It took nearly a month, but the United Hockey League's annual board of governors meetings were finally completed on Tuesday.

 

Meetings began on June 10 in Las Vegas and after three days, the meetings were adjourned until their completion on Tuesday in St. Louis.

 

"It did take a while, but we have made some pretty significant rules changes," said Muskegon Fury president Tony Lisman. "We got quite a bit accomplished."

 

League alignment: The league will go from two divisions to three, with a total of 14 teams. The Western Division will include Fort Wayne, Missouri, Quad City, Rockford and an expansion team, expected to be located in Kansas City.

 

The Central Division will include Muskegon, Flint, Kalamazoo, Port Huron and the expansion Motor City Mechanics.

 

In the Eastern Division will be Richmond, Elmira, the newly renamed Adirondack Frostbite and the expansion Danbury Thrashers.

 

Rules: Icing infractions will be whistled dead once the puck crosses the goal line. Also, the UHL will experiment with the removal of the red line, thus eliminating the two-line pass. That experiment will take place during the preseason only.

 

Salary cap: With the UHL increasing the regular season from 76 to 80 games, the salary cap has been increased to $260,000 for the regular season.

 

Veteran rule: The maximum number of veterans on an active roster has been increased from six to seven. A veteran is defined as a player who has played 280 or more regular-season games as a professional in North America or Europe. A veteran goaltender is any goalie who has played 16,800 or more minutes.

 

A rookie is defined as a player with less than 40 games of experience in the regular season or a goaltender with 2,400 minutes or fewer.

 

Playoffs: The top two teams in each division will qualify for the postseason along with the next two teams in points, regardless of division. Division winners will be seeded 1-3 and the remaining five will be seeded 4-8, based on points.

 

All playoff rounds will be the best-of-seven series.

 

Executive committee: Michael Franke from Fort Wayne was named the chairman of the board, Quad City's Mike Tatoian, Port Huron's Kristen Dixon and Kalamazoo's Paul Pickard are the vice chairmen.

 

More information from the meetings is expected to be released in the next couple of days, including results of the expansion draft.