The four Philadelphia Area Leagues (ICSHL, EHSHL, SHSHL and LBCSHL) have agreed in principle to merge into ONE league, playing under ONE governing body and with ONE set of rules regarding eligibilty, transfers, suspensions, etc.

All four leagues have agreed to drop their current moniker, IE: ICSHL, and start a new league with a new name. PIHL East or the Eastern Pa Scholastic Hockey league seem to be the front runners.

Lots of details need to be ironed out and this is far from a "done deal", but the ball is rolling on moving forward.

Wow!

That's awesome. I am assuming that each league or former league will still operate but in the form of scheduling games for their games and such. This is a very exciting development, and its great that everyone was able to work together and do what seems best for high school hockey.

Great news!!! This is long over-due, but better late than never. The kids will only benefit from this.

Wow! I knew that this was being discussed, but thought that egos might get in the way of it happening. This is great. Now if we can get club hockey to sit down with HS hockey to come to some kind of happy medium over conflicting seasons (pipe dream?).......but that is probably more of a job for next year (hopefully). One big sticking point thought there is the continual emergence of Junior hockey in the area. I don't think that they would ever agree to alter what they do in order to accommodate both HS hockey and themselves.

Jr. hockey would never accommodate HS hockey in this area. I'm not trying to be flip, but how does this help out HS hockey in this area? What are some immediate positives? Any negatives?

Cool definitley a positive step in putting hockey on the same level as other sports in pa. All we need (In my opinion) now is a split season

I know this probally has not been decided on yet but any early ideas of how this league will align? Can't wait to play next year

This is a good, positive first step but I think this is still years in the making. It is going to take some time for this to shake out and I would guess that this may be something not for this year but the 2010 or 2011 season.

Pez,
The idea is to align divisions like you see in other sports, Central, Ches-Mont, Suburban One, Pioneer, etc.

*#$%@

Year too late. Bastards.

Kidding, of course. Best of luck with that, fellows.

The PIHL is going to run it

no they will not be

just out of interest what are the direct benefits of this new alignment?

Go w/ EPSHL.

What does this do to the other "eastern leagues"? In theory, how does this change the Flyers Cup?

quote:

Originally posted by hasbeen15:
Go w/ EPSHL.

What does this do to the other "eastern leagues"? In theory, how does this change the Flyers Cup?

Again, details need to be ironed out. The CPIHL, LVSHL and South Jersey are not being abandoned. They will still be a part of the Flyers Cup.

Not sure you need to worry about Jr hockey and high school hockey. Some JR teams already are not high school friendly, so they will continue to run and buy ice from rinks. The players on these teams already made a commitment and are out of the high school hockey system.

Now you have some Jr teams which are flexible with high school, they will have to become more flexible or operate more like the teams above. They will continue to buy ice and I don't think a ton of kids are affected by this.

Your real issue is all the 16UAAA, AA, A, B and 18U AAA, AA, A, B teams in the area who will need to be more flexible and this is where the rinks will be worried. Tell iceline or iceworks or any other rink that all those 16U and 18U teams won't be practicing (buying ice) because split season. That is the big road block, not Jr teams.

Jr Flyers U18 will no longer be able to promote his kids and attend all those major showcases/tournaments if split season happens. So Buds team will split like the Colonials and try to pull the kids back together after months seperated and only playing high school hockey and compete for Districts/Nationals. (not same tempo and skill level as where the Jr Flyers U18 normally play during season)

Hopefully if high school teams will do the right thing and make sure if they do get split season they make sure they buy all that extra ice and develop players with more practices and not just play more games. Most of the high school players develop skills with their club teams no matter what level they are playing.
Practice = more time on ice and more time skating with puck.(aka more reps)

Look at how much Lasalle practices compared to other high school teams? Everyone will say its open enrollment that makes Lasalle a good team every year, but they also practice a ton more with a highly qualified coach.