Attention all u22 and u18 Bench Staff, Players & Families,
Recently the Devilettes Board of Directors has discussed the 1-year trial that was initiated for this current 2023-2024 season and voted to NOT continue the trial going forward. The Board has approved that we will be returning to the structure that has previously been in place for about 30-years for the 2024-2025 season with all teams being U22 teams with u22 and u18 aged players.
A lot of factors have been considered in this decision and they include:
- Results of games between the three u18 rostered teams and the two u22/u18 mixed teams. Some of the main stats will be listed below in a chart. The factors included:
o Goals For vs Goals Against (avg of 0.7 for u18 teams vs 3.1 for u22/u18 mixed teams)
o Shots for u18 teams versus shots for u22/u18 mixed teams. Avg of 10.3 (u18) vs 36.5 (u22/u18)
o Offensive Zone time. Though not specifically tracked, many estimate the ratio as 4:1 for the u22/u18 mixed teams. One volunteer for the Teal u18 team listed it as “4:1 or worse in favour of u22. We can’t get into the (offensive) zone and even if we do, and happen to get a shot, 95% of the time it’s a weak shot”
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Regular Season & PlayOff Round Robin
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All3 U18 vs Both U22/U18 teams
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5
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36
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7
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35
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144
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0.74
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3.06
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10.3
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36.5
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wins
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losses
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ties
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Goals For
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Goals against
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Goals for /game
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Goals Against /game
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Shots for U18 teams
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Shots for U22 teams
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· 23 of the wins by u22/u18 mixed teams over u18 teams have been shutouts
· 18x u18 scored once; 6x u18 scored 2 goals and 1x u18 scored 4 goals
· Conversely u22/u18 mixed teams tallied 4-8 goals a total of 18x (4 goals 5x; 5 goals 11x; 8 goals 2x)
· 3 of the 5 wins occurred with extenuating circumstances involving no Goalie in net or AP players were used
· 4 of the 7 ties occurred when the u18 goalie made 40-50 saves and their own team took between 4-10 shots.
- Challenges with consistently icing enough players at different times due to having more players of the same ages all on the same team. This has never been as big of a factor as it has been this year. When each team has a variety of ages on the team, only a few are away at the same time. The times below became problematic.
o Spring Break for the College & University students
o March Break for the high school aged players.
o High School players (mainly grade 11 and 12) during their exam times
o College/University students have multiple mid-term and exam times throughout the season
- The morale of the players in the face of games being too difficult or too easy and thus attendance suffered:
o Many parents & players have voiced displeasure of their 15-17 year olds being “unable to compete” and are feeling it is useless to try and feel defeated before they even go to the rink … hence younger players did not always come to all games versus a u22/u18 mixed team
o Many of the older players have also been unhappy with having to back off plays, or being asked to pass 5-6 times first, play out of their normal position etc… hence many did not attend all games versus the u18 teams
- Tournament challenges for u18 teams. One of the factors that led to the decision in 2023 to try for 1-season was Tournaments. There was some challenges this year for the u18 teams to even get into tournaments. There were 4 or 5 occasions that u18 teams entered tournaments just to have the u18 HL division cancelled. Coach Josh Schiller (Yellow u18 team), explained how he had 2 tourneys cancelled and had to get a refund whereas the year before when he entered u22 Tournaments, he never had one cancelled. Coach Trent Fieldhouse, who has coached in this division for 11-years has attended approximately 25-30 tournaments and other than the year after Covid, has not had a tournament cancelled.
- Tournament Successes vs League games. Though there was some success for u18 teams at tournaments as well as for the u22/u18 mixed teams, the ratio of games played at tournaments to league games is 7-12 tournament games to 38-39 league games on average for the teams. There were 2 wins and a Silver at tournaments for u18 and also 2 wins for u22 teams and a semi-final. With nearly 80% of our games being our League play, it is a bigger factor.
Ensuring upto 7-years of hockey for our HouseLeague players. For 30-years, the Devilettes HouseLeague has ranged from 5 teams to 7 teams and players have been able to have 7 seasons if they start at 15-years old in HL or 4-years if they age out of competitive u18 teams to play HL hockey. This creates a lot more hockey for all of our players.
- Balancing of Teams. Going forward there will be a continued effort to have as much balance as possible between the teams from a skills perspective as well as having a variety of ages on teams. This allows for additions & a few small changes to be made year to year which generally keeps the majority of teams together. In 2022-2023, all 5 teams had an average age of between 17 years, 3months old and 17 years, 6months old. Most years each team has 1-2 players aging out and 3-5 players who go away to school outside of London, thereby replacing 5-7 players with players new to the age group or new to Devilettes or having aged out of u18 competitive teams. One Coach referred to having some teams as u18 and others as u22/u18 mixed being “mathematically impossible given the difference in skills, ages and experience".
This article will be sent to all coaches & players by email and any questions can be sent to your coaches who will in turn reach out to myself. I am happy to arrange a time to talk about this with anyone.
Ken Van de Haar
Senior HL Director - u13 to u22