The United States Premier Hockey League (“USPHL”) is pleased to announce that the Boston Jr. Rangers and Railers Junior Hockey Club will be leaving the Eastern Hockey League (“EHL”) and joining the USPHL with five teams at multiple levels. In the 2024-25 season, both organizations will field teams at the NCDC and Premier levels along with a combined Elite team. In future seasons, they could further add teams based upon mutual agreement.
The Rangers and the Railers have been perennial powerhouses in the EHL. Led by Mike Sorabella, former Chairman of the EHL Executive Committee, the AXE Sports Group Inc (ASG) owns and operates both the Jr. Rangers, the Railers Junior Hockey Club, as well as the storied media and events company, Hockey Night in Boston. The Jr. Rangers have won two of the last four EHL Championships along with an EHL-P Championship during that same period. The two Jr. Rangers teams also made it to the finals in both divisions this past year. The Railers, founded by the legendary Coach Mike Addesa Jr., have had an equally prodigious history in the EHL. This past year they won both the EHL and EHL-P championships, being the first organization to ever accomplish this feat, and they have routinely made the semifinals and/or finals at both levels over the past several seasons.
“We are thrilled to welcome the AXE team and their clubs to the USPHL,” said Interim Commissioner, Murry N. Gunty. “These are elite people and elite organizations, and they will have a huge impact on both our league level operations/strategy as well as our on-ice product. The Jr. Rangers and Railers will further elevate our league and our ability to advance our players to the highest levels in college and pro hockey.”
“We would like to thank our former partners at the EHL for our years together and we wish them all the best in the future,” said Mike Sorabella, CEO of ASG Inc. “Looking forward, we are truly excited about the new direction of the USPHL and believe that our goals and objectives are aligned with where the league is going. We are motivated by the challenge of fielding competitive NCDC teams as well as competing for championships at every level of the USPHL.”
As part of this arrangement, Hockey Night in Boston will provide its best-in-class media services to the league and ASG will join the league’s competition committee. In addition, the NCDC will experiment with a pay-to-play option for these two New England division teams on a one-year trial basis. The remaining New England teams along with the Mountain and Atlantic Divisions of the NCDC will remain tuition free.
About the United States Premier Hockey League
Founded in 2012, the United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) is comprised of over 150 teams, fielding more than 20,000 players aged 8-21 in more than 100 organizations across the North, South, Midwest, West, and Canada. Our Junior Divisions consist of the National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC), a tuition-free, Tier 2 Junior hockey division and our Premier & Elite Divisions, all geared toward college and pro placement. Our youth and midget divisions (operated through the Tier 1 Hockey Federation) field full season 9U thru 18U teams. The USPHL has sent over 8,000 players to all levels of college hockey including over 3,300 into NCAA college hockey and over 200 players into NCAA Division I hockey. The USPHL has also had 17 players who played in the NCDC drafted by NHL teams.
