Following last year's successful experiment with the participation of Croatian teams in the regular season, in season 2009/10, the Slovenian league shall be a true international competition with teams from four countries. Aside from Croatia, Austria and Serbia shall each be represented by one team each.

Surprisingly, Austrian club Graz 99ers expressed its wish for playing in the Slovenian league. Grazers will use their U20 players, reinforced with any members of the EBEL team that are getting little ice time with that team. The reasons why the Austrians chose the Slovenian championship over playing in the Austrian second tier Nationalliga are not clear, but are probably related to higher expenses of traveling across Austria given the proximity of Graz to Slovenian and Croatian rinks.

Serbia shall be represented by its champion, Partizan, from Belgrade. The Serbian powerhouse won four consecutive championships and felt that in order to improve the level of Serbian hockey it was necessary for the top team to play in the stronger competition than Serbian championship. The Slovenian federation was interested in Partizan's participation in general, but it put harsh financial preconditions for Serbs because of Belgrade's distance from other cities in the league resulting in an increase in travelling expenses. After talks that lasted throughout June, Partizan finally accepted all the terms to confirm their joining of the league.

Croatia will be represented by Medveščak and Mladost. However, with Medveščak playing in the EBEL as well this season, they will only be sending a farm team to the Slovenian championship. Therefore, it is very unlikely that the "Bears" shall win the regular season as they did the in 2008-09.

Despite the addition of two new teams, the league shall still comprise of ten teams. While 
it was expected that Maribor's farm team would not return to the league since their juniors played almost sixty games in senior and junior championships combined, the absence of Slovenian youngest club Alfa, represents certain disappointment about the failure of the club to establish itself. It turns out that club has neither the money nor players to successfully endure an entire season.

It should also be noted that Celje, a club that used to be third strongest team in Slovenia, won't participate in the senior championship for tenth consecutive season. Its best juniors played for Alfa last season and the best of those are expected to be picked up by other teams in the league.

As a result, the final list of participants looks like this: 

Stavbar Maribor (SLO)
Triglav Kranj (SLO)
Jesenice mladi (SLO) *
Toja Olimpija Ljubljana (SLO) *
MK Bled (SLO)
Mladost Zagreb (CRO)
Slavija Ljubljana (SLO)
Graz 99ers (AUT) *
Partizan Belgrade (SRB)
Medveščak Zagreb (CRO) *

* farm teams of EBEL clubs


The regular season shall consist of 27 rounds with each team playing every opponent three times where the home team in last nine rounds is going to depend on standings after 18th round. The eight best teams qualify for the playoffs. The two Slovenian clubs from the EBEL, Acroni Jesenice and Tilia Olimpija, shall join the playoff after their EBEL season ends.

The first round is scheduled for Wednesday, September 23.