U7 (IP), U9 (NOVICE) AND U11 (ATOM) PLAYER PATHWAY IMPLEMENTATION, News (Erie North Shore Minor Hockey)

1. Player Tryouts

• No tryouts prior to or during the first week of school.
  • No tryouts during the off-season phase (previous season, including March through August).
  • No tryouts during the first week of school where school starts the week after Labour Day.
  • Where school starts prior to Labour Day, there must be four skates/practices starting the week following Labour Day before tryouts commence.
• Must offer a minimum of four practice/skill sessions prior to formal evaluation starting.
• Must have a minimum of three form evaluation sessions:
• Players should not tryout based on a specific position, but should be encouraged to play both forward and defense in tryouts.
• Players should be selected for teams based on skill, not positional preference.

2. Fair and Equal Ice Time

• Positional Rotation:
  • All players play all positions
• Goaltender Rotation:
  • Full-time goaltender allowed.
  • Goaltenders rotate for equal amount of playing time throughout the regular season and playoffs.

3. Seasonal Structure

• Preparation Phase (up to 4 Weeks)
  • See Player Tryouts above.
• Development Phase (up to 4 weeks)
  • Teams must have a period of development time following tryouts prior to the start of the regular season.
• Development and Regular Season Phase (Up to 24 weeks)
  • Recommended maximum of 45 games per year (includes exhibition, league, tournament and playoff games).
  • Seasonal Breaks
• Playoff Phase (up to 4 weeks)
  • Tournament style.
• Offseason Phase (end of season to August)

4. Position-Specific Training

• Small-area games in practice/station-based practices/skill-focused drills
• Only 15% of practice time should be spent on team play and strategy/systems with 85% of practice time spent on skills and tactics.
• Limit position-specific specialization (except for goalies).

• Season should allow for two (2) seasonal breaks (not including Christmas/long weekends).
  • Seasonal break would be a minimum of five (5) days without a scheduled game or mandatory practice.