Body checking now banned at most levels of minor hockey
Hockey Edmonton’s decision to take body checking out of all but the most elite levels of bantam and midget play doesn’t mean the end of physical play, says the organization’s executive director.
Effective for the 2016-17 season, there will be no body checking in all categories of bantam and midget hockey except for higher-tiered teams that compete in Hockey Alberta provincial championships.
The governing body for minor hockey in Edmonton voted April 13 on a motion to make the lower levels of the bantam and midget divisions non-checking. Bantam players are aged 13-14 while midget players are 15-17.
“First and foremost, what we want to ensure is that the messaging out there is consistent with the motion and that is, it’s body checking that is changing in those categories of play,” Dean Hengel, Hockey Edmonton’s executive director, said Thursday.
“Body contact is a part of the game in all divisions of play and in all categories of play,” Hengel said.
“There’s an awful lot of reference to contact being removed from the game and that, by no means, is the case.”
The organization defines body contact as incidental contact of two opposing players in pursuit of the puck or ice position in the same direction. Body checking results when two opposing players collide when skating in opposite directions or when positioning and angling allow the checker to use force of body to gain the advantage.
The move follows a 2013 decision by Hockey Canada, along with Hockey Alberta, to eliminate body checking from all divisions of the peewee category, played by 11- and 12-year-olds.
Player safety is the reason behind the move, Hengel said. In a report to its executive and board of directors, Hockey Edmonton points to evidence suggesting that body checking is associated with 45-86 per cent of injuries. Player dropout also increases when body checking becomes mandatory, it says.
Dr. Don Voaklander, director of the Injury Prevention Centre at the University of Alberta called the rule change a positive move.
“Most of the rec players just want to play hockey and enjoy the sport,” Voaklander said. “There’s lots of variation in size of kids that age and you always hear the story from parents saying Billy loved hockey but he was just too small to continue, so this gives an opportunity for kids to keep active.”
He said taking body checking out of most minor hockey categories will also reduce injuries.
“About 30 per cent of all minor hockey players are 13 and older and they account for about 70 per cent of (hockey) injuries seen in emergency departments, so it’s a fairly significant group of kids getting injured in that age group.”
Hockey Edmonton’s Recreational Hockey League will continue to offer non-body checking programs. Hockey Edmonton REM 15AA teams, while not participating in Hockey Alberta championships, will continue to play within the Rural and Edmonton Hockey League and will remain a bodychecking category.