2024-2025 Hockey Alberta and Hockey Canada Regulation Changes

Each year Hockey Alberta reviews environmental changes and trends from the past season to identify potential regulation changes for the future. As part of this process, recommendations for changes to the Minor Hockey Regulations are also solicited from Member Minor Hockey Associations (MHA’s), sanctioned Leagues, and operational committees. Prior to any decisions being made by Hockey Alberta’s management, recommendations are evaluated against the Vision, Mission, Core Values, and Strategic Direction of the organization.

Team Registration: Hockey Teams may register at any one time a maximum of twenty (20) players but may only have a maximum of 18 skaters.

Hockey Canada has increased the maximum size of a roster, and the maximum number of players that can be dressed for a game to align all levels of hockey at 20.

Team Registration: Minor Hockey Teams can be registered in the Categories of AAA, AA, A, B, C, or D.

To create consistency across the country, Hockey Canada has mandated the use of letters for all categories of hockey within the Hockey Canada Registry (HCR). All Teams will include one of these letters when being created in the HCR. Tiers of hockey will still exist and will be determined by the League that each team plays within.

Discipline: All Participants (Players, Team Officials, and/ or Officials) that incur a suspension must serve that suspension in the same capacity that it was incurred. Suspended Participants can continue to participate in sanctioned game play in another capacity and are not eligible to serve suspended games in another capacity.

To create consistency and clarity for serving suspensions, a suspended Player will now be permitted to continue participating as an Official or Team Official while serving the suspension incurred as a Player, and vice versa. The exception to this regulation is if a Participant is suspended for any 11.4 or 11.5 infraction, they will remain suspended from all types of participation until the suspension is completely served with the Team with which the suspension was incurred.

Minimum Suspensions: Any “Attempt to Injure” penalty where a Match Penalty is called will move from three (3) games to an Indefinite Suspension.

Moving to an indefinite provides the ability to investigate the incident and determine the appropriate suspension as opposed to assuming all infractions are of the same severity and issuing a minimum.

Affiliation: The purpose of affiliation is to provide an opportunity for higher Division or Category Teams to dress the maximum number of Players allowable for a game in accordance with the Playing Rules.

This is not new, just re-set and clarified to the original purpose that has been set by Hockey Canada. Any reference to sick, injured or otherwise unavailable players has been removed. Teams will be permitted to dress up the maximum number of players permitted in accordance with playing rules. Guidance for which teams players can be affiliated from remains within the “Affiliation Supplement”.

Overage Players: An Overage Player may be permitted to register with a lower age Division Minor Hockey Team if the Player is only one birth year older than the maximum age for the Division and has a date of birth between November 1 and December 31 of that year. AA and AAA Teams are not eligible to register Overage Players. Eighteen-year-old (18) Players are only eligible for Overage status if they are still enrolled in high school. Exceptions may be considered for entry level Players that have limited skills or if there is not a Team of the appropriate age Division for the Player to register with.

Creating consistency across all divisions and categories, and to eliminate unnecessary administrative work, the regulation has been amended to provide the ability for MHAs to register Overage Players that meet the stated criteria without an application process. Applications can still be submitted for exceptions. If a complaint claims that an Overage Player is strengthening a team, Leagues continue to have the ability to investigate the claims and deem the player ineligible, if necessary.

Tournaments: MHAs that have teams participate in tournaments without obtaining proper sanctioning may be subject to a fine of up to $1,000.

To provide transparency in the potential disciplinary action that could result from a violation of the regulations, the maximum consequence has been outlined within the regulation.