“You have been taking a lot of shots at USA Hockey lately,” a district staffer complained recently. Maybe so, but if USA Hockey spent a little more time enforcing standards, instead of simply hiding them, I would have less about USA Hockey to talk about.
Let’s be honest, bans and suspensions never carry over to USA Hockey any more than the many other players suspended from USA Hockey who quickly reappear in a non-sanctioned league. Simply said, suspensions now mean nothing.
Add that problem to the growing list of concerns around the divide between sanctioned and non-sanctioned junior hockey.
How do we, as a sport, discuss the issues that divide the game?
Deregulation of the level of play, and eliminating the junior council, would be a great first step. The reality is that the market can discuss shortcomings more effectively than whatever USA Hockey and the non-sanctioned leagues can.
USA Hockey’s Player Rights & Responsibilities document has been proven to be worth little more than the paper it’s written on. The failures are so many that it has become little more than a joke.
Deregulation, and limiting USA Hockey to more of an administrative (protected lists, international transfers) and supplemental insurance provider would remove the necessity for leagues to run outside of USA Hockey’s jurisdiction.
The North American Hockey League’s Mark Frankenfeld should not have any influence over the expansion of leagues or relocation into new markets. But he does. If there is a group in Minnesota that wants to put a team into the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, it’s frankly none of Frankenfeld’s business.
The problem is that USA Hockey has allowed both the United States Hockey League and NAHL to prove a monopoly at the Tier I & II levels of play. Enough already. USA Hockey’s refusal to enforce the standards has resulted in the devaluation of USHL and NAHL teams. New groups should be free to form under USA Hockey without interference from the NAHL and USHL.
The United States based teams playing in the Western Hockey League should not have to get permission from the competition (USHL) if they made the choice to create a pacific coast league. USA Hockey has given that Tier I designation exclusively to the USHL. Same goes for Tier II to the NAHL. Not that it really matters.
Simple deregulation leaves enforcement of standards up to each league. When all of the country’s domestic junior hockey leagues are operating under one sanctioning umbrella, disciplinary measures carry much more weight.
What can we do to unify the level of play? The most important action is to demand that families get exactly what they are paying for.
There needs to be a document that grants automatic free agency, along with a release of financial responsibility, in the event the team fails to keep their end of the deal.
Teams that are unwilling to sign such an addendum to the player agreement should be taken out of consideration, regardless of what league the team in playing in. Such a document is a game changer for junior hockey. We are putting the power back into the hands of where it should have been all along, with the participants.
We’ve seen enough and feel that participants do have the power to overcome the ridiculousness of one-sided player agreements, ineffective tier standards, and teams’ continued failure to live up to their end of the deal.
Who’s with us?
Stephen Heisler 