HEY MURRY GUNTY AND THE USPHL, I DARE YA! Imagine a coast-to-coast league where every team has the unique opportunity to rise to the top of the tables.

Imagine if you would, a coast-to-coast league where every team has the unique opportunity to rise to the top of the table and compete for the championship. Let’s toss out import restrictions, operational standards, and even drafts in a new system where players can move freely in the off-season.

There’s only one league within the North American continent that has the horsepower to shake a few things up to create such a monster and that is the United States Premier Hockey League.

How could it work.

Put all the USPHL clubs into one basket for the first season. Let’s divide the group mathematically into four distinct regions. Teams with multiple clubs get a single junior team and a limitless number of USPHL sanctioned AAA 17 and 16 teams.

As of today, I believe there are 80 different clubs across the continent. For the first season, we are talking about 20 teams in each of the four conferences.

Each team then plays each of the other nineteen teams four times: two games at home and two away. Winners of those games in regulation get three points, a tie after regulation time is one point for each team. Winners in overtime games get an extra point.

Yes, that’s a 76-game season. Some say it is too much but wait.

At the end of the regular season the first-place teams from each conference advance to a single elimination final-four event with the winner raising the cup. Yes, the playoffs are replaced with more meaningful games.

Once the first season is complete, the conferences get divided into two divisions based entirely on points earned in the previous season. In the second season, a system of promotion and relegation gets installed. This will effectively move the bottom two teams from the top division to the second division. The first and second place teams from the second division earn the opportunity to move up. Second division teams can elect to pass on the promotion and give the opportunity to the next team down the table.

New clubs wanting to join the system would have to enter from the bottom division. Yes, that may be a third group in each conference. It’s in this group where we find many AAA16 and 17 teams.

It should not matter how clubs are being financed, if they can function without tuition, awesome. If they can generate enough revenue to operate from other sources, that’s great as well.

Here’s what I am sure about. The cream always rises to the top. The open market is always going to be the best way to elevate standards. Free agency in the offseason keeps every operator very honest in-season. Players are easily retained if the club has over-delivered on their end of the deal. Yes, there are going to be some players that are going to jump to other opportunities,  every club is going to be forced into a more player friendly approach to recruitment and retention of talent.

We’ve already seen a few defections to the USPHL from the Eastern Hockey League. It’s my opinion that there could be dozens more from Canada and a few surprises from the United States. With North American Hockey League memberships going for $1,000,000+, I also feel that the USPHL could get a lot more takers at $200,000 with friendlier terms.

It’s always fun to give Mr. Gunty something to think about.