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Fresh off a record-breaking season in which the league saw more than 400 players make commitments to continue their hockey careers for NCAA programs, the North American Hockey League begins to ramp up its 50^th-anniversary season Wednesday. All 35 league clubs, in addition to the USA National Team Development Program’s 17U team, will be competing in the annual NAHL Showcase at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minn., Sept. 25-28.

The NAHL Showcase, aka the Greatest Show on Ice, is the biggest scouting event of the season for the North American Hockey League. In fact, the annual NAHL Showcase may have become the single biggest scouting event of the year in North America. Period.

“No other event in the hockey world brings people together like the showcase,” NAHL Commissioner and President Mark Frankenfeld said a few years back. “The opportunity it represents for our teams and players is one that is unique to the NAHL, and we always look forward to seeing a new crop of players and talent showcase their skills.”

This year’s event gets underway on Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 12:15 p.m. Eastern as the Anchorage Wolverines take on the Johnstown Tomahawks. There will be 14 games Sept. 25 and 27, with 13 games being held Sept. 26 and 28. All NAHL Showcase games can be viewed live and on-demand at www.NAHLTV.com.

CLICK HERE for NAHL Showcase information and a link to the full schedule.

“We are so very excited to launch the NAHL 50th Anniversary season with the NAHL Showcase,” NAHL Commissioner and President Mark Frankenfeld said in a statement on the league’s website. “The showcase is such a special event that you can only understand … if you experience it in person. This year’s event will have the largest number of players on display for the NCAA and NHL scouts than ever before.  It is a huge part of the NAHL core mission to develop, expose and advance players, and we cannot wait for all the action to begin.”

The NAHL is a Tier 2, tuition-free junior hockey league for players 20 and under that extends into 20 states from Maine in the Northeast United States, south through Maryland into Louisiana, west into Texas and back north up through the Midwest into Oklahoma, Minnesota, the Dakotas and Wisconsin. There even are three teams in Alaska. The league features 29 teams spread out among four divisions. 

Entering its 50^th year, the NAHL has become the top junior league in North America as far as producing NCAA college hockey players.

For the 2023-24 season, the NAHL accounted for more than 400 NCAA college commitments, with more than 70 percent of those players committing to Division I programs. While it was the first time the league had surpassed the 400-commitment mark, it marked the eighth consecutive season in which the NAHL produced more than 300 commits. In an average year, more than 30 percent of each the incoming D1 freshman class is comprised of players who have competed in the NAHL.

The league is part of USA Hockey’s National Junior Development Model, which includes the Tier 1 United States Hockey League (USHL) and the Tier 3 North American Tier 3 Hockey League (NA3HL). There is no tuition for players to play at the Tier 1 or Tier 2 levels of junior hockey, which means that the USHL and NAHL are the only USA Hockey-sanctioned tuition-free junior leagues in the United States. Tier 3 junior hockey is pay to play. 

The USHL offers the highest level of play among U.S. junior leagues and is comparable to the Canadian Hockey League in Canada. USHL rosters tend to feature younger players who eventually will play for top NCAA Division I programs and may be NHL draft prospects. There is a limit to the number of age-out (20-year-old) players each team can roster. 

That is not the case in the NAHL, which is home to older players who may have to wait longer to receive Division I offers and make their commitments. The general assumption is that players who are in the USHL will play at the Division I level if that’s what they choose to do. Players in the NAHL will play NCAA hockey, with the vast majority advancing to the Division I level and the rest playing for top Division III teams. 

The NAHL doesn’t only feature late bloomers, however, as the league also is a starting point for some younger Division I commits who need more time to develop and ultimately get moved on to the USHL. Nearly 90 percent of all NCAA hockey players spend time playing junior hockey at some level, and the top Tier 3 pay-to-play junior leagues also send hundreds of players on to play at the Division III level annually.

There are 35 teams with NCAA-capable players in the NAHL, compared to 16 in the USHL, and many colleges have little chance of committing Tier 1 junior players. That’s why college coaches from all levels flock to Blaine for this week’s showcase. It’s one-stop-shopping for them, which is especially important to the Division I and III programs with smaller recruiting budgets. Where else can you go to watch 13-plus games per day in one location and be confident that every single player on the ice will be capable of playing NCAA hockey?

The event is especially important for Division III coaches who scramble every year to grab the 25 or so percent of the players in the league who either choose not to play Division I or narrowly miss out on getting offers. In addition, NAHL teams have yet to make their final cuts, so there are more than 70 skaters participating who may not quite make it to the NAHL but will one day be very good college hockey players.

That also makes the showcase incredibly important for players who may be playing in the league for the first time or fighting for final roster spots. It’s an opportunity to make a strong first impression on college coaches who previously may not have seen them and to get on their radar to be scouted and tracked in the future. The coaches will get contact information for the players they like and follow their junior careers wherever they end up playing.

The NAHL also has a strong developmental program that includes the Tier 3 North American Tier 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) and the North American Prospects Hockey League (NAPHL), which offers showcase opportunities throughout the year for AA and AAA players between ages of 14 and 18. NAHL teams are required to scout events featuring NAPHL and NA3HL teams and to provide opportunities to the best players in those leagues by extending tender offers or drafting them.

This week’s NAHL Showcase will be accompanied by a similar event featuring 16U and 18U teams from the NAPHL’s Tier 1 Division, allowing some younger players to get in front of NAHL and college coaches and scouts for the first time. Running concurrent events at the same venue makes it easy for the NAHL and college coaches to pop in and watch these players without further taxing their travel and recruiting budgets. 

It's a win-win situation for everyone involved.