The AHL (American Hockey League) is the strongest of the three leagues. It's one step down from the NHL and most, if not all, of its clubs have an affiliation with the NHL ie: they're where younger players and back-ups play. The East Coast Hockey League and the United Hockey League (now the International Hockey League) are more localised. The ECHL is self-explanatory the, IHL teams are centred round the Great Lakes. In a football context, they're division 3–4, while the AHL is division 2.

Actually, the ECHL is no longer the East Coast Hockey League, but branded simply as the ECHL (like how AARP no longer wants to be called the American Association of Retired People) because it has a whole Western conference with teams in Alaska, Idaho, Phoenix, Utah, Victoria, Stockton, Ontario (CA, I think), Las Vegas, Fresno and Bakersfield. The eastern confernce also has some teams that aren't quite so Eastern, like Cincinnati and Toledo.

The ECHL bills itself as the top "AA" league, but unlike in baseball, very few players that have played at the AA level ever make it to the NHL.

In addition to the new IHL (formerly the UHL) there's also the Central Hockey League, which has a bunch of teams in the south central states plus one in Youngstown, Ohio. I think the UHL and CHL are a bit below the ECHL, but it doesn't really matter.

The AHL used to have more Canadian-based teams and was almost exclusively in the Northeast. At the time, it was a direct competitor with the old International League (which, ironically, had only US-based teams). But then the IHL over-extended itself and went under. Many of the more successful IHL teams merged into the AHL and some reemerged in lesser leagues like the ECHL and the CHL.


Then there is the whole world of junior hockey which a lot of Americans think is the same as minor league hockey, but junior players are more or less amateur and younger -15-18, usually, and never older than 21.

In Canada, there are the three Major Junior leagues that make up the CHL, the QMJHL, the OHL and the WHL. Most NHL players come from there. In the US, the top junior league is the USHL. Despite it's national-sounding name, all of the teams are in the prarie states. The difference between the USHL and Canadian junior is that USHL players maintain college eligibility and the whole point of the USHL is to showcase top players so they can get a scholarship and play college hockey and then, maybe, get drafed. Most of the players for the top college programs in the midwest, and west like Minnesota or North Dakota, as well as a lot of players for the eastern schools played in the USHL for a year or two between high school and college.