Minor ice hockey should not be confused with Minor league ice hockey.
Minor hockey is an umbrella term for amateur ice hockey which is played below the junior age level. Players are classified by age, with each age group playing in its own league. The rules, especially as it relates to body contact, vary from class to class. In North America, the rules are governed by the national bodies, Hockey Canada and USA Hockey, while local hockey associations administer players and leagues for their region. Many provinces and states organize regional and provincial championship tournaments, and the highest age groups in Canada and USA also participate in national championships.
Minor hockey is not to be confused with minor league professional hockey.
In Canada, the age categories are designated by each provincial hockey governing body based on Hockey Canada's guidelines,[1] and each category may have multiple tiers based on skill.
In November 2019, Hockey Canada announced that beginning in 2020 (officially taking effect in the 2020–21 season), it would refer to its age categories by their age limits (with "midget" being renamed "U18", for example) rather than by names. It stated that the new names would be more concise, while there had also been concerns over use of the term "midget" in this context—as the word is now considered a pejorative towards dwarfism.[2] [3]
To qualify in a category, the player must be under the age limit as of December 31 of the current season.
In Finland, the Finnish Ice Hockey Association roughly categorizes minor hockey players to under school-ages and school-ages. Children over 16 are considered as juniors, although the youngest juniors are still at the school-age.[11]
Starting of season 2020-21 names of the minor and junior levels has been changed to represent the standards used in international competitions and other minor hockey leagues. New minor and junior hockey levels, reference to old level in parentheses:.[12]
In France, hockey teams use the following levels:[13]
In Germany, German Ice Hockey Federation designates the following levels:[14]
The Swedish Ice Hockey Federation designates the following levels:[15]
Some levels (especially J18 and J20) are directly administered by the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation, while lower divisions of the Juniors and below are administered by the respective sub-federation in each landskap.
The Swiss Ice Hockey Federation designates the following levels :[16] using terms from the national languages of Switzerland. This has nevertheless evolve recently to U9, U11 so this has to be updated.
In the United States, USA Hockey designates the following levels:[17]
| Level | Ages | Details | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mite | 8 & under | Red, White and Blue, played as cross-ice games | |
| Squirt | 9–10 | Levels AAA, AA, A, B, C | |
| Peewee | 11–12 | Levels AAA, AA, A, B, C | |
| Bantam | 13–14 | Levels AAA, AA, A, B, C | |
| Midget Minor 15 and Under | 15 | Level AAA | |
| Midget Minor 16 and Under | ages 15–16 | Levels AAA, AA, junior varsity high school-A | |
| Midget Major 18 and Under | 15–18 | Levels AAA, AA, varsity high school-AA and AAA | |
| Junior | 16 to 20 | Cut-off age varies depending on the league |
Girls hockey operates under their own age classifications, namely 10U, 12U, 14U, 16U and 19U.
Many organizations and leagues that have larger numbers of registered players tend to delineate within the two-year window allowed for each age group. In these situations, teams composed entirely or primarily of players in their second year of eligibility are designated 'major' teams, while those with players in their 1st year of eligibility are designated "minor" teams. (For example, ten-year-olds would be "squirt majors" while nine-year-olds would be "squirt minors".) This is especially true in "AAA".
Some leagues separate players six years old and younger into their own group, often referred to using names like "Mini-Mites", "Mosquitoes", or "Microns."
USA Hockey designates four skill levels:
The Amateur Athletic Union has returned to licensing the sport of ice hockey.
AAU began licensing scholastic ice hockey programs at the HS Varsity and JV classifications about 2009. Then during the 2011–2012 season the AAU began licensing junior and youth leagues as well. The Western States Hockey League (WSHL) moved their operations from USA Hockey into AAU and Hockey Michigan was formed, providing traditional full-ice playing opportunities at the 7U and 8U age classifications (aka mites) in the face of cross-ice mandates adopted by the USA Hockey district affiliate. During the 2012–2013 season, AAU junior and youth operations expanded rapidly and currently span coast to coast. More recently, AAU hockey has expanded their youth and Junior programs into Canada.
Today, AAU is licensing playing opportunities at all youth age classifications, as well as scholastic, junior, collegiate and adult levels.
Although some AAU clubs still use classification terms such as "mites" or "midgets", the official AAU youth designations indicate the age group with the format "xU", where "x" is the maximum age number and the "U" indicates "and under".
Officials for youth hockey are often youth players themselves, calling games in lower levels than the one they participate in themselves. As with players who start out playing youth hockey, officials start their officiating career by officiating youth hockey, making it up through the ranks as their officiating skill increases. USA Hockey defines certain levels of their officials[18] and so does Hockey Canada and the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Currently, many youth officials quit after a few games, mainly due to verbal abuse from parents, coaches and players. The other issue faced by young referees is a reluctance from older officials to give them more advanced games. In the US and Canada, news stories pop up from now and then that describes physical abuse on youth officials, in addition to verbal abuse. These problems were addressed in Hockey Canada's "Relax, it's just a game" campaign, which started in 2002.[19]
A youth official can usually move up the ladder to juniors after about 2 years of officiating, and after a few years move up to senior hockey. This is, as with players, different for each individual as their skill-curves are differently shaped.
Many current and former officials feel that their officiating career has aided them in their professional life as well as being more comfortable with handling critical decisions and upset individuals.