Asterian Hockey League
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Template:Region icon KylarisTemplate:Region icon Kylaris
Current season, competition or edition: 2019-2020 | |
 | |
| Sport | Ice Hockey |
|---|---|
| Founded | November 26, 1917, Saint Marie, Monbec, Cassier |
| Inaugural season | 1917–18 |
| Commissioner | Jacques Guilbert |
| No. of teams | 31 |
| Countries |  Cassier (9 teams) Chervolesia (9 teams) Halland (5 teams)File:Eldmark.png Eldmark (6 teams)  Narozalica (2 teams) |
| Headquarters | Saint Marie, Monbec, Cassier |
| Continent | Asteria Superior |
| Most recent champion(s) | Rakovnica Hawks (1st title) |
| Most titles | Saint Marie Habitants (25 titles) |
| TV partner(s) | Cassier Hockeynet Cascom Media/Cascom Sports Chervolesia Halland Eldmark ESS ASN Sport Narozalica Narnet Sports |
| Official website | AHL.com |
The Asterian Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league in Asteria Superior, currently comprising 32 teams: 9 in Cassier and Chervolesia, 6 in Halland, 6 in Eldmark, and 2 in George Ruset Land, an Asterian overseas territory of Narozalica. The AHL is considered to be the premier ice hockey league in the world, and one of the major professional sports leagues in the Asterias, as well as one of its oldest. The Albert Cup is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season.
The Asterian Hockey League was founded on November 26, 1917 as the Cassien Hockey League (Gaullican: Ligue de Hockey Cassien) (LHC), in Saint Marie after the end of the Cassien Hockey Association (Gaullican: Association de Hockey Cassien) (AHC) which had been founded in 1909. The LHC immediately established itself as Cassier's primary hockey league with four teams from the four most populated cities in western Cassier. Three years after its founding the LHC became the primary hockey league that competed for the Albert Cup, named in honour of Albert III, which was first awarded in 1893. The Cassien Hockey League expand to include first three teams outside of Cassier in 1920, when the Chervolesian HK Zenit Targety and Hallandic [two Hallandic teams] joined, reaching a total number of eight teams. The inclusion of these first three non-Cassien teams would mark the official transition from the domestic LHC to the international AHL, known contemporarily as "the acquisition".
The AHL has steadily grown in size and popularity since the the acqusition, growing to become the most prominent league in professional ice hockey. The AHL has expanded to a total of XX teams across five countries, with the number of new teams varying significantly in different decades. In the first two and a half decades the AHL only grew by X teams, while the AHL 1970 expansion saw X teams added in just one. The period between 1999 and the present day has seen the longest stretch of time that the AHL has not added a new team. Since 1920 XX teams have been added to the league across two conferences and four divisions.