The
American Hockey League (
AHL) is a 30-team
professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary
developmental league for the
National Hockey League (NHL). Since the
2010–11 season, every team in the league has an affiliation agreement with an NHL team; before then, one or two NHL teams would not have an AHL affiliate and so assigned players to AHL teams affiliated with other NHL teams. Twenty-seven AHL teams are located in the United States and the remaining three are in Canada. The league offices are located in
Springfield, Massachusetts, and its current president is
David Andrews.