There seems to be much confusion regarding this rule. This article is being shared to help clear any misinformation and or misinterpretation that families have encountered during the summer months & more recently during the start of tryouts.
Let’s begin…The Player Movement Rule is not a new rule that just came into existence during the summer of 2021. In fact, this rule has been around for many years in the Tier II Youth section. In 2018, we needed to breakout of the Youth side & modify the then 2/4/6/8 Rule to be more applicable to Girls Hockey. During this past COVID season, we discovered that additional modifications were still needed as jumping from one Organization to another was rampant & we were well aware that the pandemic was not the only culprit. So, it was modified to 2/4/6 & renamed to Player Movement. It was approved back in the early part of the year to be in effect beginning with the 2021-2022 fall/winter season. The Tier II Youth side also modified their rule to be even more restrictive.
Girls Hockey does not have nearly the number of players as in Youth Hockey and as a result we could not mirror the rule to be identical. Girls’ Player Movement is by age level where Youth is per team at the age level.
Girls Hockey has grown. As a Community, we should feel a great sense of accomplishment when our Girls’ Organizations are able to field 1 team at each age level. In certain years, there may be an Organization that ages up enough players to have the ability to form a 2nd team at a specific age level, but typically this is a 1 maybe 2-year anomaly.
This rule along with the 2-Choie Rule were put into effect with the 2019-2020 season. The main intent was/is to slow down the movement of players from Organization to Organization; to help families have a sense of stability, and teams to be sustainable season to season. Unfortunately, there may arise specific & unique circumstances where this rule may create more of a hindrance than a benefit.
Rest assured that the Girls’ Committee’s main mission has been & will always be to ensure that ANY female hockey player that wants to play Girls Hockey has a place to play. We have proven this year after year in our helping to find homes for several players & we are once again in the midst of connecting players to Organizations and vice versa.
