Vålerenga Ishockey played their last home game at Jordal Amfi on January 7.[1] A new arena will be constructed at the site, planned for completion in September 2018. Vålerenga will finish the season with Furuset Forum as a temporary arena.[2]
Regular season
Winter Classic
An outdoor match featuring Stjernen and Sparta Warriors was played January 21, 2017. The match was played on Fredrikstad stadion and was the first major outdoor match in Norway in the 21st century.[3] The match ended with a 3-0 victory for Sparta in front of a record audience of 12.500.[4]
List shows the ten best skaters based on the number of points during the regular season. If two or more skaters are tied (i.e. same number of points, goals and played games), all of the tied skaters are shown. Updated as of February 28, 2017.
GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/– = Plus/Minus; PIM = Penalty Minutes
In June 2015, Knutsen announced that he would step down as head coach after the 2015-16 season.[5] On 21 January 2016, Vålerenga announced national team coach Roy Johansen as Knutsen's replacement.[6]
Petter Thoresen was announced as the new head coach for the Norwegian national hockey team in December 2015.[7] In February 2016, assistant coach Pål Gulbrandsen was announced as the new head coach of the Oilers, starting from the summer of 2016.[8]
On March 30, 2016 the club announced that Per Lundell did not want to extend his contract for 16/17. This is due to private, family reasons.[9] On May 14, 2016, Janne Saaavalainen was presented as new head coach for the club.[10]
On April 29, Smirnov announced that he had signed with KHL club Ak Bars Kazan as part of their coaching team for the 2016-17 season.[11] Sjur Robert Nilsen was announced as the new head coach on May 20.[12]
Janne Saavalainen left Kongsvinger on 7 January.[13] He was replaced by Anders Angelbrant.[14]
Playoffs
After the regular season, the top eight teams qualified for the playoffs. In the first and second rounds, the highest remaining seed chose which of the two lowest remaining seeds to be matched against. In each round the higher-seeded team was awarded home ice advantage. Each best-of-seven series followed a 1–1–1–1–1–1–1 format: the higher-seeded team played at home for games 1 and 3 (plus 5 and 7 if necessary), and the lower-seeded team at home for games 2, 4 and 6 (if necessary).
After the regular season had ended, the two lowest ranked teams in the league and the two highest ranked teams in the 1. divisjon competed for the right to play in the 2017–18 GET-ligaen. The tournament was organized according to a double round robin format, where each club played the others twice, home and away, for a total of six games. The points system and ranking method used, was the same as in the GET-ligaen.
