto Stealth defeated the Lake Erie Eagles 7–5 in the first league game. Despite dominating the regular season with a record of 28–2–0, the Toronto Stealth chose not to participate in the NCPHL's playoffs, called the "Frosty Four," in Erie, Pennsylvania. Four teams participated in the playoffs with the Mississauga Bruins also sitting out after not playing a league game since January. With the Rochester Rebels the only remaining team with a winning record (20–15–5), they earned an automatic berth to the championship game. The bottom two teams then played a two-game aggregate qualifier series with the winner facing the Lake Erie Eagles in a semifinal game.