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This is the 2016-17 North American Hockey League season.  This is the league's 33rd season under this name and its 42nd dating back to its founding as the Great Lakes Junior Hockey League in 1975 when the Michigan Junior Hockey League and the Wolverine Junior A Hockey League merged.  On June 30th the league released the regular season schedule. Each of the league's 24 teams will play a 60 game schedule.  The regular season will start on September 9, 2016 and will end on April 9, 2017.

Special Events[]

Annual NAHL Showcase Tournament[]

The league scheduled the 14th annual tournament for September 21-24, 2016.  The event will feature all 24 league members and be held at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine, Minnesota.

Top Prospects Tournament[]

This event will be held on February 27-28, 2017 at the USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan.  The schedule and format will be announced.

Robertson Cup Championship[]

The league championship will be held May 11-14, 2017 at a neutral location to be announced later.

Membership Changes[]

On October 22, 2015  a press conference was held in Shreveport, Louisiana to announce the addition of the Shreveport Mudbugs.  The previous Mudbugs teams was founded in 1997 and played in the Central Hockey League until folding in 2011.  The Hirsch Coliseum is undergoing a $1.5 million upgrade and will once again have an ice surface.  The new team will commence play with the start of the 2016-17 season.

In April of 2016 the league announced the addition of the Northeast Generals who will be based out of the New England Sports Village in Attleboro, Massachusetts, a suburb between Boston and Providence.  The team will start the season at the organiztion's home for the 2015-16 season, the Canton Sportsplex in Canton, Massachusetts as the NESV is under construction in the summer of 2016.  The team had originally stated they would hoping to play a few games in Boston at Matthews Arena and Walter Brown Arena but when the schedule was released they were not listed a sites for any of their games.  The team was forced to move several of its games to Rodman Arena in Walpole, Massachusetts when the NESV was not ready for use.

Posted reports indicate that the Kenai River Brown Bears will be either folding or moving to Wausau, Wisconsin for the 2017-18 season, which had followed reports of the team possibly folding after this season being posted as the economy of the state of Alaska had put the state's 2 NCAA programs at the risk of being ended and the Alaska Aces of the ECHL lead to the announced folding at the end of the 2016-17 hockey season.  The team had filed the paperwork for dormancy after the 2016-17 season ended.  The team apparently put together a fund raising effort which raised $300,000 and netted 300 season ticket applications  out of their 500 ticket goal.  The team received approval for reactivation at a conference call meeting held on April 18, 2017.  Along with the renewal of the Kenai River franchise interest has been heating up on the Anchorage market as well since the announced folding of the ECHL team as it would make the other two Alaska teams more viable.

In May as part of the release of the divisional alignments and showcase events for the 2017-18 season it was announced that the Wichita Falls Wildcats had requested and received inactive status for the 2017-18 season.

Current teams[]

The 2016-17 season has 24 teams playing in 4 divisions:

Standings[]

Central Division[]

Team GP W L OL SL GF GA Pts
Minot Minotauros 60 38 18 4 0 192 156 80
Minnesota Wilderness 60 32 22 4 2 188 179 70
Brookings Blizzard 60 30 25 4 1 192 193 65
Aberdeen Wings 60 29 24 3 4 184 185 65
Bismarck Bobcats 60 28 30 1 1 187 209 58
Austin Bruins 60 24 27 4 5 185 202 57

Midwest Division[]

Team GP W L OL SL GF GA Pts
Janesville Jets 60 42 13 1 4 224 153 89
Fairbanks Ice Dogs 60 33 24 2 1 185 165 69
Minnesota Magicians 60 31 22 4 3 180 169 69
Coulee Region Chill 60 31 27 2 0 220 220 64
Springfield Jr. Blues 60 27 28 4 1 174 189 59
Kenai River Brown Bears 60 12 46 2 0 121 233 26

East Division[]

Team GP W L OL SL GF GA Pts
Aston Rebels 60 46 11 2 1 214 106 95
Johnstown Tomahawks 60 40 16 3 1 209 148 84
New Jersey Titans 60 34 22 1 3 228 198 72
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights 60 30 25 1 4 201 193 65
Northeast Generals 60 4 53 3 0 116 305 11

South Division[]

Team GP W L OL SL GF GA Pts
Lone Star Brahmas 60 44 14 2 0 190 135 90
Shreveport Mudbugs 60 35 19 3 3 189 151 76
Corpus Christi IceRays 60 32 19 4 5 183 155 73
Wichita Falls Wildcats 60 29 24 6 2 187 203 65
Odessa Jackalopes 60 26 25 4 3 183 200 61
Amarillo Bulls 60 22 28 8 2 173 206 54
Topeka RoadRunners 60 21 34 4 1 176 228 47

Robertson Cup Playoffs[]

Robertson Cup Logo

The top four teams in each division qualify for the playoffs. Each of the four division champions will meet at the Essentia Health Duluth Heritage Center  in Duluth, Minnesota  from May 11th to 14th.  The teams will be seeded 1-4 based on regular season standings and paired off 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 in best of three semifinal series with the two series winners meeting in a single game championship.

Central Division Semifinals[]

East Division Semifinals[]

Midwest Division Semifinals[]

South Division Semifinals[]

Central Division Final[]

East Division Final[]

Midwest Division Final[]

South Division Final[]

Robertson Cup Semifinals[]

Robertson Cup Final[]

2017 NAHL champs Lone Star Brahmas

2017 NAHL Robertson Cup champs Lone Star Brahmas

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