Utica Jr. Comets

The Utica Jr. Comets are an American junior hockey team based out of the Adirondack Bank Center at Utica Memorial Auditorium in Utica, New York. The organization is a member of the United States Premier Hockey League. The team was renamed in March of 2019. They had played in Utica for the 2018-19 season as part of an agreement with the ownership of the Syracuse Stars organization. The Comets organization had previously dealt with just youth level teams.

History
The Syracuse Stars were a Tier III Junior A American junior ice hockey team from Syracuse, New York. They played in the Eastern Junior Hockey League, and also had an associated team of the same name in the Empire Junior B Hockey League. A later version of the team was a member of the United States Premier Hockey League.

On December 9, 2009, Maksymum Hockey LLC, based in Rochester, New York, announced plans to operate the Stars and move them to Rochester beginning with the 2010-11 season. They will play at the ESL Sports Centre.

The team would return to operation with the 2015-16 playing season as the Rockland, Massachusetts based Bay State Breakers organization sold their rights to a team in the United States Premier Hockey League's Premier Division to what would become a reborn Syracuse Stars organization. The Breakers were returning their focus to youth level teams.

On March 15, 2019 it was announced that the Stars organization would fully merge with the Utica Jr. Comets youth organization and relocate to Utica for the 2019-20 season. Several of the team had alreay been based out of Utica, NY for the 2018-19 season as the National Collegiate Development Conference team and United States Premier Hockey League Premier Division teams had already relocated to the Adirondack Bank Center at Utica Memorial Auditorium while retaining the Syracuse Stars moniker. As part of the 2018 reorganization the USPHL Elite Division team sat out the 2018-19 season. The changes coincides with the proposed Nexus Center which would be a three-sheet facility that is located next to the Utica Memorial Auditorium.

In 1996, the Syracuse Junior Crunch were founded to play Canadian Junior A in the Metro Junior A Hockey League, which was absorbed by the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League in 1998. The team moved to Auburn that year, and was re-named the Auburn Junior Crunch. In 2005 the franchise was sold and renamed the Syracuse Stars, joining the Eastern Junior Hockey League.

Team Members and Regular Season
The Syracuse Stars hold tryouts in April of each year. . The season starts the day after Labor Day and playoffs finish during the third week of March each year. The schedule includes 45 EJHL regular season schedule games plus three rounds of playoffs.

Alumni
In addition to those players which have gone on to play for various college teams, a number of former Stars players have gone on to play at the NHL level, including the following:

Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings

Tim Connolly of the Buffalo Sabres

T.J. Fox of the San Jose Sharks

Rob Schremp Of the New York Islanders