CRANBERRY TWP — Members of the next generation of college and professional hockey stars are on display here this weekend.

Through Sunday, the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex is hosting the United States Hockey League’s Fall Classic East, one of the most heavily scouted amateur hockey events of the year. It started Thursday.

“Cranberry is the epicenter of the hockey world this week,” said Bob Fallen, USHL president and commissioner.

The USHL is the only tier-I junior hockey league in the United States. It has players between the ages of 16 and 20. The Fall Classic East is the second of two exhibition tournaments being played before roster cuts and the beginning of the league’s regular season. Last weekend the Fall Classic West was held in Omaha, Neb.

The Cranberry event features all nine teams in the league’s Eastern Conference and also EC Red Bull Salzburg from Austria. Starting Saturday there is also a tournament with 16 Bantam major teams, with players 14 and younger, including the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite team.

It is an opportunity for professional and college scouts to get a look at numerous promising athletes in person, including 66 that were named as top prospects for the 2017 draft by NHL Central Scouting.

More than 150 scouts were expected to attend, including at least one representative from each NHL team and numerous college programs.

Fallen said parents and youth hockey participants who see USHL action for the first time are often impressed with how fast and skilled the players are.

“If you want to see the highest level of amateur hockey in the United States, this is it,” Fallen said.

The league is also holding two seminars for local hockey players to educate them about the hockey “ladder of development” from youth hockey up to professional hockey.

USHL players retain their amateur status, which makes it the top feeder league for college programs. In other junior leagues, such as the three leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League, players receive compensation, which means they become ineligible for college.

“We try to educate the kids that you really have to understand the consequences of your decisions,” he said, adding that college hockey players have a 92 percent graduation rate.

Last year the league had more than 400 players commit to NCAA Division I programs and more than 30 players were drafted by NHL teams. Pittsburgh Penguins winger Bryan Rust played in the league before going to college at the University of Notre Dame.

Aside from Penguins training camp, the tournament is the biggest event the Lemieux Complex has hosted thus far, said Matt Herr, president and executive director of the complex.

The USHL held a smaller showcase there last year with four teams. The success of that event helped the organizers see the possibility of hosting a larger event this year and maybe more events in future years.

“This tournament doesn’t come to any town, it comes to a hockey town and a town like Cranberry that has the facilities and hotels to support it,” Herr said.

Co-hosting the event is the Youngstown Phantoms junior team, the closest team to Western Pennsylvania.

Troy Loney, former Pittsburgh Penguins winger and co-owner of the Phantoms, said the event is a good chance to expose the area to the top junior players in the country and show youth that there is a junior team that is only a 40-minute drive from Cranberry.

---- “We’re the league that feeds the college leagues,” he said. “Junior hockey is not just in Canada.”

---- Organizers estimated 350 USHL players, coaches and trainers; 150 scouts and 400 people with the Bantam tournament are visiting the area. Most are staying in hotels in Cranberry and the league booked 1,500 rooms for them, said Aaron Westendorf, league director of communications.

---- The league also made 3,000 tickets available for each day, with a capacity of about 1,500 at each of the complex’s two rinks. They expect a near capacity crowd for the Youngstown Phantoms games.

---- Jack Cohen, president of the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau, said Thursday that those thousands of visitors will likely spend more than $1 million at nearby hotels, stores and restaurants.

---- “This is a really good economic development piece for our community,” Cohen said.

---- Among the spectators Thursday afternoon to watch the first game between the Muskegon Lumberkjacks and Bloomington Thunder was Mitchell Mills, 12, of Cranberry Township who came with his father, Tom.

---- “We wanted to see how good these guys are,” Mitchell said.

---- Mitchell said he plays youth hockey and aspires to be an NHL goalie some day, which means he will likely try to get onto a juniors roster in a couple years.

---- Justin Irwin of Warren, Ohio, said he is a lifelong Penguins fan and also goes to many Youngstown Phantoms games. Many people don’t realize the high caliber of play at the USHL level, he said.

---- “It’s better than some of the lower-level pro teams. I’d say it’s a lot faster than the Wheeling Nailers for example,” he said.

---- Retired Butler County planning director Dave Johnston of Saxonburg was at the tournament to volunteer as a goal judge, hitting a button to sound the buzzer when a goal is scored.

---- “You don’t appreciate how fast it is and how tough it is until you’re down there by the glass,” he said.

---- For a full schedule of games, visit ushl.com.