Eastern Conference (ECHL)

The Eastern Conference is one of two conferences in the ECHL used to divide teams. Its counterpart is the Western Conference.

The Eastern Conference was created in 2003, when the ECHL realigned its teams into two conferences and four divisions following the ECHL's absorbtion of the 7-member West Coast Hockey League. The conference was renamed the American Conference in 2004 and changed back to the Eastern Conference in 2010.

The Eastern Conference currently consists of all of the ECHL's members in the eastern United States.

Divisions[]

The original alignment of the Eastern Conference consisted of a nine team Northern Division and the eight team Southern Division. In 2004, the Northern Division was renamed the North Division and moved to the National Conference, the Southern Division was renamed the South Division, the Central Division was moved to the American Conference and the Central and Southern Divisions were reoranged to form the East Division and South Division.

In 2005, the North Division returned to the American Conference, while the remaining members of the East and South Division were combined to form a new South Division.

In 2009, the American Conference took a format of 12 teams in three divisions: East, North and South. The following year, the conference was renamed the Eastern Conference and took its current format of 11 teams in three divisions: Atlantic, North and South.