The 2016–17 NOJHL season was the 39th season of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL). The Powassan Voodoos finished the regular season in first place and went on to win the league championship Copeland Cup – McNamara Trophy.
The inaugural 2016 NOJHL showcase tournament took place over two days in October at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex in Greater Sudbury. Each team in the league played two regular season games.
Yianni Liarakos of the Blind River Beavers became the 3rd player in league history to score 11 game-winning goals in a single season. The other players to do so were Andrew Bain of the Timmins Golden Bears in the 1994–95 season, and Todd Crane of the Rayside Balfour Canadians in the 1998–99 season.
Regular season
Each team played 56 season games, including 4 or 5 games against the teams in their division, and 2 games against teams in the other division. The top 5 teams in each division advanced to the playoffs.
|+ style="background:#CDCCCB; border-top:#182E57 5px solid; border-bottom:#182E57 5px solid"| ! style=width:15em | Team ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Games Played">GP</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Wins">W</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Losses">L</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Overtime Wins">OTW</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Overtime Losses">OTL</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Goals For">GF</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Goals Against">GA</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Points">Pts</abbr title> |- align=right | align=left|Powassan Voodoos || 56 || 46 || 7 || 6 || 2 || 271 || 121 || 95 |- align=right | align=left|Cochrane Crunch || 56 || 38 || 13 || 5 || 4 || 257 || 175 || 81 |- align=right | align=left|Timmins Rock || 56 || 36 || 16 || 7 || 3 || 271 || 202 || 76 |- align=right | align=left|Kirkland Lake Gold Miners || 56 || 28 || 21 || 3 || 4 || 232 || 190 || 63 |- align=right | align=left|Iroquois Falls Eskis || 56 || 16 || 36 || 1 || 4 || 203 || 282 || 36 |- align=right | align=left|French River Rapids || 56 || 3 || 51 || 0 || 1 || 128 || 376 || 8
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|+ style="background:#CDCCCB; border-top:#182E57 5px solid; border-bottom:#182E57 5px solid"| ! style=width:15em | Team ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Games Played">GP</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Wins">W</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Losses">L</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Overtime Wins">OTW</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Overtime Losses">OTL</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Goals For">GF</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Goals Against">GA</abbr title> ! style=width:2.2em | <abbr title="Points">Pts</abbr title> |- align=right | align=left|Soo Thunderbirds || 56 || 43 || 11 || 2 || 1 || 232 || 134 || 88 |- align=right | align=left|Blind River Beavers || 56 || 32 || 20 || 2 || 4 || 214 || 162 || 68 |- align=right | align=left|Rayside Balfour Canadians || 56 || 28 || 24 || 2 || 3 || 191 || 200 || 60 |- align=right | align=left|Soo Eagles || 56 || 27 || 26 || 2 || 2 || 222 || 204 || 57 |- align=right | align=left|Elliot Lake Wildcats || 56 || 23 || 26 || 2 || 4 || 157 || 174 || 53 |- align=right | align=left|Espanola Express || 56 || 9 || 45 || 1 || 1 || 139 || 297 || 20
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Post-season
The first, second and third place teams from each division after the regular season advanced to the quarterfinals, while the fourth and fifth place teams from each division advanced to the first-round best-of-three series of the playoffs. The winners from each best-of-three series advanced to the quarterfinals to play the first place team from their division.
After placing 1st in the regular season, the Powassan Voodoos went undefeated in the post-season to win the league championship Copeland Cup – McNamara Trophy in 12 games. It was the first championship in the team's 3-year history.
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Regional championship
The 2017 Dudley Hewitt Cup Central Canada regional championship took place in Trenton, Ontario. The competition included the Powassan Voodoos of the NOJHL, the Dryden Ice Dogs of the SIJHL, the Georgetown Raiders of the OJHL, and the host team, the Trenton Golden Hawks of the OJHL. The format consisted of a preliminary round-robin, followed by a single-elimination semifinal and final. After losing 2 out of 3 games in the preliminary round, the Powassan Voodoos lost to the Georgetown Raiders in the semifinal by a score of 2–1, and thus were eliminated from competition. The Trenton Golden Hawks then defeated the Raiders in the final match by a score of 2–1 to win the tournament and advance to the 2017 Royal Bank Cup national championship tournament in Cobourg.
Preliminary round
Playoffs
Individual awards
In 2017, the annual award for the league's most gentlemanly player was renamed the David Harrison Trophy in honour of the league's longtime statistician and historian. Harrison retired in 2019 after 47 years with the league.
Most valuable player of the regular season: Nate McDonald (Powassan Voodoos) Best defenceman: Connor Lovie (Cochrane Crunch) Rookie of the year: Kyle Liinamaa (Rayside Balfour Canadians) Most improved player: Jake Saxton (Soo Eagles) Top defensive forward: Parker Bowman (Powassan Voodoos) Best goals-against-average for a goaltender: Nate McDonald (Powassan Voodoos) Team goaltending award: Nate McDonald & Andrew Suriano (Powassan Voodoos) League scoring champion: Braeden Cross (Cochrane Crunch) Most gentlemanly player: Anthony Bastianello (Blind River Beavers) Best overall team player: Matt Caruso (Soo Thunderbirds) Scholastic player of the year: Cayse Ton (Rayside Balfour Canadians) Coach of the year: Kyle Brick (Blind River Beavers) Executive of the year: Bruno Bragagnola (Soo Eagles) RBC scholarship: Brandon Grandinetti (Soo Thunderbirds)
References
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