2017–18 EIHL season
| 2017–18 EIHL season | |
|---|---|
| League | Elite Ice Hockey League |
| Sport | Ice hockey |
| Duration | 9 September 2017 – 25 March 2018 |
| Number of matches | 336 |
| Total attendance | 904,161 |
| Regular season | |
| League | Cardiff Devils |
| Season MVP | Joey Martin (Cardiff Devils) |
| Top scorer | Mike Hammond (Manchester Storm) (83 points) |
| Challenge Cup | |
| Winners | Belfast Giants |
| Conference | |
| Erhardt champions | Cardiff Devils |
| Gardiner champions | Fife Flyers |
| Patton champions | Manchester Storm |
| Playoffs | |
| Champions | Cardiff Devils |
| Runners-up | Sheffield Steelers |
| Finals MVP | Justin Faryna (Cardiff Devils) |
The 2017–18 EIHL season was the 15th season of the Elite Ice Hockey League. The regular season commenced on 9 September 2017 and ended on 25 March 2018. The reigning league champions were the Cardiff Devils, who won the championship for the first time in 2016–17. The Devils retained their regular season title, with a 3–2 victory away at the Belfast Giants on 16 March 2018. The Devils also won the playoff title, beating the Sheffield Steelers – who had defeated the Devils 12 months prior in a 6–5 double overtime game – 3–1 in the final, winning a first playoff title since 1998–99.
The league expanded from ten teams to twelve teams for the 2017–18 season, with the introduction of two former English Premier Ice Hockey League teams; the Guildford Flames and the Milton Keynes Lightning.
Starting from the 2017–18 season, the league featured three conferences of four teams compared to the previous season's two conferences of five teams. The Gardiner Conference became an all-Scottish division, with the Braehead Clan, the Dundee Stars, the Edinburgh Capitals and the Fife Flyers. The Manchester Storm, who were part of the Gardiner Conference in 2016–17, moved to a new Southern conference: the Patton Conference. Also part of the division were the Coventry Blaze (moving from the Erhardt Conference), the Guildford Flames and the Milton Keynes Lightning. The final conference was the Erhardt Conference, consisting of the four "Arena" teams: the Belfast Giants, the Cardiff Devils, the Nottingham Panthers and the Sheffield Steelers.
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