By Logan Swinkels

While the NHL season is soon to wrap up with a big Stanley Cup party, that doesn’t mean hockey is over for another year.

The 2016 NZIHL season starts today, featuring the best local talent plus import players from all over the world including Canada and USA. Every weekend from now until the end of August, there’s an exciting matchup of intense hockey to be enjoyed.

Last season I flew around the country filming the games and getting a feel for how much hockey has grown in this country. As an avid watcher of NHL games for the past twenty years, it’s great to see the game I grew up loving being well represented in my own backyard.

Here are a few quick thoughts on each team and why you should support your local hockey club.

West Auckland Admirals

The Admirals showed great promise last season with American import Tom Tracy lighting up the league, scoring six goals in one game alone. Despite showing vast improvement on previous seasons, they still finished last in the league.

But don’t let that put you off. These are not the NZ Warriors on ice.