USHL unveils a player development agreement as it adapts to hockey’s changing landscape

By Canadian Press on April 7, 2026.

TINLEY PARK, Ill. (AP) — The United States Hockey League on Tuesday unveiled a standard player development agreement that introduces benefits, including support for travel and secondary education and reimbursements for training and career-ending injuries.

The move comes as the USHL adapts to the sport’s changing landscape, which now allows junior players from the Canadian Hockey League to compete at the NCAA level.

The agreement enhances academic support, strength and performance resources, host family housing, mental wellness services and coaching already in place, and the U.S.-based Tier I junior league says it ensures players receive consistent development across all 16 teams.

“The standard player development agreement reinforces that structure by creating clarity and consistency for players and families while supporting the environment that continues to produce more NCAA Division I players and NHL draft selections than any single league in the world,” USHL President and Commissioner Glenn Hefferan said. “This is about strengthening a pathway that already works.”

The USHL has partnerships with USA Hockey and the NHL. It says the agreement reaffirms the league’s longstanding player-first approach to help athletes pursue participating in Division I college hockey and beyond.

That approach requires a 2-1 practice-to-game ratio and a schedule with 90% of games played on weekends. U.S. Olympic gold medal-winners Auston Matthews, Kyle Connor and Jeremy Swayman are among the USHL products who reached the NHL.

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The Associated Press