USPHL Premier Division The United States Premier Hockey League - Premier Division ( USPHL - Premier ) is an American Junior ice hockey league . Founded in 2012 , the USPHL has grown to 58 organizations from across the United States fielding teams in Premier , Elite , Mid - West , USP3HL , U18 , U16 and U16 Development divisions . The Empire Division was re - named the USP3 division for the 2015 – 16 season . USA Hockey classifies the Premier Division as a Tier III junior hockey league . U18 , U16 and U16 Development divisions are Tier I youth hockey divisions . The division is sanctioned by USA Hockey . History . The formation of the United States Premier Hockey League was caused by a lack of stability of the existing leagues in the northeastern section of the United States and the Tier level system of USA Hockey in general . All but one of the nine teams came from the Eastern Junior Hockey League . The one addition franchise was the Stamford , Connecticut based CT Yankees . The nine teams thta would make up the membership for the 2013 - 14 season was composed of the Boston Junior Bruins ( Marlboro MA ) ( from EJHL ) , Islanders Hockey Club ( North Andover MA ) ( from EJHL ) , Jersey Hitmen ( Wayne NJ ) ( from EJHL ) , South Shore Kings ( Foxboro MA ) ( from EJHL ) , Philadelphia Flyers Elite ( new team from Philadelphia Flyers junior program ) , Bay State Breakers ( Kingston MA ) ( from EJHL ) , Portland Junior Pirates ( Saco ME ) ( from EJHL ) , CT Yankees ( Stamford CT ) ( new franchise ) , PAL Junior Islanders ( Suffolk NY ) ( from EJHL ) The Boston Jr . Bruins would represent the league at the 2014 USA Hockey Tier III Junior National Championship and would win the National championship while going undefeated in 5 games outscoring opponents by margin of 33 to 5 . The Premier Division champion New Jersey Hitmen would not participate in the 2015 USA Hockey Tier III Junior National Championship . The CT Yankees announced on April 1 , 2014 that the organization will be renamed the Connectcut Junior Rangers as part of a new relationship with the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League . The Premier division will add the Rochester Jr . Americans and the Springfield Jr . Pics for the 2014 - 15 season . In early March 2015 the Syracuse Stars organization acquired the rights to a Premier Division team from the Bay State Breakers . The league announced May 7 , 2015 that Okanagan Hockey Stars from Austria would join the league for the 2015 - 16 season playing a full schedule and particpating in all league events . The team will be based out of Foxboro Sports Center in Foxboro , Massachusetts . The USPHL announced on December 18 , 2014 the formation of a Mid - West Division to begin in the 2015 - 16 season by adding several teams from the Minnesota Junior Hockey League . By the end of the season , the Mid - West Division would add all but one active MnJHL team causing the MnJHL to disband for the following season . On March 10 , 2014 , the USPHL also added the entire Midwest Junior Hockey League to its new Mid - West Division for the 2015 - 16 season . USPHL Mid - West will mark the fourth Tier III division under the USPHL umbrella . In March of 2016 the league announced that the Rochester Jr . Americans and the Portland Junior Pirates will not be a part of the Premier League for the 2016 - 17 season . Future Goals . The league has been reported to be making the effort to have the status of the Premier division elevated to either Tier - I or Tier - II with USA Hockey over the next few seasons . This would put the league on level with the United States Hockey League ( Tier - I ) or North American Hockey League ( Tier - II ) . A major sticking point with an elevation in status could be the arenas that the teams play in . USA Hockey has standards regarding capacity of arenas and facilities in those arenas at the higher Tier - I and Tier - II levels . Some of the teams may be forced to expand their current arenas or relocate to NCAA Division I or III arenas near them to meet these standards . A proposal was presented to USA Hockey by the USPHL at the early 2016 meeting to either waive or lower some of the standards for Tier - I and Tier - II but the measures were defeated . Member Teams . The USPHL - Premier is composed of 12 teams as of the 2015 - 16 season located along the East Coast spanning from Massachusetts to New Jersey .