U18 Evaluations - Director's Message

Thanks to all of you who signed up for shinny. A big thanks to all the folks who were able to volunteer to help keep the shinny fun and safe.

Evaluations will start Saturday, September 8, 2025. Dates and times for all evaluation ice times are posted on the website at Evaluations – U18 and grouping lists are posted at Evaluations – U18 – Group Schedule.

TeamSnap

This season - we will be utilizing TeamSnap for the evaluation scheduling and it will be updated daily after each skate is completed and evaluation scores have been tabulated. All skates for each evaluation round will be managed in TeamSnap. Players will receive invites for their group ice times from TeamSnap. If you have used TeamSnap before, each round skate will be treated like a new team and you will receive new invites for each round. Your personal email used to register your player will be used for TeamSnap invites.

As the evaluation games are close together, please monitor your TeamSnap calendar and the SEERA website for updates as they may be provided with short notice. If you have not done so already, make sure you have your TeamSnap account set up ASAP.

Evaluation Scheduling and Grouping

  • Skate times will be communicated to parents via TeamSnap and the website.
  • It is important to check your TeamSnap calendar and the website regularly.
  • In case of any discrepancy between TeamSnap and the website, please follow the TeamSnap schedule.
  • You will receive TeamSnap invites using the email you registered with. If that is different than your TeamSnap account, just sign in with your TeamSnap account when accepting the invite.
  • Due to the number of players being evaluated, we will not be able to accommodate changes to assigned ice times.
  • Players must wear their assigned pinny as their scores will be entered and tracked based on their pinny number in each skate.
  • If you choose to miss an evaluation game your player is subject to tier placement by the director.

Your Player will be only evaluated based on their performance over the Evaluation Period. We will have some larger groups again this year, but I will assure you that ample opportunity will be provided for your player to impress on the ice.

We have had a great response to registration this year and already have enough players for 8 teams, and as registrations continue to come in, I am expecting to get to 9 teams this year. If that is the case, we will have multiple teams in many of the tiers.

Initial evaluation groups are generally based on what team your player was on last year, or previous experience. 3rd year players get preference on all teams.

Round 1 Evaluations are only a starting point, and your player will have lots of opportunity to impress evaluators and move between groups – also noting that players at U18 may move down a group during evaluations as we may have to balance numbers and positions through the evaluations.

Groups and names will be updated and posted at least 24 hours before the skate. which will be posted the morning of), but the schedule posted (August 27) for all the evaluation skates should provide some framework for you to plan around for the next month.

Initial groups are generally based on where players played last year, but may be balanced by position:

  • Group A - U18 Tiers 1 & 2 returning players and 2007 born players from Tier 3 (FULL CONTACT)
  • Group B - U18 Tier 3, U15 Tiers 1 & 2 (FULL CONTACT)
  • Group C - U18 Tier 5, U15 Tier 3 (NO CONTACT)
  • Group D - U18 2007 Born NBC 2, U15 NBC 1 (NO CONTACT)
  • Group E - U18 NBC 2 & 3, U15 Tiers NBC 2 & 3 (NO CONTACT)

Evaluations will be gameplay only (no drills, etc., just hockey).

Goalies will be grouped for Round 1 based on the team they played for last season, but may be balanced by number of goalies available.

  • Goalie Group A - U18 Tier 1, 2, & 3 2007 Born Players
  • Goalie Group B - U18 Tier 3 & U15 Tier 1 & 2
  • Goalie Group C - U18 NBC 1, 2, 3
  • Goalie Group D - U15 Tier 3, U15 NBC 1
  • Goalie Group E - U15 NBC 2 & 3

There are enough goalies currently registered for some of the teams to have 2 goalies this year. For the evaluation skates, we will generally try to have 2 or 3 goalies participating in each skate and will rotate through. There are also two evaluation skates that are specific to goalies, where we will evaluate goalie skills. If you are a goalie and cannot make the skates assigned, please let me know so we can make sure we have enough goalies on the ice. Because we can match goalies this year in their appropriate groups, goalies will be evaluated during the games also.

Body Contact in Evaluations

It is important to note that Groups A & B will be Full Contact throughout evaluations. If you are in one of these groups and are not interested in Full Contact hockey, please contact me via email (u18@seerahockey.ca) to play in non-contact evaluations. For players moving from Group C to Group B through evaluations, I will confirm Full Contact participation. Groups C, D & E are non-contact.

Evaluators and Volunteers

During evaluations, we will need a bench parent or two for each bench - if you would like to do that please let me know at the rink at the check in desk. Thanks in advance to those who volunteer to help!

There will be many evaluators at every session (thanks to all those volunteers!). Please do not ask evaluators questions during sessions or interrupt their concentration – it is an important job and they want to focus on the players on the ice.

We still need more evaluators - no experience needed - just email me and I will get you access to the sign-up sheet.

Club Tryouts

Finally, for those who are currently in the Club system (MLAC) tryouts, and you think you may be coming back to SEERA, please let me know ASAP, and the sooner you can join SEERA Evaluations the better. After September 20th, I can no longer guarantee availability in the most appropriate tier for those players coming back.

In Closing

There are lots of friend requests to consider and we will try to accommodate those requests. I may reach out to parents and players to discuss specific circumstances.

There will be a Goalie Game on Sept 22. Come out and support all the U15 goalies and U18 goalies as they play together against each other in full goalie gear.

Throughout evaluations, Scott Carreiro (Assistant Director) and I will be more than happy to answer questions about the evaluation process, but we will not answer questions about your player (or any player) and how they are evaluating or why they are in a particular group.

Once teams are decided, I am more than willing to discuss any questions you may have on your player's placement – We are fully transparent.

There will be no further emails - all information will be posted and available on the SEERA website and TeamSnap.

 

Thank you,

Bill Beaton
U18 Director
SEERA Hockey
email: u18@seerahockey.ca