Current Hockey Parent

Hey there, hockey parents!

Thank you for choosing our game. We know you are going to love it.

We have put together some resources that will help guide you on your family's hockey journey. You can find links to them on this page.

Have a great hockey season. We look forward to seeing you at the rink!

Thank you for choosing our game. It's now your game, too.

As your child enters the game of hockey, we want to thank you for your commitment to getting your child to and from the rink, and for supporting them in their journey.

The game of hockey is for kids. Kids play the game because they love it and because it is fun. The personal and social development that comes from being part of a team is one of the most enriching experiences offered by the game. We must continue to live the values of fun and fair play, respect, integrity and teamwork with a balanced perspective of expectations and definition of success. We must celebrate our good experiences with this great game.

Our volunteers, our coaches, our referees, our parents and our children are all critical partners in ensuring the game sustains these high values. No one, however, is more critical than our parents.

Being a hockey parent is a worthwhile, rewarding endeavour. Parents are often called upon to wear many different volunteer hats and in doing so, the game becomes a social network of new friends for parents as well as their children

Remember: it’s about fairness and respect!

The Canadian Player Pathway is supported by the Hockey Canada Long-Term Player Development Model.

This framework provides the guiding principles for age-appropriate and skill-specific programming for all players in Hockey Canada’s youth hockey system.

Player development is at the core of the Canadian Player Pathway.

Players must be the age, or under, on December 31.

Respect – Learn it. Live it. Pass it on.

Respect Group was created by co-founders, Sheldon Kennedy and Wayne McNeil, to pursue their common passion: working to empower people to recognize and prevent abuse, bullying, and harassment. Through interactive, online certification Respect Group employs their vision of inspiring a global culture of respect in sport and recreation, the workplace, our schools, and ultimately the community.

Respect in Sport for Parents compliments the Activity Leader & Coach program by reinforcing a parent's role in their child’s activities. It empowers parents to:       

• Ensure the safety and well-being of their children.
• Encourage proper communication with officials and coaches.
• Make sport and recreation result in a positive experience for all.

In Canadian hockey, over 319,000 parents who have completed the Respect in Sport for Parents Program.

Modified ice will provide players with an environment that is more inclusive, competitive and conducive to skill development through puck touches and puck control, shots, passes completed, transitions, decision making, puck support, and overall involvement.


Benefits of smaller ice

• More efficient use of ice time… and as a result more ice time for young players
• Allows more kids to be on the ice at the same time
• Increases the use of the core skating skills (Agility, Balance, Coordination)
• Increases the number of puck touches per player
• Provides a better environment for teaching ice awareness and hockey sense
• Promotes stronger passing, pass receiving, and puck support
• Allows young goaltenders, when introduced, to experience more game-like action
• Creates a stronger challenge for the more advanced players by having them face more opposition on a smaller amount of ice space
• Builds confidence of lesser-skilled players because they are more involved in play
• The best players are challenged simply by the fact that others get in their way in a smaller area. It forces them to change direction , protect puck and play in traffic instead of avoiding it
• Put players in position where they need to read & react
• Learn to be aware and react to pressure
• Lateral movement, stops and starts, change of direction
• Puck protection and avoiding checks
• Hockey sense increases

Cross-ice stats

• 6x more shots on goal/player
• 5x more passes received/player
• 2x more puck battles/player
• 2x more puck touches/player
• 2x more pass attempts/player
• 2x more shot attempts/player
• 2x more change of direction pivots
• 75 shots/minute vs 0.45 shots/minute playing full ice
• Turns out the actual stats of the U8 game resemble those of an NHL game.

Long-term player development

The Long Term Player Development model sets out a vision for hockey in Canada that takes advantage of the history and culture of the game to increase participation and to lay the foundations of international success long into the future.

This model for hockey has been developed based on the following principles:

• doing the right thing for the player at the right stage in their development
• adopting a player-centred approach and not treating the development of all players the same way
• the broader the foundation of players the more successful the game of hockey will be in Canada
• viewing player development as a long term process
• aligning player development resources (Hockey Canada Network) with coach development and
• education resources so that coaches are doing the right things at the right time
• a need to better educate parents on the hockey development of their child – it is okay for parents to want their kids to get to the highest levels but they need to know the best way to go about it

Class leading coverage for hockey players

Hockey Canada knows that we have a responsibility to ensure that adequate financial resources are in place to compensate those that are injured while playing hockey. One of the benefits of being a member of Hockey Canada is knowing that you have an exceptional insurance program that has been built with the needs of its members in mind. It involves good financial management, so that funds are in place to meet claims obligations when they fall due. It also includes establishing control mechanisms so that only genuine claims are reimbursed.

With the assistance of the Hockey Canada Insurance Committee Hockey Canada has engaged what it feels is an effective insurance carrier who knows the needs of our organization for policy coverage in the areas of commercial general liability, sexual misconduct liability, directors and officers liability,  and accidental death and dismemberment coverage. A great amount of research and dialogue ensures that we are delivering effective coverage at a fair premium for our members.

The medical/dental coverage we offer is a self-administered secondary insurance program that is managed by Hockey Canada. This coverage assists members who may not have private secondary coverage for services such as dental and physiotherapy to the limits set within the policy. The policy also assists members who have exhausted their limits within their private coverage to our policy limits.

Even with all of the coverage we have outlined above Hockey Canada is able to maintain a low premium. The premium is based upon the total membership of players in Hockey Canada, and by the continual focus on safety by its branches, minor hockey associations and membership. All the members of Hockey Canada have the ability to assist in keeping our exposure to a minimum by practicing risk, conduct and safety management on an ongoing basis. We need to continue to work together to stress strong skill development, effective rules and enforcement, and respect in the game. By growing our efforts in these areas we will continue to keep our game safe, recruit and retain players, parents and volunteers and deliver the strong insurance program we currently deliver.

Learn more about Hockey Canada's Insurance Program.

Risk Management and Insurance Fees

Each Hockey Canada Participant pays into the Hockey Canada Insurance Program or has a fee paid on his/her behalf.

This fee covers the following: 

• liability insurance 
• accidental death and dismemberment insurance
• major medical/dental insurance
• risk management and administration
• directors and officers liability insurance
• sexual misconduct liability insurance