Welcome Back! Here is some important information about information about the 2021-2022 Season.
Season Structure – Both Local and Rep
While there may be some lingering COVID protocols, we are preparing for a return to the hockey experience we previously knew. Travel games, tournaments, and team functions.
Some minor adjustments; All associations will offer non-evaluation skates before tryouts (cost and timing are up to the host organization).
We plan on starting the Monday after Labour Day as we typically have, then moving to tryouts/LL team selections at the end of the month or early in October. Games will start shortly thereafter.
There is a new mandate that all teams play “Meaningful hockey” through to at least March 1. It is up to the league to determine how this is structured, but it is being widely interpreted that any elimination playoffs will be structured so that no team is eliminated prior to that date.
We will continue our investment in high quality, professional skills sessions to ensure we are competitive in all divisions within our respective loops. Our ultimate goal is to have players play at the level where their ability and desire meet, to celebrate those;
from Port who move on to higher categories
who stay to play rep hockey in Port
who stay or come to play local league hockey in Port.
Local League Teams
Local League will not be tiering the teams as they have the last several seasons. Most ages there are enough teams to ensure you don’t play the same ones more than once or twice, so if a team is very weak or strong, you won’t be stuck playing them week after week. It is hoped that this new format will eliminate the extremes of teams going 6-0 or 0-6 in the seeding and then going 0-14 or 14-0 after the tiering. This will also provide the added benefit of providing accurate brackets for playoffs, as teams will have played similar competition all season.
While the pandemic shortchanged some very good Port Local teams from participating in the first LL regional championships, we anticipate this showdown of the top LL teams in each of the Local Leagues in our area to return this year.
The penalty accumulation rule has been clarified to be cumulative minutes in one game and will be enforced by the referee rather than the confusing cumulative minutes that needed to be tracked by the coaches.
As in past year’s players are free to play Local League wherever they choose.
Rep Teams
The former BB, B, CC, C, DD, AE OMHA playdowns and championships have been replaced with 3 tiers (Tier 1 = BB, B and AE from A centres, Tier 2 = CC, C, Tier 3 = DD and AE from lower than A centres).
Rather than a playdown format where participating teams travel back and forth, there will be a year-end tournament to decide the champions (location and timing TBD, but expected to be somewhere with enough hotels to house the participating teams and early April).
Each league is to determine a method to determine their representatives and has been given a set number of slots based on their size. Shamrock league (our rep loop) has been given multiple spots.
Our schedules were previously structured so we never played BB teams, rarely played B and frequently played DD, C and CC. We have never really played the AE teams that are lower than A, so we are not really sure what to expect. However, it is hoped that despite having our best players move to AAA and our next tier to A through the NRP process, our investment skills and registration growth will allow us to field competitive teams in this division.
The reverse NRP rule has been expanded to allow smaller centers to take up to 6 players from outside their home association. To be eligible for this, a player must first sign up and try out in their A centre and be released.
Decisions on which rep teams will run will not be made until registration closes in the fall, however, we will stick with our recent practice of making these decisions prior to A tryouts in St Thomas so they have a clear picture of who is an NRP and who is a 3.5.