The North American Hockey Confederation was, by 1922, firmly established in the hearts and minds of Canadian hockey fans as the sport's top circuit. Sure, the play in the TCHA out west was pretty fine, and the new guys down in the U.S. were entertaining, but the NAHC had dominated the competition for the sport's ultimate prize: the Challenge Cup. So the NAHC owners grudgingly acknowledged the USHA in 1922, accepting it as a "major" circuit and opening the door to doing business with Jack Connolly's league - and in one case, with Connolly himself.

The USHA had been successful in its first season. With three of the four clubs playing in big cities with large, brand-new arenas featuring artificial ice plants, the USHA was attractive. The talent level of the players was not as good as the level of the NAHC, or probably even the TCHA, but the fans did come out in droves in New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Buffalo, Connolly's own club, drew fairly well, but was playing in the league's oldest facility (though it did have an ice plant) and Connolly hadn't found any takers for his money amongst the NAHC players, leaving him behind the other USHA teams who went after non-NAHC players and signed all the worthwhile players, leaving scraps for Connolly's Buffalo Bears. The results in 1921-22 bore this out - the Bears stunk.

So, Connolly looked to do two things in the USHA's first offseason: first, get a big-name player, ideally from the NAHC and second, make his Bears better. Ideally he could do both with one move. So he approached the Montreal Valiants. Gevis Murphy had been unhappy in Montreal the last couple of seasons and the Valiants were trying to get rid of him and his bad attitude. Murphy was one of the most famous players in hockey, so Connolly targeted him specifically even though he would be 35 years old when the season started. The Valiants requested a Quebecois winger named Rene Mailloux in return. Though Mailloux was both young and talented, he was also a bit of a hothead. Connolly attempted to get Montreal to take another player, but the Valiants gave a "Mailloux or nothing" ultimatum so the deal was made. It would be an incredible deal for the Valiants, and in the short term, it worked well for Buffalo as well. Murphy, knowing Connolly, was initially reluctant to go to Buffalo, only agreeing after his demand to be made coach as well was accepted.

Another big offseason move was made by Toronto. The Dukes had the league's best young player in Jack Barrell and wanted to surround him with top talent. Knowing you can't get something for nothing, they dealt the highly-popular Cal Oliphant to Vancouver for the Pacifics' highest-paid (and best) player, center Charles Rausse. Rausse had been unhappy after George Yeadon had dealt his brother Aaron to Philadelphia the year before. For Vancouver, it was addition by subtraction while for Toronto, this was a chance to put arguably the game's best center next to the game's best shooter. Barrell was generally acknowledged, after just a couple of years in the league, as the game's best shooter with a quick and powerful wrist shot he claimed owed much to his "summer job" as a baseball player.

In league business, in his role as TCHA President, George Yeadon finally did away with the rover. The sixth-man had been a staple of the TCHA going back to its first season, but now it was gone. The USHA would also do away with it, and the NAHC had gotten rid of it long ago. For the rest of history, pro hockey would be five skaters and a goalie.