2017-18 NAHL Season

This is the 2017-18 North American Hockey League season.  This is the league's 34th season under this name and its 43rd 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 season begins September 13th and ends April 7th.

The 15th annual 2017 NAHL Showcase Tournament will be held from September 20-23, 2017 at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine, Minnesota. All 23 NAHL teams will play four regular-season games at the Showcase.

The 2018 NAHL Top Prospects Tournament will be held from February 26-27, 2018 at the USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan.

The 2018 Robertson Cup Championship, which crowns the NAHL’s playoff champion and USA Hockey’s Tier II Junior National Champion, will be held in May of 2018 at a neutral site and will feature the four NAHL Divisional Playoff Champions. The tournament will be held May 10-13, 2018 at the Fogerty Arena in Blaine, Minnesota.

On November 9, 2017 the Philadelphia Rebels announced that their March 10, 2018 game against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights would be played at the Wells Fargo Center, home of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Membership Changes

 * Posted reports indicated that the Kenai River Brown Bears would 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.  The owner had been trying to find a buyer for the franchise that would keep the team in Wichita Falls. After failing to do so; the decision was made to suspend operations.
 * On July 24, 2017 the Aston Rebels announced they were relocating to the Penn Ice Rink at the Class of 1923 Arena and the team would be renamed the Philadelphia Rebels.
 * On April 12, 2018 the league announced an expansion team that will begin play with the 2018-19 season to be based out of the Piney Orchard Ice Arena in Odenton, Maryland, which is a suburb of Baltimore.  The arena had been previously a practice facility for the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League. On May 9, 2018 it was announce the team will be known as the Maryland Black Bears.
 * On April 30, 2018 the league announced that the Coulee Region Chill were sold and would be relocated about 90 miles (145km) north to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin playing out of the Chippewa Area Ice Arena.  The team is being renamed to the Chippewa Steel.  In a related move the La Crosse Freeze of the North American 3 Hockey League will have their membership transferred to nearby Onalaska, Wisconsin and would become the Coulee Region Chill to replace the NAHL team in that city.
 * On June 13, 2018 the Philadelphia Rebels announced the team would be relocating to Jamestown, New York for the 2018-19 season.

Current teams
The 2017-18 season has 23 teams playing in 4 divisions with one inactive team:

Format
The top four teams in each division qualify for the playoffs. The division semifinals and division finals are best-of-five. The four division winning teams advance to the Robertson Cup and 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

 * Minot Minotauros defeated Aberdeen Wings 3 games to 2
 * Austin Bruins defeated Minnesota Wilderness 3 games to 1

East Division Semifinals

 * Philadelphia Rebels defeated Northeast Generals 3 games to 2
 * Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights defeated New Jersey Titans games to 2

Midwest Division Semifinals

 * Janesville Jets defeated Springfield Jr. Blues 3 games to none
 * Fairbanks Ice Dogs defeated Minnesota Magicians 3 games to none

South Division Semifinals

 * Shreveport Mudbugs defeated Corpus Christi IceRays 3 games to 2
 * Lone Star Brahmas defeated Odessa Jackalopes 3 games to none

Central Division Final

 * Minot Minotauros defeated Austin Bruins 3 games to none

East Division Final

 * Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights defeated Philadelphia Rebels 3 games to 0

Midwest Division Final

 * Fairbanks Ice Dogs defeated Janesville Jets 3 games to 2

South Division Final

 * Shreveport Mudbugs defeated Lone Star Brahmas 3 games to 2

Format
The four divisional playoff champions will advance to the Robertson Cup Championship, which will be held at the Fogerty Arena in Blaine, Minnesota. Clubs will be seeded 1-4 based upon their finish in the NAHL regular-season standings. If necessary, the tie-breaking policy adopted in the NAHL Rules and Regulations will be applied to determine the final seeding. The game schedule will be as follows: The #1 Seed will face the #4 seed in a best of three series. The #2 seed will face the #3 seed in a best of three series. The two series winners will advance on to a one-game playoff to determine the Robertson Cup Champion. The event will begin on Friday, May 11th and conclude on Monday, May 14th.

Robertson Cup Semifinals

 * Minot Minotauros defeated Fairbanks Ice Dogs 2 games to 1
 * Shreveport Mudbugs defeated Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights 2 games to none

Robertson Cup Final

 * Shreveport Mudbugs defeated Minot Minotauros 2-1