By Delorean Fleetwood
Dallas, TX and Nashua, NH: Starball Sports and Entertainment will add the North American 3 Hockey League and the United States Premier Hockey League to their list of league coverage beginning in 2026-27, CEO and Editor in Chief Delorean Fleetwood announced on Friday. “I am pleased to announce that after much deliberation and numerous hours watching games of both leagues, I have decided to add the NA3HL and USPHL to our junior hockey coverage”.
Please look forward to more information about these two leagues and our coverage of them in the near future.
WHAT IS THE NA3HL?
The NA3HL is a tier III junior hockey league that acts as a direct affiliate to the tier II North American Hockey League (NAHL). Both leagues are sanctioned officially by USA Hockey, offering pathways to pro for all their players in development. Former players include that of Paul Stastny.
The 2025-26 NA3HL season saw 38 teams compete across 20 states, with four more joining next season. The NA3HL is slated to have 42 teams in 21 states, when the Phoenix Inferno join the fray.
Teams are separated into six divisions: Central (Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin), East (New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut), Frontier (Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota), South (Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma), Southeast (Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas), and West (Iowa and Minnesota).
The NA3HL plays for the Fraser Cup (formerly the Silver Cup) at the end of each season. The top four teams in each division qualify for the Fraser Cup Playoffs. The first two rounds consist of divisional playoffs. All series are best of three for the division semifinals and finals. The six division champions advance to the Fraser Cup Tournament. The six teams are divided into two pools of three teams each, with each team playing the other once, for a total of two pool play games. The top two teams in each pool advance to the Fraser Cup Semifinals. The Semifinals and Fraser Cup Finals are a single game. The winner of the Fraser Cup is the USA Hockey Tier III National Champion and the NA3HL Champs.
The Granite City Lumberjacks of Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, (a town of under 14,000 residents) are the current champions, knocking off the 2025 Fraser Cup Champions, the Louisiana Drillers of Lafayette, Louisiana. The Drillers went 46-0-1 during the regular season, outscoring their opposition 516-43, and came into the 2026 Fraser Cup Final having only lost twice all season, both in OT. One of those losses came during pool play during the Fraser Cup Tournament. What made the win all the more shocking, was that they shut them out, 4-0, a result no one thought was even possible (Louisiana had 27 SHUTOUTS coming into the Fraser Cup Final) after the Drillers had arguably the greatest regular season in NAH3L HISTORY. The Lumberjacks became the ONLY team to defeat the Drillers in regulation during the entire season in 2025-26. The Lumberjacks have won the NA3HL a staggering FIVE times (2012, 2015, 2017, 2023, 2026) since becoming a team in 2007.
Please look forward to NA3HL coverage this fall at Starball.
WHAT IS THE USPHL?
The United States Premier Hockey League is an independent junior hockey league that fields a wide variety of amateur organizations and pathways. After applying for a tuition free Tier II league in 2016 and being rejected by USA Hockey, the USPHL withdrew from USA Hockey sanctioning altogether. The two divisions that will be covered, will be the Tier II National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC) and the Tier III USPHL Premier Division.
USPHL NCDC
The NCDC will field 63 teams across 23 states and two Canadian Provinces (New Brunswick and Quebec) in 2026-27. There are seven conferences in the NCDC, with three split into two divisions within the conference. The four conferences not split into divisions are the Atlantic (Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania), Colonial (Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut), Metropolitan (New Hampshire and Massachusetts), and Northeast (Maine, New Hampshire, New York, New Brunswick, CA, and Quebec, CA). The three conferences split into two divisions are: Western (Pacific [California] and Mountain [Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming]), MidWest (Great Lakes [Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee] and North (Minnesota and Wisconsin]), and Southern (Florida [Florida] and Southeast [Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina]).
The NCDC plays for the Dineen Cup at the end of each season. The South Shore Kings of Foxboro, Massachusetts, are the defending Dineen Cup Champions and the three time defending Dineen Cup Finalists, having won the Dineen Cup in 2024 and 2026, but lost to the Idaho Falls Spud Kings in 2025.
USPHL PREMIER
A step down from the NCDC, the Tier III Premier Division will see 76 teams across 20 US States and three Canadian Provinces (Quebec, Ontario, and Alberta). All 76 teams in the USPHL Premier will play for National Championship at the end of the season. The Vernal Oilers are the two time defending USPHL Premier Champions, going a perfect 44-0 during the 24-25 regular season and 42-2 in 25-26. The Oilers moved up to the NCDC after winning the last two Premier Division Titles, going 86-2 over the last two regular seasons. Combined regular season and playoffs, the Oilers have gone 103-3, 52-1 in 2024-25 and 51-2 in 2025-26.
Catch all the action from opening puck drop all the way to the Dineen Cup, Fraser Cup, and Premier Division National Championship here at Starball beginning in 26-27!
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