USA Junior Hockey Magazine: One-on-one with the Commish

The Nation's Premier Hockey League

USA Junior Hockey Magazine: One-on-one with the Commish

By Joshua Boyd, 10/19/16, 2:15PM EDT

On Sept. 2, the USPHL announced that Jeff Nygaard would be the new commissioner of the league. The league is looking to Nygaard for expert administrative guidance in what will be a very bright future for the coast-to-coast league.

Nygaard is not a stranger to administrative roles in junior hockey, having been Executive Director for the Eastern Hockey League for the last four years.

The USPHL, as most everyone knows by now, is training junior-aged players for all levels of college hockey from Florida to Vermont, and from New York to Washington state. Midget-aged and youth players also have their own USPHL divisions to play in and prepare for the higher levels of hockey.

All of these different divisions have a need for guidance in terms of policy and procedure, and Nygaard is more than happy to call himself “a policy and procedure guy.”

What attracted you to the job of USPHL Commissioner?

I see a platform for growth. The business model that the USPHL is going after and that it has almost perfected is that a lot of these organizations are rink-owned entities – they own the dirt, the rink, and all the programs inside that rink, with the junior teams being the tip of the iceberg.

With the USPHL being one-stop shopping, and it’s never really been done like that, all of the organizations have common goals, and that makes it a lot easier to execute those goals.

This is a big league and it requires policy and procedure – without policy and procedure, things can wind up being spread across the map. I’m here to provide the routes to navigate that map so that we all move forward together.

The USPHL is a good product, and it performs at a very high standard – I need to get those standards, and the expectations, on paper. Everyone knows the performance side of the USPHL, but soon everyone will know what the brand means, top to bottom.

Prior to joining the USPHL, what was your outlook on the league?

From being outside of this league, and the former Eastern Junior Hockey League, you could admire the product they put on the ice all the time. A lot of those [EJHL] principals had an idea for what became the USPHL, but it all seemed to come to fruition once Richard Gallant showed up.

I’ve been working 26 years in the hockey world since college, and seldom do you see a person show up and pull the cord, and see the whole thing go up like a tent – Richard Gallant just made it happen.

It grew quickly, and I see my role initially as not only continuing that growth, but building the foundation beneath it. It’s boring, administrative stuff, but I’m good at it.

There are guys who have really good hockey skills and they go and play in the NHL. I’m burdened with really good typing skills (laughs).

How has your first month on the job gone?

A lot of the learning part is talking to these administrators across this league, like Leigh Dean, the USPHL Director of Hockey Operations and Deputy Commissioner. He deals more with the day-to-day hockey aspects of this league. A lot of it is talking to the owners across the league and learning what their objectives are – I want them to tell me what to do, and I can shape the league towards those objectives.

At the start, the work is very much behind the scenes. Eventually, it will be a very public position, but no one is going to come to play in the USPHL because of Jeff Nygaard.

What do you see as the USPHL’s greatest strengths?

If players start in a USPHL league, they have one structure to operate in, which is a lot easier than playing in five different leagues. As the kids get older and more serious about hockey, the USPHL gives better training and developmental opportunities.

Now, on top of that, your partners at the junior level are also partners at the youth level. It’s a benefit to parents to have a schedule that doesn’t involve a lot of travel.