One of the top leagues in junior hockey is going to try something different to create its game slate for next season.

On Wednesday, the United States Hockey League, the top junior league in the United States, is going to use artificial intelligence (AI) to create the schedule for the 2025-26 season.

“Each year we evaluate our needs and explore opportunities to introduce new technology to our league,” Stephanie Morgan, USHL executive vice president, said in a release. “This partnership with Johns Hopkins University presents a chance to expedite and improve the process of generating 62-game regular-season schedules for each of our teams optimized for player performance, rest and recovery. We are excited for where this next advancement can take us.”

The league is partnering with Johns Hopkins University to produce the computer-generated schedule. Dr. Tony Dahbura, co-director of Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy, has been using automated systems to generate sports schedules for over three decades. Before joining Johns Hopkins, he had helped Major League Baseball and the South Atlantic League put together its schedules.

Along with fellow faculty member Professor Donniell Fishkind, the duo has combined forces to develop the methodology that a student task force has used to assemble calendars for professional baseball leagues, most notably the MLB complex leagues, in Florida and Arizona, and the Dominican Summer League.

“We are excited to bring our scheduling methodology to the USHL and support the league’s innovative approach,” Dahbura said. “This collaboration represents our first project outside of baseball and another exciting opportunity to apply our research and technology in a real-world, high-performance sports environment.”

Next season’s USHL schedule is set to be announced in June.

Along with attacking schedule-making on a different scale, the USHL recently announced an elevated partnership between the league, USA Hockey and the NHL, creating the “Declaration of Excellence” model. The plan is to help produce even more NHL and NCAA-caliber players by following the USHL’s “athlete-healthy” schedule.