Category: Hockey League Information

While good news has been hard to come by the last couple months, we hope that this news can cheer you up!

As of today we are opening a pre-registration for the Winter 2020-21 Season. We do not have any dates for the season (though we will aim for our regular September start), and we are not looking for any money down from you. This idea is just to guarantee teams a spot in the league and also gives us a better idea of how many teams we will have this winter.

With all of the economic uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 situation, multiple leagues have folded in the cities that we operate in. With so many teams looking for a new home, we might have to cap our team amount, and this is the only way to guarantee your spot. The best part is it will cost you $0!

There is also another advantage to signing up. While the order you pre-register does not matter for schedule selection in the fall, it will give you an exclusive 48 hours to sign up your team when we do open full registration. This means you can get in before all the teams that did not pre-register!

GMs can pre-register by going to www.BreakoutPlay.com, selecting your city, and then choosing the Winter 2020-21 Pre-Registration Season.

Thank you,

The NCHL – A Better Way To Play!

It comes with a heavy heart that as of April 30th, the NCHL Summer 2020 Season is officially cancelled. With no timelines for arenas reopening, we don’t see any way to return with any semblance of a Summer Season as we know it. It will be the first time in 15 years that we are not going to have a Summer Season.

This does not mean that we cannot have any hockey this summer! We are keeping our ears to the ground to find out when rinks will be open and operational again. When this happens we will be first to secure ice and try to schedule a mini season, a tournament, or something else so that we can play at least some hockey this summer.

As for the money you have paid for the Summer 2020 Season, you have two options as a team: Your GM can get a full refund, or you can keep your team’s credit on account, and your team will receive a $100 bonus credit when we return to hockey*. All credits will automatically be moved over and applied to the next invoice, but if you would like to get a refund instead, please fill out this form: https://crsdc.formstack.com/forms/nchl_refund_request_summer_2020

Keep in mind that if you ask for a refund, you will lose your team’s $100 bonus credit.

*Your team must have at least $1000 on account to receive the $100 bonus credit.

We are also working hard to have a pre-registration open on May 1st for the Winter 2020-21 Season. We will not be accepting any deposits or payments. We know how tough these times have been on everyone, and money for winter hockey is not a priority right now for most players. If you are planning to have a team in the winter, pre-register tomorrow, there will be a good benefit to doing so! More details will be available tomorrow.

We thank you for your patience and for being a part of the NCHL!

The NCHL – A Better Way To Play

Hello NCHL family,

Last month we had to make the unfortunate decision to cancel the rest of the NCHL 2019-20 Winter Season. With games still remaining for teams, we decided that we would credit everyone with extra games next Winter Season. Since then, we have received feedback from our customers and we have decided that instead of extra games, most customers would rather receive a credit towards their account.

Team accounts will now be credited for their regular season games that were cancelled, plus the 1 playoff game each team is guaranteed. If you are a team GM and would like to receive a refund, please email us at accounting@nchl.com. Please note that all refunds will be subject to a $50 processing fee.

Thank you for your patience and for being a part of the NCHL. We look forward to getting back on the ice!

On Friday March 13th, 2020 we made the difficult decision to suspend all NCHL, Discover Hockey and Draft Tournament activities, essentially hitting pause on everything we do and joined the fight to flatten the curve. This was one of the hardest things we have had to do in the past 15 years.

The simple truth is, we love hockey, in fact we are a little nuts about it. We love sharing this passion for the game with you on a nightly basis, but your well being is our number one priority. So while we all want to be out there, carving up the ice and scoring goals, we can’t risk spreading the virus.

We appreciate your help and commitment in joining us in this fight by staying at home and limiting contact with others, because the sooner we all stop the spread, the sooner we can get back on the ice and play the game we all love.

Given this new normal we had come to the unwanted conclusion that we are running out of time to complete the regular season and play out the playoffs. We just don’t know when the arenas will open again, and it makes it impossible to plan the playoffs under this level of uncertainty.

We also understand that your season was cut short due to circumstances outside of anyone’s control. Some of you had three games to play and some had as many as five more guaranteed games remaining.

We are all in it together and we are trying as best we can to find our way through it.

After spending a considerable amount of time reviewing our policies and thinking about what we can do to treat everyone fairly, we have decided we will make up all guaranteed games you did not get this winter hockey season (winter 2019-20) in the upcoming winter hockey season (winter 2020-21) by increasing the number of games you will be playing next winter, because after all, we all want to continue playing hockey.

And so with a heavy heart we must inform you that winter 2019-20 hockey season is now officially cancelled.

Thank you for your patience and support during these difficult times, it is greatly appreciated and we will get through it together.

We have set up a special link where we will be positing answers to your frequent questions, please check there before sending us an email as we are not equipped to handle a large volume of customer interactions resulting from the current situation – http://www.nchl.com/covid-19-faq/

We hope to see you all on the ice sooner than later.

The truth of the matter is no one know what happens next, this is an unprecedented situation so all we can do is take the wait and see approach. At some point the world will return to normal, and social distancing/isolation will end.

We do not know when this will happen, and at the moment no one does. But we are monitoring the situation on an hourly basis and will keep you updated once we have more information on anything that may affect you and your team.

Please continue checking back at http://www.nchl.com/covid-19-faq/

We will post what we know there as we do not have the capacity to respond to every single inquiry in a timely manner as most of the inquiries are about the same questions.

We continue to regularly monitor concerns associated with coronavirus (COVID-19) and wanted to take a moment to provide an update as it relates to NCHL activities.

Our top priority, as you know, is the safety of everyone involved with the NCHL.

The Public Health Agency of Canada currently assesses the public health risk associated with COVID-19 as low for Canada and for Canadian travellers.

Public health risk is continually assessed as new information becomes available. Updates on COVID-19 can be found at: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection.html

At this time, all arenas and recreation facilities that we have spoken to are still open for activities.

We have not been ordered to pause the NCHL schedule.

We ask that all players and officials use judgment while attending games in the foreseeable future and follow the following recommended procedures.

• Practice frequent and meticulous hand-washing with soap and water or alcohol-based hand rub

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands

• Cover your nose and mouth when coughing and/or sneezing with a tissue or flexed elbow

• Avoid close contact with anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms

• Quarantine anyone who is sick (players, coaches, roommates etc.)

• Ensure safe food sources; thoroughly cook meat and eggs

• Handshake lines after games should include fist bumps with gloves on or elblow touches

• Use individual water bottles; do not share them

• Towels should not be shared in any way

Multiple hockey organization throughout the world have posted some guidelines for staying healthy on an off the ice. Dr. Michael Stuart from the Mayo Clinic, who is also a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation Medical Committee, has shared the importance that everyone follow the guidelines above and regularly visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization websites for additional information.

We are in constant communication with various forms of government and facility operators and will update you as soon as the situation changes.

At this time, all games are still scheduled to proceed as normal.

The NCHL – A Better Way to Play

August 1st is the deadline for team registration. We are working hard on picking up better ice slots for this winter hockey season and so far we’ve made great progress. Each year we strive to improve the overall hockey league schedule and this year is no different. Watch for more information in the coming weeks about this.

If you are a player who does not have a team to play for, jump to the bottom of this post to see how you can get on a team this winter.

Ask your team GM right now if they have set up your team on Breakout and provided the required deposit based on the schedule plan selected. Send them a text message or an email to confirm. Unfortunately we will not be able to accept any more teams after August 1st, 2019.

This is because we need enough lead time to build the schedule for the selection draft and unfortunately we will not be able to put your team in to the season unless your team GM registered the team in the Winter 2019-20 Hockey Season on Breakout.

But what does it actually mean? Do you have you have the whole team ready to go by August 1st? Not at all. We are simply asking your team GM to register the team on Breakout and cover the deposit.

The team GM will then have 60+ days to work out who will be playing on your team before season start, which is the first week in September. It is plenty of time! Heck you can probably start your own brand new team between now and then. We have seen it happen more than once. People just need to know there will be a team for them to play on, then they feel confidence to pay their fees.

It is easy to cover the deposit. Pay your own team fees, and get one or two more teammates to do the same. Just make sure your team GM invited you to the team invoice where you can make your payments. It would really help if you did that right now. Payments can be split into 2 or monthly installments.

Ok but what if we don’t have the whole team ready to go, you ask? That is ok, if you have a core of 10-11 players you can always pick up players down the road. There are new players moving into town all the time and it is hard for them to get on a team when they don’t know anyone here.

Or a team may fold and now there is an abundance of players looking to play winter hockey in a league. Typically there are hundreds of players looking for an ice hockey team to join each winter season.

How can you get them to play on your team? Simple, we have this handy, but secret, Facebook group where you can see which players are looking to play winter ice hockey. But to access it you need to ask us for the link. Players can join this group if they want to play on a hockey team in the NCHL or team GMs in the league can access it to pick up players.

We know how hard it is sometimes to find the last 1-2 players you need to complete the roster for the winter ice hockey season. This is why we made this group, but it is only for team GMs that have a team in the NCHL. The NCHL is the only league to offer this service to your team because we want to make it easier to make, run and manage ice hockey teams and save your team GM time.

We also have a list of players we can share with your team GM. They just need to email us, and we will forward him or her everyone’s names and a way to contact these players. We will also invite your team GM to be part of the Facebook group for your city. There is literally no good reason why your team can not play this winter season.

PLAYERS LOOKING FOR A HOCKEY TEAM TO PLAY IN THE WINTER HOCKEY LEAGUE

If you are a player looking for a team, please check out this page and get on the list so you can find a team to play for this winter!

TO SUMMARIZE, BY AUGUST 1ST

1. Set up your hockey team on Breakout

2. Invite all your players to the team invoice you created

3. Cover the deposit by paying your own team fees and getting one or two more players on your team to do the same

4. Spend the next 60+ days recruiting the rest of the team. Don’t forget to use our Facebook group and the list we can send you.

August 1st is the deadline for team registration. If you are a player, jump to the bottom of this post to see how you can get on a team this winter.

So if you have not set up your team with us on Breakout and provided the required deposit based on the schedule plan you have selected it will be too late.

We need enough lead time to build the schedule for the selection draft and unfortunately we will not be able to put your team in to the season unless you are registered and are planning to play.

But what does it actually mean? Do you have you have the whole team ready to go by August 1st? Not at all. We are simply asking you to register the team on Breakout and cover the deposit.

You will then have 60+ days to work out who will be playing on your team before season start, which is the first week in September. That is plenty of time! Heck you can probably start a brand new team between now and then. We have seen it happen more than once. People just need to know there will be a team for them to play on, then they feel confidence to pay their fees.

It is easy to cover the deposit. Pay your own team fees, and get one more or two more players on the team to do the same. That should not be too hard should it? Here is where you can see the winter hockey league team fees.

Ok but what if I don’t have the whole team ready to play, you ask? That is ok, if you have a core of 10-11 players you can always pick up more players down the road. There are new hockey players moving into town all the time and it is hard for them to get on an ice hockey team when they don’t know anyone here.

Or a team may fold and now there is an abundance of players looking to play winter hockey in a league. Typically there are hundreds of hockey players looking for a hockey team to join each winter season. They could join yours!

How can you get them to play on your hockey team? Simple, we have this handy Facebook group for where you can see who is looking to play.

We also have a list of players we can share with you. You just need to email us and we will forward you everyone’s names and a way to contact them and invite you to be part of the Facebook group for your city.

PLAYERS LOOKING FOR A HOCKEY TEAM TO PLAY IN THE WINTER HOCKEY LEAGUE

If you are a player looking for a team, please check out this page and get on the list so you can find a team to play for this winter!

TO SUMMARIZE, BY AUGUST 1ST

1. Set up your hockey team on Breakout

2. Invite all your players to the team invoice you created

3. Cover the deposit by paying your own team fees and getting one or two more players on your team to do the same

4. Spend the next 60+ days recruiting the rest of the team. Don’t forget to use our Facebook group and the list we can send you.