1979 Offseason Highlights

- 3 Expansion Teams

- 8 Identity Changes

- 5 New Arenas
         - Blaine: The Spartans will play their home games at the 800 seat Blaine Civic Center
         - Pelican Rapids: The Petes will be the final RRHL team to play outdoors, making the move indoors to 800 seat Pelican Rapids Ice Garden
         - Princeton: The Brickmakers will call 750 seat Princeton Hockey Arena home
         - Spirit Lake: The Stamps are heading to brand new, 500 seat Spirit Lake Ice Center
         - Vermillion: As part of the agreement in getting a team, the Trailblazers are set to call 1,500 seat Lewis and Clark Memorial Arena home for years to come

- 2 New Mascots

- 1 New Rivalry Trophy

- 1 Number Retired

- Helmets Required In 7 Leagues (To save space I won't post all of the updated teams with helmets, but you can see them all in the MAHL Archive)
         - Iron Range
         - Lake Superior
         - Northland
         - East Metro
         - West Metro
         - Twin Cities
         - St. Croix

- The Vulcans of the TCHL have officially dropped "St. Anthony" in favor of returning to their long time name "Twin Cities Vulcans"

Retired Numbers


No Virginia Royal will ever wear number 6 again. The Royals decided to retire longtime Virginia winger Louis Nelson's number prior to the 1979/80 season. Nelson helped lead Virginia to 4 Iron Range Crowns, 3 Super Series, and the 1978 Kellogg Cup before retiring on top.

Rivalry Trophy

Identity Changes

Alexandria made a change on their road uniform, inverting the stripe coloring and removing the black shoulders

Mounds View made some tweaks to their striping, leaving the general concept unchanged, but making the hem stripe match the sleeves on both jerseys