Player MovementProcess SL Stars

In an effort to control the player movement process the SLYH Board has developed the following process for player movement.

A Player Movement Advisory Board (PMAB) has been created consisting of the following board members: Secretary, Past President, (Level) Director (varies based on level of player moving up), Vice President and President.The President will chair this advisory board.

Permanent Movement

The Board may act to move a player up if some or all of the conditions are met:

  1. To reduce overcrowding on a team and even out the numbers across all teams
  2. To replace a player who can no longer play due to :
  3. Injury
  4. Permanent Move
  5. Expulsion
  6. To advance a dominant player who is singlehandedly effecting the outcome of the games and will significantly affect parity placement of the team.

Rules for Movement:

The coach of, either the team needing a player or the team needing to promote a player should contact their level director. The level director will contact the other members of the PMAB which will decide if movement is necessary.

The head coach of the lower team will make recommendations for players available and deservedof movement.The Player Movement advisory Board members will evaluate all players by attending two events (practices or games). Prior to and during this process of determining any player movement, to avoid parental conflict, the Coaches and Board members are not to have direct discussionsabout the possible movement with the parent(s) or player(s) until the process is complete.Once the decision is made to permanentlymove a player(s) the PMAB Board is to contact thelevel Director and inform him/her of the Board decision. The level Director will contact the parent(s) and current coach of the player(s) to facilitate the move.

All evaluations will be performed by the members of the Player Movement Board, unless the Chair of the Board deems a significant conflict of interest. In this case the chair may appoint another party to perform the evaluation.

Consideration for player movement will not be given where such movement would be detrimental to any team in terms of player numbers. In other words, if such movement would leave a team less than adequate player numbers, no consideration will be given for player movement in that instance. Furthermore if the team or level to which such a player would move up to already has adequate player numbers and an additional player would result in players already on the team not being given their fair allotment of playing time, once again SLYH will not allow player movement. If the team or level to which such a player moves up to does not have adequate players then movement up would be looked upon more favorably.

As a guideline for team numbers, SLYH will use theUSA Hockey recommendations for team levels as follows:

  • Mites: 9–13 skaters per team; no full-time goalies;
  • Squirts: 10–12 skaters and 1 goalie per team;
  • Pee Wees: 12-15 skaters and 2 goalies per team.
  • Bantams : 12-15 Skaters and 2 goalies

Temporary Player Movement

At times, it may be necessary for coaches to bring up players from a lower team to field a competitive team. A policy has been put in place to govern temporary player movement that will ensure a fair environment as well as adherence to the Valley League and USA Hockey rules.

To clarify our policy, all player movements temporary or permanent must be run through the Player Movement Advisory Board (PMAB), a fluid Board made up of the Saugus/Lynnfield Youth Hockey Executive Board and the level director to which the player movement applies. Your first contact when you know that you will be missing a player is the level director who will in turn contact the Board. The level directors for 2014 are as follows:

Chris Drislane: Bantam Director

Matt Majeski:Pee Wee Director

Gary Giordano:Squirt Director

Darren Damiani:Mite Director

Please make a request both by email and phone to ensure your level director gets the message and to ensure that we have a written record of the movement request.

It is the responsibility of the level director to communicate to the Board how many players the requesting team will have for the game to determine if there is a need, as well as to inform the Board of a running total of players who have moved up for games and how many games they have played at the higher level. Both of these points will allow the Board to determine which players are eligible to be brought up.

The rules from the Valley League state the following on player movement:

“No player may appear on more than one roster within the league. A player from a team below may be carried as an alternate. Each alternate may play only six (6) games for the team above. If a player participates in an seventh (7th) game, he or she will not be allowed to play for the team below. “

“Each time an alternate player plays he or she must sign the score sheet prior to the start of the game otherwise the game will result in a forfeit.”

If the requests are being submitted through the PMAB, the Board will ensure that we keep a tally on games played at the higher level to avoid a player being haphazardly moved to the next highest level without going through a process. As a point of emphasis, if the Valley League requires us to roster someone at the higher level due to a coach accidentally or purposefully not following our process, we reserve the right to refund the tuition and suspend the child from the program. While this is an extreme punishment, we want to ensure all coaches knows the seriousness of unauthorized player movement.

Please note, when we have authorized temporary player movement, you must have that player sign the roster prior to the game beginning. If you do not, you stand to forefeit the games that they played in and did not sign.

If you have any questions or concerns on this process, please contact the level director as listed on the website.

Violations

Punishment will be levied against a coach violating the player movement policy. First offense will be a week suspension, second offense will be a month suspension, and a third offense will be expulsion from the program for the year. These punitive measures are in place so coaches will understand the seriousness of player movement and to ensure that they become familiar with both the valley league rules and Saugus/Lynnfield Stars player movement policies.

Practice Movement

All Players should practice with their assigned team and there should be no movement for any player to practice with a higher team without written consent from the Board. Coaches who have kids at multiple levels may bring their children on the ice with them provided the kids do not interrupt the flow of the practice and are not put in a dangerous situation.
Evaluations should be completed based on the player evaluation worksheet.