The 2017–18 EHL season was the 5th season of the Eastern Hockey League. The regular season ran from September 2017 to March 2018 with a 50-game schedule for each team. The Philadelphia Revolution won the regular season championship and went on to be defeated by the New Hampshire Avalanche 3 to 2 for the league championship.
League Rebrand For this season, the EHL rebranded its different tiers. The primary league would drop the "Premier" moniker and simply be called the "Eastern Hockey League" or EHL. The Elite Division would then become the new Premier Division. While the name changes could lead to some confusion, the league stuck with this new arrangement for many years afterwards.
Member changes In October of 2016, the United States Premier Hockey League announced the formation of a new Tier II league starting the following fall. By December, six EHL members (the Boston Bandits, Connecticut Nighthawks, Hartford Jr. Wolfpack, New Hampshire Junior Monarchs, New Jersey Rockets, and Northern Cyclones) announced that they would be joining the USPHL for the upcoming season. After losing more than a third of the league in one fell swoop, the EHL responded by bringing in several new teams.
During their year-long hiatus, the New York Bobcats had merged with the Long Island Royals organization. The Bobcats, now referred to as the "Bobcats Royals", rejoined the EHL while the Royals joined the Premier Division.
Shortly afterwards, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights, who had restarted their Tier III club in 2016, agreed to transferred the outfit back into the EHL.
After recouping two former members, the league then added expansion teams in the form of the New Hampshire Avalanche and Total Athletics Seahawks.
Finally, the Superior RoughRiders of the Western States Hockey League announced plans to partner with a new eastern affiliate. The Roughriders would eventually reach an agreement with the EHL whereby the Connecticut Oilers would relocate to Hamden, Connecticut. This allowed a new club, the Connecticut RoughRiders to use the SoNo Ice House, the Oilers former arena, as their home venue.
Regular season
The standings at the end of the regular season were as follows:
Note: x = clinched playoff berth; y = clinched division title; z = clinched conference title; r = clinched regular season title
Standings Northern Conference - New England Division - Team xyz – New Hampshire Avalanche 5039748220499 x – Vermont Lumberjacks 502424250163162 x – New England Wolves 501731236146234 Valley Jr. Warriors 501531434131191
- Boston Division - Team xy – Boston Junior Rangers 503811177197114 x – Walpole Express 503611375207123 x – East Coast Wizards 502918361170147 Total Athletics Seahawks 501430634107177
Southern Conference - Central Division - Team xy – Connecticut RoughRiders 503118163206139 x – New York Apple Core 502318955160157 x – Connecticut Oilers 501433331118205 New York Bobcats Royals 5044241292298
- Mid-Atlantic Division - Team xyzr – Philadelphia Revolution 5041818323499 x – Philadelphia Little Flyers 50399280213104 x – Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights 502425149170180 Philadelphia Jr. Flyers 50123263098187
EHL playoffs Note: All four division winners received byes to the conference semifinals and were seeded 1 and 2 in their respective brackets. The next four teams in each conference were seeded in the conference quarterfinals regardless of their division.
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
References
EHL reference
External links Official website of the Eastern Hockey League