What are the different levels of competitive hockey available to my child?
In London, there are three levels of competitive hockey available to your child:
AAA
- AAA is the highest level of competitive hockey in London.
- The AAA program is offered in London only by the London Junior Knights for Minor Atom to Major Midget players.
- There can be one or two teams per age division made up of players from across the city.
Seeded Hockey (AA/A)
- Seeded Hockey is the second highest level of competitive hockey available in London.
- Seeded Hockey is offered by the London Junior Knights as well as the GLHA's Jr Mustangs for Minor Atom to Major Midget players.
- The London Junior Knights have 1 or 2 teams made up of players from across the city.
- The GLHA Jr Mustangs Purple teams have players from Oakridge and North Associations and Bandits and West make up the GLHA Jr Mustangs White
- GLHA Jr Mustangs will have two seeded teams per division
- All Seeded teams play each other until December and then are declared either “A” or “AA”
Minor Development Hockey (MD)
- Minor Development (MD) hockey is first level of competitive hockey and is available to Minor Novice to Midget players.
- Minor Development (MD) hockey is only available via the neighbourhood associations.
- The local associations offer one MD team per division where registration numbers and player development allow it.
- Non-checking league.
London also has a very large and robust House League program:
- All games are local to the London area, playing other teams from other London Associations.
- Local London Championship. Each local Association offer multiple teams depending on registration.
- Non-checking league.
What is “Seeded Hockey”?
- As mentioned above Seeded (AA/A) hockey is offered by the London Junior Knights (city wide teams) and GLHA.
- All seeded teams within our area (i.e. Sarnia to Burlington) play each other until December and then are “seeded” or declared as either an “A” or “AA” level team based on their wins/losses etc. After the “seed”, the teams only play teams that are within their designation:
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- The AA teams play in the ‘Constellation League'
- The A teams play in the ‘Bristol League'
- Generally, Junior Knights teams will be seeded as “AA” teams and the GLHA teams are seeded as “A” teams.
Does a player have to tryout for the Spring Tryouts if he/she really wants to play MD?
- We encourage all players to tryout for at Spring tryouts to ensure players are playing at their highest skill level.
When are tryouts?
- London Junior Knights AAA/AA tryouts are in the Spring. Register for these tryouts at the London Junior Knights website.
- GLHA teams tryouts will begin tryouts in September for Minor Atom to Minor Midget.
- Association MD tryouts for Minor Novice to Midget will be in September following the Purple Mustangs tryouts.
Is competitive hockey more expensive the house league hockey?
- Yes, there are additional costs associated with competitive hockey.
- Competitive teams are on the ice more often than house league teams and have other team expenses. The associations charge a competitive surcharge to cover ice and other costs provided by the association.
- Teams may wish to purchase additional ice or go on tournaments. These costs would also be covered by the team.
- Many competitive teams fund-raise to cover some or all of these additional costs.
What is the time commitment?
- Generally there are 1.5 to 2.5 hours of practice time per week and 1 to 2 games.
- There is also more travel, as some of the teams you will play will be outside of London (like Sarnia, Woodstock, Stratford, Brantford, Burlington, Cambridge, KW area).
- Generally there is less travel with MD hockey compared to Seeded hockey.
When does "checking" hockey begin?
- Checking hockey begins in Minor Bantam in seeded levels and above, so AAA and AA/A.