The registration deadline for the league was April 26th, 2017. In addition to the 16 participants from the previous season, HK Olimpija Ljubljana from Slovenia also reported after the previous EBEL club HDD Olimpija Ljubljana went bankrupt.
The 17 participants are divided into four regional groups, with the western group comprising five teams and the other groups comprising four teams.
Jesenice
Salzburg
Klagenfurt
Ljubljana
Zell am See
Bregenzerwald
Lustenau
Feldkirch
Kitzbühel
Val Pusteria
Rides
Fassa
Cortina
Asiago
Sterzing
Val Gardena
Neumarkt
Map of the clubs of the AHL 2017/18 with group classification: South A ( ), South B ( ), West ( ), East ( )
The 17 teams play 40 games each in a main round. A single round (32 games) and another single round are played in four regional groups (six or eight games). In the three groups of four East, South A and South B, each team plays two further group-internal games.
The best eight teams will qualify for the play-offs , which will be played from March 7, 2018. Quarter-finals and semi-finals are played in best-of-five mode, the final in best-of-seven mode. The last final will take place on April 14, 2018 at the latest.
For the qualification of the so-called IHL Elite , only the matches in the two Italian regional groups (South A and South B) were counted. The two best teams in each group qualified for the Final Four of the Italian championship. This took place from February 8th to 11th, 2018 in Asiago and the Rittner Buam won the Italian championship.
The two Slovenian clubs of the AlpsHL and the five Slovenian participants in the International Hockey League played the Slovenian championship parallel to their league. The games within the league also count towards the national championship. HDD Jesenice became champion with a final victory over the league rivals from Ljubljana.
), South B ( 
), West ( 
), East ( 
)
