North American Hockey League

North American Hockey League
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "North_American_Hockey_League".

see also North American Hockey League (1973–1977)

content

North American Hockey League

Sport	Ice Hockey
Founded	1975
Commissioner	Mark Frankenfeld
No. of teams	19
Country(ies)	United States
Most recent champion(s)	St. Louis Bandits
Official website	www.nahl.com

The North American Hockey League (NAHL) and the defunct America West Hockey League merged in 2003 to form a 21-team Junior A Tier II league, sanctioned by USA Hockey. The NAHL currently acts as an alternative to the United States Hockey League (USHL).

The league currently consists of three divisions with a total of 18 teams. The teams span the United States from Ohio in the east to Alaska in the West. It also spans from Alaska in the north to Texas in the south. The teams play a 58-game regular season, starting in mid-September and ending in early April. The winner of each division will join the host team of the Robertson Cup Tournament, a four team round-robin event.

1 2008-09 teams
2 League changes
3 Robertson Cup winners
4 References
5 External links

2008-09 teams

Central Division

North Division

South Division

West Division

Inactive

Texas Tornado (will return in '09-'10)

League changes

In the 2006–2007 season, Bozeman Icedogs, Billings Bulls, and Helena left the league for the Northern Pacific Hockey League. Cleveland Jr. Barons were granted inactive status for the season. Wasilla Spirit changed name to Alaska Avalanche. Minnesota Blizzard changed name to Alexandria Blizzard. Texarkana Bandits moved to Chesterfield, Missouri and changed name to St. Louis Bandits. Marquette Rangers were added to the league.

2007–2008 season: The Santa Fe Roadrunners moved to Topeka, Kansas. The Topeka Roadrunners now play at Landon Arena. The Kenai River Brown Bears started playing in the league.

2008-2009 season: The Southern Minnesota Express moved to Detroit and changed their name to the Motor City Machine.¹ However, the Express' home city of Owatonna will get another NAHL team for 2008-09, which will become the Owatonna Express. ². The Express are joined by another new Minnesota NAHL franschise, the Albert Lea Thunder. ³ The Texas Tornado franchise will go dark for a year as they await renovations on their arena. Wenatchee, Washington has been awarded an expansion franchise for the 2008-09 season. ⁴ The Fargo-Moorhead Jets are approved for dormancy. .⁵