Canada's social insurance system would cover the expense for Canadian citizens in Canada, but the teams provided no coverage usable in the U.S. A number of Portland Buckaroos, including Doug Messier, Arlo Goodwin, and teammates, led the group and hired Portland attorney Curt Leichner as their legal counsel to legally form a WHL players association to allow WHL players to take advantage of group pension and health care plans, gaining better benefits through strength in numbers.
With a number of former WHL executives at the helm of the CHL, players were eager to organize a collective voice and become members of the PHPA.
In 1985, players in the former International Hockey League (1945–2001) (IHL) petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to join the PHPA.
In 1994, a group of players from the East Coast Hockey League approached Landon about being represented by the PHPA.
Eventually, on March 17, 1995, the NLRB conducted a formal, secret ballot vote among players in each ECHL city.
The result was an overwhelming response from the players in favor of unionizing the ECHL, with the first PHPA-ECHL CBA finalized in October 1995.
The league and PHPA reached an inaugural CBA in October 2009, which was retained until the CHL and ECHL consolidated in 2014.