Odenton, MD – Team Maryland of the Eastern Hockey League (EHL) has announced the relocation of its franchise to Hamilton Township, New Jersey for the 2024-25 season. The team will play out of Ice Land Skating Center and play under the Mercer Chiefs banner. The team will be affiliated with the Mercer Chiefs youth hockey club, one of the largest and most successful clubs on the east coast under the common ownership of Black Bear Sports Group. The affiliation will provide another level of progression for Mercer’s hockey players to move up through the ranks of junior hockey.
The move will facilitate the Mercer Chiefs organization to share resources with its affiliates for skills, scouting, coaching, billeting and other hockey operations functions. The team will continue playing in the Eastern Hockey League South Division, but will be located geographically in the center of the Division and will significantly reduce travel for the club and league partners and vastly improve the experience for our players.
“We are excited to join the decorated Mercer Chiefs program,” said Mercer EHL Head Coach, Eric Progen. “We believe this is a necessary and logical step for both our franchise and the league. The ability to collaborate with our affiliated teams under Black Bear Sports Group on such a close basis will allow for excellent player and staff development. We are excited to move into the center of the South Division to ease the travel burden on our own organization and the rest of the league.”
The Mercer EHL franchise is one of 7 junior Hockey Franchises including the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL, the Maryland Black Bears of the North American Hockey League, the Mercer Chiefs and P.A.L Jr. Islanders of the USPHL NCDC and the P.A.L. Jr. Islanders Premier and Elite USPHL.
About Black Bear Sports Group: Black Bear Sports Group, Inc. is a privately held company formed by Murry Gunty and Blackstreet Capital Holdings, LLC in 2015 that seeks investments in sports and entertainment facilities, teams, and youth sports events. Black Bear arenas are clean, professionally managed, and offer world-class recreational programs. Black Bear focuses on ice arenas in metropolitan areas with compelling demographics, markets with a National Hockey League club presence, and arenas with existing youth hockey clubs. Black Bear not only features the ability to acquire healthy and stable arenas but also the expertise required to turn around mismanaged or underperforming facilities. The largest owner/operator of ice arenas in the U.S., Black Bear’s footprint totals 36 facilities across the United States with 68 sheets of indoor ice, four indoor turf fields, 34 youth hockey clubs, four hockey leagues (Atlantic Hockey Federation, Atlantic Girls Hockey Federation, Tier 1 Hockey Federation, National Girls Hockey League), a tournament business (Defender Hockey Tournaments), seven Junior “A” hockey franchises with membership in the United States Hockey League, North American Hockey League, USPHL NCDC, USPHL Premier and Elite, and the Eastern Hockey League, and Foundry Adult Hockey, the largest adult hockey organization in the USA.