The New York Bobcats (also called New York Bobcats Royals ) were a USA Hockey -sanctioned Tier III junior ice hockey organization from Dix Hills, New York , at the Dix Hills Ice Arena. The team was most recently a member of the Eastern Hockey League in the 2017–18 season.
23-545: The Bobcats organization was founded in 2000 as a member of the Tier III Junior B Metropolitan Junior Hockey League (MetJHL) winning the league playoffs in 2002 and qualified for the 2002 Tier III Junior B National Championships. In 2003, the Bobcats became one of the charter members of the Tier III Junior A Atlantic Junior Hockey League (AJHL) along with five other MetJHL organizations. The Bobcats would go on to win
46-630: A part of the Atlantic Metropolitan Hockey League, the 12 AtJHL ownership groups successfully became a stand-alone entity. After the split, the AtJHL was managed and governed solely by the league owners. In 2013, Tier III junior hockey leagues underwent a large reorganization that led to the dissolution of the Eastern Junior Hockey League and six of their former members joining the AtJHL. Prior to
69-479: A spot on higher levels of junior hockey in the United States and Canada , Canadian Major Junior, Collegiate , and eventually professional teams. The Bobcats have produced a number of alumni playing in higher levels of junior hockey , NCAA Division I , Division III college and professional programs, including: Metropolitan Junior Hockey League The Metropolitan Junior Hockey League
92-650: The Minnesota Junior Hockey League (MnJHL) and Midwest Junior Hockey League (MWJHL) ceasing operations after the 2014–15 season). After the league's 50th season in 2015–16, the league lost another eight teams to the EHL-Elite Division (then renamed to EHL-19U Elite). On March 29, 2016, the league announced that its operations had been acquired by the Tier II North American Hockey League and
115-856: The North American 3 Atlantic Hockey League (the former Metropolitan Junior Hockey League). The six teams from the NA3AHL were the Central Penn Panthers, Jersey Wildcats, Long Island Royals, Metro Fighting Moose (who left for the USHPL after the announcement), New Jersey Renegades, and the return of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights . The league also listed the New Jersey 87's and Cape Cod-based Total Athletics. The one-year dormant New York Bobcats also returned as
138-625: The Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States . The EHL was officially announced on June 6, 2013, after the Atlantic Junior Hockey League (AtJHL) welcomed six new members from the old Eastern Junior Hockey League and the AtJHL re-branded itself under the EHL banner The league prepares high school and college aged players for possible advancement to college and professional hockey. The Atlantic Junior Hockey League
161-524: The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights . The only NA3AHL team not included was the Exton Bulls who were sitting at last place with two wins while also regularly losing by double-digit scores. The Metro Fighting Moose left the EHL during the 2017 offseason. The Long Island Royals were the final Foster Cup champions. Eastern Hockey League (2013%E2%80%93) The Eastern Hockey League (EHL) is an American Tier III junior ice hockey league with teams in
184-737: The 2013–14 season, the AtJHL re-branded to become the Eastern Hockey League (EHL). The six members who came from the EJHL were the Boston Bandits , Connecticut Oilers , New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs , New York Apple Core , Philadelphia Revolution , and the Valley Jr. Warriors . In December 2014, the EHL announced the Connecticut Nighthawks as an expansion franchise to start in the 2015–16. They also announced
207-720: The 2017–18 season with 16 teams in the Premier and 17 in the Elite, although the Elite would decrease to 13 after the departures of the Connecticut Oilers Elite team, the Lehigh Valley Jr. Rebels, Long Island Royals, and Metro Moose. In May 2017, the league announced that they would reorganize their two-tier league with the top tier (formerly called the Premier) being only called the Eastern Hockey League and
230-506: The 2017–18 season. All six organizations will add their Premier and Elite teams to the USPHL's Premier and Elite Divisions. In February 2017, the EHL announced that they would expand to make up for the teams lost to the NCDC. The first team announced was New Hampshire Avalanche, an organization that previously only had youth teams. Next, it was announced the league would be adding the teams from
253-561: The AJHL left the Atlantic Metropolitan Hockey League family and became its own entity managed by the team owners. In 2013, as part of a large re-organization of Tier III junior hockey, the AJHL re-branded itself to the Eastern Hockey League (EHL) . The league does place a number of players into NCAA colleges, with most going to Division III, and some to Division I. During the off-season of 2014, several new organizations joined
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#1732787648677276-785: The Bobcats Royals as part of an organizational merger with the Long Island Jr. Royals of the NA3AHL. The Connecticut Oilers relocated from Norwalk to Hamden following the announcement that the ownership of the USHL's Cedar Rapids RoughRiders added a team called the Connecticut RoughRiders that will play out of the Oilers' former arena in Norwalk. In March 2017, the EHL announced their new divisional structure for
299-717: The Dix Hills Ice Arena in Dix Hills, New York . The team announced Ken Hoey as the new head coach after three seasons with the Bobcats affiliate, the Long Island Jr. Royals of the North American 3 Atlantic Hockey League . Upon their return, the top level Bobcats were often called the Bobcats Royals after the Jr. Royals also joined the EHL in the developmental Tier III division. The players, ages 16–20, carried amateur status under Junior A guidelines and hoped to earn
322-729: The MET League and it became a 23 team league and added a fourth division. In December 2014, the Eastern Hockey League (EHL) announced the formation of an Elite Division for the 2015–16 season, which effectively removed eight developmental teams for the EHL from the MJHL. The Metropolitan league planned to offset the loss with the return of New Jersey Rockets and the addition of teams from the New Jersey Colonials organization. The Metropolitan Junior Hockey League would also drop its MET League and MetJHL monikers to MJHL (likely due to
345-799: The formation of the EHL-Elite Division and that eight teams would participate in the first season composed of the former Junior B teams for EHL organizations. The formation of the Elite Division led to the previous Junior A members to be placed in the EHL-Premier Division . In May 2015, the North American Hockey League , a Tier II league , announced that the New Jersey Junior Titans and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights had been approved to elevate their organizations. After their promotion,
368-632: The regular season and playoff titles in 2006 and 2007 while in the AJHL. In 2013, Tier III junior hockey leagues were reorganized and the AJHL became the Eastern Hockey League (EHL) . In 2015, the EHL added a lower level division (formerly called Junior B) called the EHL-Elite Division and added all the current EHL teams (including the Bobcats) to the EHL-Premier Division. In 2016, head coach and general manager Craig Doremus took
391-578: The same positions with the Tier II junior New Jersey Titans of the North American Hockey League . Subsequently, the Bobcats were no longer listed as part of the EHL and as of July 2016 have not announced any plans for the following seasons. At the time they were playing out of The Twin Rinks at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York . In 2017, the Bobcats returned from hiatus and began play out of
414-500: The two EHL franchises went dormant. In March 2016, the EHL announced that it was changing the name of the Elite Division to 19U Elite Division for the 2016–17 season and doubling in size by adding eight more teams, mostly the prospect teams from the Premier Division's South Conference teams. However, the 19U Elite Connecticut Nighthawks team were dropped from the schedule prior to their first season. In December 2016, it
437-511: Was an American Tier III Junior ice hockey league with teams throughout the eastern United States . The MJHL was part of the Atlantic Metropolitan Hockey League organization. Founded in 1966 by New York Rangers GM, Emile Francis , the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League played its 50th season in 2015–16. Prior to its 51st season, the league's operations were taken over by the North American Hockey League and it
460-611: Was announced that six organizations (the Boston Bandits , Connecticut Nighthawks, Hartford Jr. Wolfpack , New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs , New Jersey Rockets , and the Northern Cyclones ) would be leaving the EHL for the 2017–18 season for the United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL). The Bandits, Rockets, and Cyclones had already been announced as adding free-to-play teams in the USPHL's National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC) for
483-547: Was part of the Atlantic Metropolitan Hockey League organization and was formed in 2003 with a stated goal to "meet the needs of the junior hockey community and the players it serves in the Eastern United States". The AtJHL played its first season in 2003–04 with six teams that had previously played in the Junior B Metropolitan Junior Hockey League . On May 30, 2012 the AtJHL announced that after nine years of being
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#1732787648677506-526: Was renamed to North American 3 Atlantic Hockey League (NA3AHL) for the 2016–17 season. In 2017, the remaining teams joined the Eastern Hockey League . The MetJHL was affiliated with higher level Atlantic Junior Hockey League (AJHL), a Tier III Junior A league, while the MetJHL was sanctioned as a Tier III Junior B league until 2011 when USA Hockey dropped the letter designations in Tier III. In May 2012,
529-639: Was renamed to the North American 3 Atlantic Hockey League (NA3AHL). In February 2017, the EHL announced that they would expand after the league lost several teams to the United States Premier Hockey League 's new tuition-free based league, the National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC). Of the new teams added to the EHL, six were from the NA3AHL, the Central Penn Panthers, Jersey Wildcats, Long Island Royals, Metro Fighting Moose, New Jersey Renegades, and
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