Besides the NHL, AHL and IHL as described in the NHL Expanded Universe section and the NCAA expansion, I've done some tweaking to the rest of the North American hockey pyramid.

 

JUNIOR (U-20) LEAGUES

• The OHL, WHL and QMJHL as well as the USHL are all updated and still playable.

​

• The Canadian-based CJHL leagues (BCHL, AJHL, SJHL, MJHL, OJHL, NOJHL, SIJHL, CCHL, QJHL, MHL) are all updated in the game but are currently not playable as I have reservations about how EHM handles them. I may make them playable again in the future.

​

• The GOJHL is also in the game (not playable) but the other lower-level Canadian U20 leagues have been eliminated for streamlining purposes.

​

• The USA-based Tier II junior leagues, the NAHL and NCDC, are both in the game and updated but are currently not playable. I may make them playable again in the future. The Tier III leagues (USPHL, EHL, and NA3HL) have been consolidated into single-teams to act as a holding depot for real players from those leagues.

​

YOUTH MIDGET/BANTAM/HIGH SCHOOL/PREP) LEAGUES

• The major Canadian-based CHL-feeder leagues for youth players are all in the game but none are playable. Furthermore, I have reduced the number of "tiers" of age groups to midget-level - except out west where the youth leagues have both midget and bantam levels because the WHL draft is a bantam-level entry draft (OHL and QMJHL are midget-level). None of these youth leagues are playable.

​

• The major Canadian prep schools (St. Andrews, Stanstead, Newbridge, etc) have been consolidated into a single Canadian-based prep league (not playable).

​

• The American youth system has been heavily consolidated. The Prospects Hockey League has all of your major tentpole American youth programs (Shattuck, Selects, The Mount, Northwood, etc) but midget and high school programs across the country have been consolidated heavily. This creates a more efficient database, reduces the amount of yearly updating for programs that frequently switch names and has little affect on the actual sim because none of these leagues are playable anyways.

​

COLLEGE LEAGUES

• U Sports (Canadian college hockey) is in the game with the actual teams but has been currently made not playable as the sim does a very poor job of reflecting how these schools operate and recruit in real life. I may make them playable again in the future.

​

• College leagues outside the NCAA and U Sports have been eliminated - so no DIII. I wanted to focus all of the playability and recruiting on the NCAA Division 1 league for now.

​

PROFESSIONAL AND SEMI-PRO LEAGUES

• The NHLX database currently features four lower-level professional leagues which are described below. None of these leagues are currently playable but I may change them to be playable in future releases. All other North American-based semi-pro and amateur leagues have been eliminated from the database...they simply have such a low-level of hockey that I do not find them applicable to how I play the game and the data simply adds weight and slowness to the sim.