ECHL Inc. Competitors

The National Hockey League, founded in 1917, is the second-oldest of the four major professional team sports leagues in North America. Today, the NHL consists of 32 Member Clubs, each reflecting the League’s international makeup, with players from more than 20 countries represented on team rosters. Visit https://www.nhl.com/info/careers to explore career opportunities at the League Office and NHL Clubs.

The American Hockey League (AHL) is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the league had an affiliation agreement with an NHL team. Twenty-six AHL teams are located in the United States and the remaining four are in Canada. The league offices are located in Springfield, Massachusetts, and its current president is David Andrews.

The IIHF, founded on May 15, 1908 in Paris, France, is the governing body of international ice hockey and inline hockey. The IIHF features 72 member associations, each of which is the national governing body of the sport in its nation. Besides controlling the international rulebook, processing international player transfers, and dictating officiating guidelines, the IIHF runs numerous development programmes designed to bring hockey to a broader population. The IIHF also presides over ice hockey in the Olympic Games, and over the IIHF World Championships at all levels, men, women, juniors under-20, juniors under-18 and women under-18. Each season, the IIHF in collaboration with its local organising committees, runs around 25 different World Championships in the five different categories. Besides the world championships, the IIHF also runs a set of European club competitions and a World Championship in inline hockey. In 2008, the IIHF was celebrating its 100 year anniversary, honouring it with a host of ambitious new projects, including naming the Century All Star Team, the 100 Top Stories of the Century, charity events, children's development programmes, and the launch of the Victoria Cup.