The Eastern States Hockey League was a planned Amateur Athletic Union (United Hockey Union) sanctioned (sanctioning was reported as still pending) junior hockey league that was scheduled to begin play with the 2017-18 hockey season. The league announced plans after a meeting on February 2, 2017. The league was planned to be made up of eight existing junior and youth hockey associations. The as yet unidentified teams are located in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
The league is planning on holding a minimum of two showcase events where each team will play three games. This is in addition to a plan for playing 40 regular season games. The league is stated to be an NCAA Developement League.
Previously published reports indicated that many of the teams may be coming from the North American 3 Hockey League (mainly former Northern States Junior Hockey League teams).
The league apparently did not make it beyond the discussion stage as nothing further developed after the inital discussions
Sources[]
juniorhockey.com article on a previous meeting that may have lead to league formation
thejuniorhockeynews.com article announcing formation of league