The 2016–17 Federal Hockey League season is the seventh season of the

Federal Hockey League The Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL) is a professional ice hockey independent minor league with teams in the Midwestern, Southern, and Northeastern United States. The FPHL began operations in November 2010 as the Federal Hockey League. D ...

. The regular season ran from October 28, 2016 to April 2, 2017, with an unbalanced 56-game schedule between the seven teams. The

Danville Dashers The Danville Dashers were a semi-professional ice hockey team that played in Danville, Illinois, United States, at the David S. Palmer Arena. Originally, the Dashers played in the Continental Hockey League (1972–1986), Continental Hockey Leagu ...

won their first Commissioner's Cup.

League changes

The

Watertown Wolves The Watertown Wolves are a minor professional hockey team in the Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL) based in Watertown, New York, and play home games at the Watertown Municipal Arena. The team was on hiatus during the 2015–16 season while ...

completed renovations to their ice rink and signed a new one-year lease agreement with the city of Watertown in order to return after one season off. In May 2016, the league expanded to

St. Clair Shores, Michigan St. Clair Shores is a suburban city bordering Lake Saint Clair (North America), Lake St. Clair in Macomb County, Michigan, Macomb County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms a part of the Metro Detroit area, and is located about northeast of d ...

(

Metro Detroit The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the ...

), with the new

St. Clair Shores Fighting Saints The St. Clair Shores Fighting Saints were a minor professional ice hockey team in the Federal Hockey League that began play in the 2016–17 season based in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. The Fighting Saints played their home games at the St. Clai ...

, playing out of the

St. Clair Shores Civic Arena ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...

. On July 13, 2016, the "Dayton Pro Hockey" team, formerly known as the

Dayton Demolition The Dayton Demolition was a minor league professional ice hockey team in the Federal Hockey League based in Dayton, Ohio and played their home games at Hara Arena. The team was known as the Berkshire Battalion in North Adams, Massachusetts befor ...

before removing references to the Demolition name in March 2016, announced it would go dormant for the 2016–17 season. Owner Joe Pace, Sr. claimed that

Hara Arena Hara Arena was a 5,500-seat multi-purpose arena located in the Trotwood, Ohio suburb of Dayton. The facility began as a ballroom in 1956, added an arena in 1964 and grew to a six-building complex which closed in August 2016. At various times, it ...

could not sign leases to tenants and he did not believe he could put together a team without a proper lead up time and secured arena. He also stated he would look to keep the team in Dayton in 2017 even if Hara Arena is still not available. Hara Arena would end up closing permanently in August 2016. In June 2016,

Brewster Bulldogs The Brewster Bulldogs were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the Federal Hockey League playing in Brewster, New York. The team played in the 2015–16 FHL season. History On April 3, 2015, the Danbury Ice Arena announced that it did ...

owner, Bruce Bennett mentioned to ''

The News-Times ''The News-Times'' is a daily newspaper based in Danbury, Connecticut, United States. It is owned and operated by the Hearst Corporation. The paper covers Danbury, a city in Fairfield County in southwestern Connecticut, as well as the towns of ...

'' that he would solely focus on his

Danbury Titans The Danbury Titans were a professional ice hockey team based in Danbury, Connecticut. Replacing the Danbury Whalers, the team was founded as an expansion team in the Federal Hockey League. They played their home games at the Danbury Ice Arena. H ...

team and would no longer be involved with the Bulldogs. Without finding new ownership, Bennett decided to suspend Bulldogs operations on July 14, 2016. On September 14, the city of

Cornwall, Ontario Cornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, situated where the provinces of Central Canada, Ontario and Quebec and the state of New York (state), New York converge. It is the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Unit ...

, approved a team called the Cornwall Nationals to begin play for the 2016–17 season out of the

Ed Lumley Arena The Cornwall Civic Complex is a business/sports facility located in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. The arena inside is called the Ed Lumley Arena, named for Ed Lumley. It was built in 1976 and originally held 4,000 people, but in 2008, the arena had a ...

. On September 16, the FHL approved of the addition to the league for the upcoming season. The new team replaced the recently folded Cornwall River Kings and led by Mitch Gagne and Rodney Rivette. Midway through their first season, Rivette bought out Gagne's share of the team and Gagne left his position of general manager on 18 December. On December 21, the Nationals announced that it had secured another local investor, Will Beauvais, to help support the team, while Nationals forward, Basem Awwad, also took over general manager duties at that time.

Standings

Final standings : Advance to playoffs

Playoffs

References

External links

Federal Hockey League website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2016-17 FHL season FHL Federal Prospects Hockey League seasons