International Developmental Hockey League

The Internatonal Developmental Hockey League is a proposed men's senior ice hockey league based out of Syracuse, New York. The league is aimed towards players 20 to 23 years old who have "aged out" of structured junior hockey leagues and want to further develop their skills for moving on to the next level whether that be NCAA, ACHA, or minor league hockey.

The league is planning on starting play in October 2017 with as many as six teams that will play a 40 game schedule, running from October to the end of March, which will include two showcase events. The league announced its first tryout camp for March 23-25, 2017 at the Lysander Ice Arena in Baldwinsville, New York. The plan is to stock four teams from this tryout. The league is planning on playing weeknight games so that players may be called up to the Federal Hockey League (FHL) for games. Based on the league's development goals these would appear to be amateur tryouts with the FHL teams.

The league is stating that all teams will be within a four hour radius in an attempt to keep transportation cost reasonable. Based on the league's structure it is being run similar to the way an American Tier-III junior league is run with players paying tuition and board.

In late January, the league announced its first venue with the Onondaga Nation Arena (officially, Tsha'Hon'nonyen'dakhwa') located in Nedrow, New York which is about 20 miles (30km) south of Syracuse.

An article on the oursportscentral.com website indicated as of early March the league was up to six teams Syracuse Crush (league website lists the team as the Syracuse Saints),  Baldwinsville Bandits, Watertown Whalers, Elmira Express, Palmyra (PA) Battalion, and Newark (Delaware) Diamonds.

On June 26, 2017 the ownership of the league announce they were moving in a new direction and purchased the Watertown Wolves of the Federal Hockey League. No further information was given as to what this meant for the future of the IDHL.

By early August 2017 the league has announced on its' website that it was delaying start of the league until October of 2018.

Links
http://www.theidhl.com