USHL announces expansion plans to add Tier 1 Junior teams in Nevada, Arizona and California

The U.S. Hockey League is making expansion plans with a focus on adding teams in California, Nevada and Arizona.

The league on Thursday announced it has a memorandum of understanding with a group of stakeholders to add teams in the region. It’s unclear how many franchises the current 16-team Tier 1 junior hockey league will add and when, with more details to be revealed on June 24, the USHL said.

The agreement was made in partnership with USA Hockey and the NHL. The USHL last expanded in 2014, with the addition of the Madison Capitols in Wisconsin.

A move into the desert and California would vastly expand the footprint of a league that features teams spread across the Midwest — from the Dakotas to Ohio. And it would open the league to a growing market of fans and players.

“The expansion is about more than adding teams. It is about expanding opportunity,” commissioner Glenn Hefferan said.

The USHL is nation’s top developmental junior league, and produced 21 players who were members of the U.S. men’s gold medal-winning team at the Milan Cortina Games.

“We couldn’t be more excited about the expansion into the west of the USHL,” Los Angeles Kings president Luc Robitaille said. “This has been a group effort by multiple parties all with the shared goal of combining our influence to ultimately grow the game of hockey.”

The league’s plan to expand also comes at a time when the junior landscape in North America has shifted in the wake of the NCAA allowing Canadian Hockey League players to compete at U.S. colleges for the first time last season.

The rule change has led to the USHL and CHL competing for talent. Previously, Canadians had to choose to play in the USHL to maintain their college eligibility.

The 61-team CHL — which oversees three leagues — has also discussed expansion plans, including increasing its eight-team presence in the U.S.