The 2023–24 Asia League Ice Hockey season was the 21st season of operation (19th season of play) of the Asia League Ice Hockey.
The regular season began on 16 September 2023 when the defending champions HL Anyang host Red Eagles Hokkaido. The season concluded on 6 April 2024 with HL Anyang defeating the Red Eagles Hokkaido in 4 games to clinch their eighth championship.
Season changes The league dropped the East Hokkaido Cranes on 17 July 2023 after the team could not resolve outstanding salary issues from the previous season.
Only two teams qualify for the playoffs this season due to the reduced number of participating teams.
Teams Only five teams from the 2022–23 season returned for the 2023–24 season after East Hokkaido Cranes folded.
HL Anyang Anyang Anyang Ice Arena 1,284 Red Eagles Hokkaido Tomakomai Hakucho Arena 3,015 Nikkō Ice Bucks Nikkō Nikkō Kirifuri Ice Arena 1,608 Tohoku Free Blades Hachinohe Flat Hachinohe 3,500 Yokohama Grits Yokohama KOSÉ Shin-Yokohama Skate Center 2,500
Regular season The league's regular season began on 16 September 2023 and ended on 24 March 2024, which HL Anyang clinching their seventh regular season championship.
Standings
Results Teams play each other eight times, four at home and four away.
Playoffs The two teams that finished at the top of the regular season were the only teams participating in the 2024 playoffs. The Finals were competed in a best-of-five series following a 2–2–1–1–1 format. The regular season runners-up hosted games one and two, and the first place team hosted games three and four (game five, was not necessary).
Finals (1) HL Anyang vs. (2) Red Eagles Hokkaido
Statistics
Scoring leaders
The following shows the top players who led the league in points, at the conclusion of matches played on 24 March 2024. Player Team HL Anyang 32 8 40 48 +3 16 Red Eagles Hokkaido 32 25 22 47 +5 20 Red Eagles Hokkaido 32 3 44 47 +2 28 Tohoku Free Blades 28 20 26 46 +2 12 Red Eagles Hokkaido 32 16 29 45 +2 10 HL Anyang 29 18 23 41 +5 14 HL Anyang 32 16 18 34 +4 19 Yokohama Grits 32 11 20 31 +1 26 Tohoku Free Blades 32 9 21 30 +2 14 Nikkō Ice Bucks 21 18 10 28 +1 13
Leading goaltenders The following shows the top goaltenders who led the league in goals against average, provided that they have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, at the conclusion of matches played on 24 March 2024.
Player Team Red Eagles Hokkaido 13 773:09 26 94.22 2.02 Red Eagles Hokkaido 18 1071:26 43 92.11 2.41 HL Anyang 29 1753:19 71 91.57 2.43 Tohoku Free Blades 13 776:18 36 91.91 2.78 Nikkō Ice Bucks 27 1481:23 81 90.17 3.28 Tohoku Free Blades 20 1123:59 65 89.60 3.47 Yokohama Grits 18 1044:40 73 88.63 4.19
Awards Award Winner League champions HL Anyang Most valuable player (playoffs) Shin Sang-woo, HL Anyang Most valuable player (regular season) Lee Chong-min, HL Anyang Best goaltender Yuta Narisawa, Red Eagles Hokkaido Rookie of the year Riku Ishida, Tohoku Free Blades Leading scorer (Regular season) Seiji Takahashi, Red Eagles Hokkaido Leading assists (Regular season) Ryo Hashimoto, Red Eagles Hokkaido Leading points (Regular season) Kim Sang-wook, HL Anyang
Team of the year First Team Yuta Narisawa (G) – Red Eagles Hokkaido Ryo Hashimoto (D) – Red Eagles Hokkaido Song Hyeong-cheol (D) – HL Anyang Alexandre Boivin (F) – Tohoku Free Blades Seiji Takahashi (F) – Red Eagles Hokkaido Shogo Nakajima (F) – Red Eagles Hokkaido
References