CHAPTER 2:

FPHL- About the League/History

Let's get into Chapter 2 by giving a brief league overview and history lesson (don't worry, you don't need a desk for this one)...

The FPHL…commonly referred to as the “Federal League” or ”The Fed” was founded back in 2010. The league is currently comprised of 11 teams which are all based in the Eastern half of the United States.

The FPHL is considered Single-A pro and sits one level below the SPHL.

FPHL League Origins

The league's original name has changed since its inception….but the league itself has stayed intact.

From the start in 2010 through 2019, the league was called the Federal Hockey League- better known as the FHL.

In 2019, the league officially rebranded to its current name, the FPHL, which stands for the Federal Prospects Hockey League.

Fun fact: the league's name derives from the classic 1977 hockey movie, Slap Shot. The Charlestown Chiefs in the movie played in the fictional Federal League.

Over the years, old teams have ceased operations and new ones have joined, but the league has nearly doubled in the number of teams (from 6 to 11) since its inaugural season back in 2010-2011.

Below, we'll give a quick visual in terms of the current layout of teams for you.

Now that we've got that covered from a high level, let's get in the corners a bit (aka Chapter 2).

Okay...we're still waiting for that one player to go within a stick length of the boards...probably not going to happen at this point :)

Onwards to the next chapter...

CHAPTER 3:

Level + Caliber of Players

So what’s the caliber of players like at the FPHL level? 

Good question. This is an important section to cover as it’s a bit misunderstood.

For starters, if you look at most FPHL rosters today, you’ll find a blend of players from the following places…

Which Leagues Do FPHL Players Come From?

College Hockey

A good number of players in the league come directly from the college hockey ranks, ranging from a couple of D1 NCAA players and more D3 ones all the way down to some higher-end ACHA players. For players coming out of ACHA hockey which is much less scouted, our team put together a full piece on going from the ACHA level to pro hockey.

Juniors

In recent years, we've seen more players making the jump straight from junior to minor pro. Maybe the university school route isn't there thing (for whatever reason), but it's a bit more common today if you look across rosters.

Our only advice here is that if you choose to go this route...really think about your career trajectory.

Is the aim to dominate and hopefully get a call up? Play for a year or 2 and retire? Play overseas in Europe after to have an amazing experience?

You just don't want to pigeon hole yourself in the minors paired with bad stats (on paper) as that's not a recipe ripe for continuing to play.

Major Junior

Although much less common, there have been a few more ex-major junior players (including a number of goalkeepers) who've played minutes in the league. Most major junior players are heading to university (USports), playing pro in a higher tier, or hanging up the skates.

Minor Pro Leagues

A number of FPHL players (mostly veterans) have spent some time playing in other minor leagues such as the SPHL and the ECHL.

Europe

You’ll find a player or 3 on many FPHL rosters with some games played in Europe (many hail from Europe and want to experience playing in North America). It’s more common though for players to go the other direction from North America to Europe to play hockey.

Walk on's

Generally a token fighter, a personality who might draw some fans, or on the rare occasion a player who’s a stud thats come out of nowhere and can jam at the Single A pro level.

A number of teams hold “free agent camps” and paint them as pro hockey tryouts that provide potential to earn a roster spot. This isn’t generally how most teams find their players.

We're well connected with organizations in each of the minor leagues, including a couple of Fed coaches who've run these camps professionally in the past (so these are the very best of these camps). Even those coaches will tell you they'll only bring a couple guys max from a tryout camp to main camp...maybe less.

From there, you're likely to be fighting for either a non-existent roster spot or you're unfortunately sent home as soon as a player with a slightly better resume on paper comes down from an SP camp. We generally wouldn't recommend the camp route to most players.

Players in the Fed are primarily coming to teams from a mix of the places we’ve mentioned above. Anyone telling you differently is selling you snake oil.

When it comes to the level of play in the Fed, a roster comprising of the above places gives you a pretty decent lineup at this level. 

In the FPHL, every team doesn’t have crazy deep roster depth so a top line or 2 and a few D-pairings on a club might do the bulk of point producing whereas the bottom lines aren’t playing as many minutes.

This really depends on each team. Overall, the league is getting better each year.

CHAPTER 4:

Common Misconceptions

There's a number of misconceptions people have about the quality of hockey in The Fed.

By far though...the biggest one we see by a landslide is this...

Anyone and everyone believing that they could play in the league at this tier.

Just because you can rip it up in your local beer league or scored 14 goals back in Bantam doesn’t mean you can immediately kick it with players here today.

Maybe you can and there are always exceptions…but it’s not super common.

We’ve even seen some players with good college/pro experience over the past decade show up to main camps in the league and get outcompeted for roster spots or just get waived mid-season for a multitude of reasons…

It’s basic supply and demand in the minors in N America.

Each year, more and more quality players (demand) aim to keep playing and there’s only a handful of teams (supply).

In the Fed, there’s a little less impact of guys getting sent down often from the SPHL to the FPHL as there is one level above from the ECHL to the SPHL…but it’s still a competitive environment if you want make and then stick on a roster here for any duration.

CHAPTER 5:

Hockey Life in The Fed

What’s hockey life like playing in the FPHL?

That’s a great question that isn't talked about enough…this is completely going to depend on two main variables:
‍
1) the team's location
2) the organization's reputation (aka how they treat everyone in the org)

In general, the majority of FPHL teams are located in smaller sized cities and towns in the Eastern half of the United States from New England all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico…

Based on our experience, both the organization's reputation paired with the team's location are two of the most important factors when it comes to player satisfaction.

Below, we'll paint a real world example that players in the league go through during the season to expand on this more.
‍
Let's imagine this scenario...

It’s mid-January and you just wrapped up a 3 games in 3 night series on the road followed by a 13-hour bus ride home.

I'm feeling exhausted just reading that.

Following that long bus ride home, which view on that next day are you going to enjoy more?

Warm weather down South...

OR

A snowy driveway yelling at you to shovel in order to get to the rink for morning skate...

No shade against teams in the north…we’ve met some awesome players there and know professional team staff members there personally. But....if you don’t like shoveling snow and -6.9 degree temps for half the season, a few of these locations might not be your first choice and could impact your decision.

We're being a little dramatic here (intentionally) in our example above...but we hope you get the point.

We bring this up because quality of life day-to-day as you play in the minors shouldn't be an afterthought if you have better options.

With that being said, you're there to play hockey first and foremost....so unless you have an impressive resume and accolades falling out of your hockey bag, just landing a roster spot on any organization (regardless of location) might be fine with you. This all depends on personal preferences.

From all of our recent conversations with players, the league has worked hard to step up its professionalism and perception, including some of the newer teams that have joined the league.

With tight margins though at this level, Federal Hockey League things are still bound to happen in the Federal Hockey League….

Many years back….we’d hear all sorts of unfortunate stories about guys sleeping in Harry Potter closets, tons of players all packed into an ill-suited house with maintenance issues, and just overall bush league stuff.

Luckily as we mentioned above, we hear far less about that today (at least from our external vantage point).

It’s still the Fed though….so you’re still bound to see things.

Today, you’ll still see entertaining things like:

Token fighters in the league racking up gigantic penalties minutes….

Or fun things like one of the most charismatic player/CEO's in the league chugging a beverage "Stone Cold" Steve Austin style after getting tossed (visual below).

It’s definitely entertaining….

You’re bound to see it all.

Some of these stories are awesome…even the negative ones like a bus breaking down will probably frustrate players involved in the moment, but they’ll make for a fun story a decade from now.

That's innately part of the reason why players crave to keep playing the game we all love.

You might not remember any moments from a random 4-2 game mid-season many years from now, but you'll have a bag of stories at your disposal that can last a lifetime.

Moving on to the next chapter…let’s talk about the fans of the FPHL and attendance numbers.

Fan Attendance Numbers

A common question players and fans alike have is, do FPHL teams draw a decent number of fans at games?

Your definition of "number of fans" might differ from the next person. For Single A pro hockey, we'd say a number of teams draw pretty good crowds.
‍
We'll touch on the numbers in this short chapter below...

The top several teams in the league consistently average anywhere from 3,000-4,000 fans per home game.

Teams in the middle of the pack will average anywhere from 1,000-3,000 fans and the bottom couple teams average just under 1,000 fans per home game.

One quick note which impacts fan attendance a bit is that a few of the arenas are smaller in size/capacity so don’t let the numbers fool you for each. 

Yes, a few arenas draw fewer fans…but a few of these arenas with lower attendance numbers can still get pretty rowdy with locals regardless of what the fan attendance count shows on paper.

Throughout the league, you'll find passionate fans and supportive community members who will go out of there way to help players.

We love seeing this...it's great for everyone.

With the majority of clubs being based in smaller US cities, these fan and community interactions are what it's all about in the minors.

These teams are a focal point to their towns sports scene/local entertainment and attending a hockey game on a Friday night is the thing to do.

CHAPTER 6:

Day-to-Day Training Schedules

What's the day-to-day training like for players in the Federal League?

Throughout the hockey season, the weekly training schedule for Fed teams may not be as demanding as an NHL teams, but they still go about their business as professionals.

Let's expand on this below...

From high-tempo daily practices, team workouts, community events/involvement throughout the week, and much more….it’s certainly a full schedule.

Throughout the season, both home and road games are heavily based at the end of weeks leading into the weekend (Thurs-Sun).

Team practices and off-ice workouts fill out most of the weekdays outside of game days.

Each team has different setups as well as expectations, but we'll provide an accurate example below which is a blend of the exact schedules that a handful of current FPHL players shared with us.

Schedules will vary week to week depending on if games are at home or on the road, but this paints a pretty good picture...

As you can see, it's quite the full weekly schedule.

Since players in the Fed aren’t rolling in dough paycheck wise, some players choose to continue to work flexibly during the season around their hockey schedule (we'll touch on this more in the next chapter).

Along with some work, several players we talked with also do online schooling (master’s programs, etc) as they continue to play minor pro.

CHAPTER 7:

What FPHL Players Do In The Off-Season

In this closing chapter, we thought we'd cover a topic that many are interested in knowing a bit more on which is...

What do players do during the off-season? For work, hockey training, and so on.

Let's cover that....

In the off-season, the majority of players will work jobs and train hard so that they can save up money leading up to the season.

Doing this affords many of them with the ability to keep financially stable in season to then just focus on hockey.

From the few dozen players we spoke with specifically for this guide, the list below gives a decent idea of what types of work minor-professional ice hockey players do in the off-season.

Types Of Work FPHL Players Do In The Off-Season

If you were to talk to every single player in the league, you'd get a ton of different answers in terms of what that particular player does in the summer for work.

From our analysis of players, we found that the six categories we'll mention below topped our list.

•hockey coaching (1-on-1, summer camps, skills sessions)
•manual labor (construction, landscaping)
•service industry jobs (bartenders, servers, etc)
•work at golf courses (this pairs well seasonally in the north which is likely why a number of players do this)
•remote jobs (work flexibly for companies from their laptop)
•side hustles (online stores, brands, small businesses)

What type of work each players does truly depends on their circumstance and hockey ambitions.

As expected, many players in the league have aspirations and aims to move up to higher levels whether in N America or Europe and the best way for them to accomplish that is through performing as best they can in the FPHL.

In closing, we hope the league and the individual clubs within it continue doing their very best to run their organizations as professionally as possible while treating players as best they can. 

Whether it’s player safety on ice….or player setup/amenities in season off the ice, each is important not only for the league to continue to thrive but for the well-being of the players/staff in it.

We hope that in reading this, you were able to learn a few new tidbits about the league.

If you're a player, the question now is, are you driven enough to continue playing hockey at the next level?

If so, don’t hesitate to send us a message here. It sure beats sitting on the couch wishing something would or could’ve happened.