Dear Players & Parents,

Welcome to the 2023-2024 Competitive Level Hockey Tryouts. BDMHA is looking forward to another great season of hockey, camaraderie and fair competition.

BDMHA's Competitive Team Tryout/Player Selection Information Guide can be found [Here]

The document is not new and has been used in prior seasons. We are sharing as a guide to the overall historic process at BDMHA. We have hosted a series of coach and manager sessions to gain some feedback into how best to make any necessary tweaks going forward. The discussions were based on what we should keep doing, start doing and stop doing.  A number of those elements will be incorporated into this seasons evaluation and others are more mid-term planning in nature to incorporate at next season’s. Everyone is invested in continuous improvement and trying to make things as smooth as possible. We appreciate your patience and understanding and would be happy to discuss any issues anytime.

At this time we plan the following:

• U11 – our goal is to have 6 competitive teams again this year as was the case the last several seasons.
• U13 – 7 teams were iced in 2022-2023 and 6 in 2021-2022.  The final number and mix will depend on final registration numbers, player movements, player capabilities, and development philosophy.
• U15 - 6 teams were iced in both 2022-2023 and 2021-2022.  Some results last year would indicate a fresh look at number of teams and/or level mix.  Again, this is dependent on final registration numbers, player movements, player capabilities and development philosophy.
• U18 – A number of factors for consideration annually at this level. Competing programs (ex High School, U16AAA minor), along with divergent priorities ex part-time jobs, make this planning slightly more fluid.  

Our fall tryout schedule is starting on September 15^th with our U13AAA group. The schedules will be posted on a global document and we will post schedules on each divisional page as well. The schedules are posted in advance and any final changes will be posted by September 8th. All other related tryout materials and information will be posted to the association’s web site by September 8^th (7 days before tryouts commence). Any changes would relate to assessing the number of teams, or team mix and would be communicated at that time, if necessary.

Before COVID-19, we held our Spring ID sessions and players were assigned to groups 1, 2, 3, 4 at the conclusion of these spring sessions. These groupings were established to streamline the fall evaluation process.  Due to COVID-19, and other factors beyond our control, we have been unable to host our spring ID sessions for the last few seasons. These Spring ID sessions resulted in players being ranked into groups 1, 2, 3, 4 with group 1 being the top group and so on.  For the upcoming season, all initial groups will be balanced. There will be skills/battle/tactical game application sessions, then intersquad sessions with several groups (as registration numbers dictate). After these sessions, there will be a resorting of groups from, for example, 4 balanced groups to 3, ranked groups, for example, A1, A2, A3 (or some other label).

At the U15 level, we usually have some (approx. 20+/- last 2 seasons) players who have opted to play non-contact hockey but wish to try out for competitive as well.  These players, essentially, are trying out for one of our B-level teams as the B league is non-contact. We may have to make some scheduling tweaks at the U15 level given this factor as these players cannot participate in contact intersquad games as they didn’t complete the checking clinic.

As for the overall schedule, Hockey Nova Scotia has established their “Seasonal Structure Chart” for the 2023-2024 season which can be found on their web site. At this time, they have established that U13AAA, U15AA and U18AA can commence tryouts on September 15^th with all other levels commencing on September 22^nd. They have also established that league play starts on October 14^th. Our plan would be to start each level as early as allowable. Other factors at play are potential conflicts with U15Major tryouts, U16AAA and High School with these impacting the timing of commencing and completing U15 and U18 competitive tryouts.

Good luck to everyone during evaluations. Try your best to relax and remember to always work hard!

Brian Furdas

Vice President of Competitive Hockey

Bedford and District Minor Hockey Association