The 2025 AIHL season is the 24th season of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL). The season consisted of 117 games, spanning the regular season and Finals (play-offs). The 112 game regular season ran from 5 April to 24 August 2025. The 5 game 2025 Finals series ran from 29 to 31 August 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. The Melbourne Ice won the AIHL premiership and championship double in 2025, claiming the H Newman Reid Trophy and Goodall Cup. The Canberra Brave finished runners-up to both titles and the Central Coast Rhinos claimed the wooden spoon.
In 2025 the AIHL had 8 teams competing in the league. The Sydney Bears and Sydney Ice Dogs withdrew from competing in the season.
For Season 2025, the AIHL first released the fixture list in November 2024. All ten teams from 2024 would be returning for a 150-game regular season running from 5 April to 24 August 2025. As part of a regular season revamp, the league introduced two all-team mid-season byes for Easter long weekend in late April and IIHF World Championships in early May. The conference system used between 2023 and 2024 was abolished and more Friday night games were scheduled, including first Friday night games for Adelaide Adrenaline and Perth Thunder. The Goodall Cup, H Newman Reid Trophy would continue to the be prizes AIHL teams would compete for in 2025. However, the Rurak and Hellyer conference trophies would be retired.
The AIHL were forced into mandatory season plan changes in late December 2024. Macquarie Ice Rink in Sydney was closed for required repairs and rink upgrades that would keep the facility closed for the majority of 2025. Upgrades include new plant room infrastructure, new humidifiers across the arena, new boards, installation of plexiglass around the rink and new player benches and penalty boxes. The Sydney Bears and Sydney Ice Dogs were both affected by the closure and sought alternative option to continue to operate in 2025. Both teams failed to find suitable alternative options and formally withdrew from the 2025 AIHL season.
With the Ice Dogs and Bears out, the AIHL released a new 8-team season schedule, reducing the number of games from 150 to 112. Both all-team byes remained but the additional Friday night games were scrapped. All teams would play a total 28 games, down from 30, split between 14 home and 14 away fixtures.
Between December 2024 and January 2025, the league announced a number of personnel and governance changes including appointing Ron Gauci to the AIHL board of directors. Gauci joins Garry Dore, Peter Jon Hartshorne, Wayne Hellyer, John Hollingsworth, Joyce Price, Ivan Rapchuk, and Bob Turner on the board as the eighth member. Gauci is the current chairman of Vicsport and former CEO and managing director of the Melbourne Storm. Jo-Ann Flood was appointed AIHL Sports Integrity Officer to replace the departed Lesley Crombie. As the Head of Sport Integrity, Jo-Ann is responsible for ensuring compliant regulation of all league activities, including games and operations as well as leading efforts to promote fair play, prevent misconduct, and build trust amongst teams. Mark O'Brien was appointed new Head of Player Safety for the AIHL. Mark has vast experience officiating at all levels of ice hockey in Australia and joins the AIHL after being referee-in-chief for Ice Hockey Queensland for the past six years. Ben Armstrong resigned as AIHL operations manager. Ben held the position for 2 years, having been appointed in 2023. Armstrong took up an opportunity as gameday operations manager with the Newcastle Northstars.
In March 2025, the AIHL released a special anniversary logo for the 2025 season. The new logo recognised the 25th year since the league founding in 2000. Media partnerships were signed between the AIHL and Oz Hockey Media (Formally Hockey Hype Australia) and 6News Australia in April 2025. It is the second year of partnership between the league and Oz Hockey Media and a new partnership with 6News.
Three pre-season exhibition games were organised by AIHL teams in 2025. The Melbourne derby doubled as a Good Friday Appeal charity match, raising money for the Royal Children's Hospital. The exhibition game raised one of the largest charitable donations by the Australian ice hockey community, totaling $32,502. To help the Australian men's national team prepare for the IIHF World Championships division 2A tournament, an exhibition game was organised between the national team and an AIHL All-Stars team consisting of Mustangs and Ice players.
The Canberra Brave will change home venues for the first time in the team's history, switching Phillip Ice Skating Centre for the AIS Arena. The first three home games in 2025 will continue to be played at Phillip but the remaining 11 will be played in a temporary state-of-the-art rink constructed in the 2,700 seat (ice hockey seating configuration) AIS Arena. The AIS will offer the first full bowl seating experience in the AIHL, bringing a North American or European style experience to Australian ice hockey for the first time.
Adelaide Adrenaline released a new team logo. The traditional 'A' logo is replaced with a yeti holding a hockey stick. This invokes the short lived former Adelaide Avalanche yeti logo from 2008 to 2009, before the Avalanche organisation collapsed and folded. Last season, in 2024, the Adrenaline played in a one-off throwback jersey with the old yeti logo. As part of the rebrand, the Adrenaline have also amended their team colours to blue and gold, removing red. Adelaide also made fan experience improvements to the Adelaide Ice Arena by raising two sections around the rink to enable better viewing angles. A new standing zone was established behind the goals and a new VIP section was created in one of the rink corners.
Brisbane Lightning released new altered versions of their main and alternative logo for 2025. The main logo is simplified while the alternative 'BL' logo has been given additional stylised lightning elements. Melbourne Mustangs released a new special anniversary logo and jersey to celebrate the team's 15th year of operations. It features a modified version of the team's regular logo and an updated layout of the orange-and-black colour scheme.
Ahead of the season, On 22 October 2024, Terry Kilwnik stepped down as head coach of the Brisbane Lightning. On 9 December 2024, it was announced Swedish coach Christer Lundkvist would take the rains as head coach of the Lightning for the 2025 AIHL season. With the head coaching position vacant at the Adelaide Adrenaline, the team announced a new head coach on 19 March 2025. Canadian Jade Galbraith was appointed for his first senior head coaching role of his career.
Below are lists of players entering, exiting, transferring and retiring from the AIHL in 2025.
The 2025 regular season consists of 112 games that are scheduled to run from 5 April 2025 to 24 August 2025. Teams are ranked in a single standings table, with conferences removed in 2025. Each team plays a total of 28 regular season games, playing each other team four times times (two at home and two away). A new AIHL regular season attendance record was set in 2025. 2,964 people attended the maiden AIHL game at the AIS Arena on 31 May 2025 in Canberra between the Canberra Brave and Adelaide Adrenaline.
<small>Key:</small>
2025 AIHL season top-ten skater statistics for points, goals, assists and penalty minutes.
2025 AIHL season top-ten<sup>1</sup> goaltender statistics for goals against average and save percentage.
Each week the AIHL, through sponsorship, names a player of the week. <br /> The award is based on the following criteria:
Below lists the 2025 AIHL season award winners.
For season 2025, the AIHL Finals format remained the same as 2024. 6 teams qualify for 5 games over 3 days at 1 venue. The 4 lowest ranked teams from the regular season enter on Friday in the preliminary finals with the top two ranked teams entering on Saturday in the semi-finals. Winner from each game advances with the loser eliminated. Winner of the grand final on Sunday is crowned AIHL champions and claim the historic Goodall Cup. The grand final man of the match is named the AIHL Finals MVP.
The Finals weekend in 2025 was held at OâÂÂBrien Icehouse in Docklands, Melbourne. This is the twelfth time the Icehouse has hosted the AIHL Finals weekend since it first opened in 2010. The District Docklands held a AIHL Finals Festival at the shopping centre that included a street hockey shootout, AIHL trivia challenge, player meet and greets, photos with the Goodall Cup and daily prizes. The event was broadcast on AIHL.TV and for the first time ESPN Australia, making it accessible on platforms including Disney+, Kayo Sports, Foxtel GO and Fetch TV.
The Melbourne Mustangs, Brisbane Lightning, Newcastle Northstars, Perth Thunder all qualified for the preliminary finals in 2025. The Thunder and Northstars advanced to the semi-finals with victories over the Lightning and Mustangs. The Canberra Brave and Melbourne Ice qualified for the semi-finals and advanced to the grand final after defeating the Thunder and Northstars. The grand final was a repeat of 2024, with the Ice up against the Brave for the title and Cup. However, unlike 2024, the Melbourne Ice defeated the Brave 7-3 to claim their 5th Goodall Cup and their first since 2017. Ice captain, Mac Caruana, was named Finals MVP after the game.
<small>All times are </small>