High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The North Eastern Hockey League was a semi-professional ice hockey league from 2003 until 2008. It was created by entrepreneur Jim Cashman, who served as league president. The NEHL was built to focus on giving players that were not quite ready for the ECHL, United Hockey League, and the Central Hockey League a place to play and develop after their Junior and college careers had finished. In the 2003-04 season 9 total players moved up to the "AA" level and remained there and 6 of those players came from the York IceCats alone.