Eastern Hockey League [1978-1981] history and statistics

The Eastern Hockey League was a professional hockey league that operated for just three seasons, from 1978-79 until 1980-81. The league started out under the name of Northeastern Hockey league during its first season. The founding teams were the Erie Blades, Jersey Aces, New Hampshire Freedoms, Utica Mohawks, and Johnstown Wings.

In that first season both the Jersey Aces and the New Hampshire Freedoms relocated mid-season. The Aces moved to Hampton Virginia. When the bills began to mount in New Hampshire, Sandy Reiss, owner of the Freedoms fled with his franchise to the Cape Cod Coliseum and became the Cape Cod Freedoms.

The 1979-80 season brought with it a new name for the league; it became simply the Eastern Hockey league, possibly trying to establish a more direct link to the glory days of the original Eastern Hockey League. The season saw the introduction of a new franchise and the relocation of another. The Baltimore Clippers were the new entry, while the Ca... [Click for more]pe Cod Freedoms skipped down to Richmond Virginia. This aligned the league very geographically: It formed two natural loops -- Richmond-Baltimore-Hampton, and Utica-Johnstown-Erie.

Several of the teams developed secondary affiliations with NHL teams. The Minnesota North Stars had an affiliation with Baltimore; Richmond was affiliated with the New Haven Nighthawks, a NY Rangers farm team; and Johnstown was affiliated with the Adirondack Red Wings, who were the farm team of the Detroit Red Wings. Several of the other teams were affiliated with NHL teams on paper, but there was no player movement from those NHL teams' primary affiliates to their EHL affiliates.

For the 1980-81 season, the Utica Mohawks moved to Salem VA and were renamed the Salem Raiders. The Johnstown Wings dropped out and the Syracuse Hornets were brought on board. However Syracuse never really got off the ground. With inadequate players and a late start (the team was formed in September), they went 0-9-1 in their first 10 games and then folded.

Rumours sprang up that the EHL was on the brink of going under. The Hampton Aces were financially supported by the league for the final two weeks of the season. There was money missing from the Commisioner's office. All this contributed to the image that the EHL was an unorganized league destined for failure. At a meeting of the EHL team owners on July 19, 1981, it was decided to fold the EHL and create the Atlantic Coast Hockey League.