Exemption granted for 6-year-old play-up hockey players: OHF
Posted September 29, 2017 12:42 pm.
Last Updated September 29, 2017 6:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Ontario Hockey Federation says it will delay implementation of cross-ice rules for the upcoming season for 2011-born players.
The new rules, announced last January and set to go into effect this season, require that all five- and six-year-old hockey players play on cross-ice or half-ice.
But the rules created considerable confusion among some leagues about how it applies to the elite teams.
At issue are play-up players — kids whose abilities and skills have allowed them to play and compete with older age divisions.
At a special meeting of its Board of Directors on Friday, the OHF announced that players born in 2011 who are on select/minor development rosters of 2010-born teams as of September 23, 2017 would be permitted to play the season with those teams under the old rules.
Hockey Canada says the exemption applies only to 2011 Select level hockey and is for one season only.
Hockey Canada says it is looking to expand cross-ice hockey to other age groups and that by the 2019-20 season, players up to the age of eight will be playing some form of cross-ice hockey.
