Evaluations

The Player Development Committee (PDC) and board committed to a substantial overhaul of the player evaluation process for the 2024-2025 season. These changes ensure that players are placed on the best teams for their development and that team levels and sizes are correctly decided. This document is an overview of the changes so families know what to expect.

• The focus will be on doing what is right for each player to maximize development
• The goal is to get to the correct decisions and do what is best for each skater.
• Extensive research, discussions and wide-ranging input were reviewed to arrive at this approach.
• The process, including feedback, will be assessed to determine what if any further changes will need to be made to the process going forward.
• The process will no longer be blind
• Skaters will wear their game jerseys for evals; please bring both dark and light. If you do not have your game jerseys, a set will be provided for you.
• This change will allow the incorporation of broader information about players that cannot be gathered from a single weekend
• The official process will begin at the Pre-Evaluation Camps (formerly Fall Camp)
• This provides more information on skaters in a wider range of scenarios, with greater fluidity in group construction, and across more days to reduce the risk (and anxiety) that one bad weekend results in misplacing a skater.
• These camps are still optional; skaters who do not attend will not be negatively impacted in any way, the evaluators will just have less information about them.
• There will not be a Friday night Goalie session
• This will be replaced by goalie-focused sessions and drills during camp
• The two Saturday sessions will be reduced to 45 minutes each
• This provides enough time to separate players while keeping them fresh
• These sessions will remain almost entirely scrimmage time
• There will only be Sunday sessions if evaluators need additional information for a level
• Information about these sessions will be communicated as early as possible via email to those it pertains to.
• Players may be exempted from scrimmage sessions once their place is finalized
• This will streamline the evaluation process by allowing focus on the cutoffs and is more efficient for players and parents by not requiring them to attend extra sessions
• Players with excused absences will be placed on teams based on available information
• This will reduce disruption to team practices and acknowledge past knowledge
• These players may be moved if they do not fit where they are initially placed

It is the policy of River Lakes Hockey that players should play on teams as defined by Minnesota

Hockey age groups and classifications. While some players may be more advanced at a particular age than

others, RLH agrees with MN Hockey and USA Hockey that overall development of the player emotionally and

physically is best served by having him or her progress normally through age levels and team classifications.

RLH does recognize exceptions could arise beyond the normal scope of this policy. Please see the documents below for more specific information on our waiver policies.