Do you want an earlier schedule this winter?

When you want better ice times and don’t mind inconsistency Regular Prime is a perfect schedule for your team. This schedule option has 50% of the regular season games starting at 10:30 PM or earlier on any day at any arena we use.

The only potential downside is if your team needs to be realigned to a different division then you will have to swap schedules with the team going up or down for you, therefore potentially loosing those earlier games in your old schedule.

Should this unfortunate and unlikely scenario happen to your team and your schedule becomes non prime (less than half of the games starting at 10:30 PM or earlier) we will credit your team back the difference in price between Regular schedule and Regular Prime schedule pro rated based on how many games you lost to non prime.

Your other schedule options are Home Ice and Regular.

Do you want you home games to always be in the same place on the same day and at the same time?

If consistency of the schedule is important to you, this is the option you should choose. Home Ice schedule means that your team will play half of the 30 regular season games at the same arena, same day and time of the week. The other 15 games will be played against teams on their schedule.

For example instead of running around from arena to arena each week, playing each game at a different time and day (one week you could be playing a Monday 10:30 pm game at Crestwood and the next it can be a Sunday 10:45 game at Terwilliger) you know that tonight it is a home game and you are playing at Kennilworth at 10:15 pm.

Another excellent benefit of a Home Ice schedule is its transferability. If you chose a Regular schedule and your team needs to be realigned to a different division you will lose the schedule you currently have and take on the schedule of the team you are swapping divisions with. However, if your team has to move up or down and you chose Home Ice schedule you keep all your home games – only your away games will change!

Picking Home Ice schedule for the winter also saves you driving time and gas, depending on where the guys/girls on the team live you can pick a slot at an arena that is close to everyone. For example if your team members are based out of the south west Terwilliger is probably a good pick for you.

For only a few bucks more per player per game you can have the added convenience of consistency. You will know when and where you play your home games from start to finish of the season and will take them with you should the team need to be realigned.

Your other schedule options are Regular Prime and Regular.

The Regular schedule option is the base schedule we provide. It is similar to what you get in other leagues but with several key advantages.

Most everywhere when you register to play winter hockey your team is assigned a schedule and if you are lucky it will be published for the whole year. That is as far as it goes.

The difference between a regular schedule in the NCHL and elsewhere is significant, it is about choice. Even with a Regular schedule you still get to pick the division you want to play in. You also get to pick a schedule out of the list of available Regular schedules we build.

You can not get that anywhere else. This is why the order you place your deposit in matters, the sooner you provide us with the deposit the more choices you will have available. Even with Regular schedules when it comes time to decide when you want to play you are in complete control of your choices.

The disadvantage of the Regular schedule is that you can potentially play anywhere, on any day of the week and at any time. If consistent schedule and ice times are not important to you, then this is the choice for you.

Your other schedule options are Home Ice and Regular Prime .

Collecting money from your players is never a fun experience, on some days it can be compared to pulling teeth. When we run teams we used to collect fees as cash or cheques, while it did the job it was far from ideal. You could not offer your teammates to pay with their credit card for their fees before and offering them to split their team fees into two equal or monthly payments was unthinkable.

If you have never experienced DirectPay, you will love what it can do for you. We have offered DirectPay during the last four seasons and this past winter one for every two players in the league used the service, it is proven to reduce your workload. The NCHL was the first league to introduce this service in Edmonton and is the only league that provides this convenience for you.

You can even use DirectPay to pay your deposit so that zero dollars leave your pocket to register your team, all you have to do is get your teammates to sign up and use the service, just ask the Regulators. Every season they manage to get all their guys to pay online and the GM never has to collect money from anyone!

This season you can offer your teammates to:

• Pay with their credit card. No more chasing money!
• Pay their fees with easy monthly payments* so you don’t have to carry them
• Let them collect rewards like Airmiles on their credit card.

If you would like to save time this is what you need to do in order to take advantage of this unique revolutionary service.

1. Activate DirectPay on your Team Registration form.
2. Let your teammates know what you are charging per person.
3. Get your teammates to fill out the DirectPay online form we set up for you.

That’s it! We do the rest.

You as a team GM are still responsible for the overall payment of the team invoice. This is just another method of payment you can offer your teammates. Our mission is to reduce, as much as possible, the unpleasant tasks that fall on you as the team GM and make running a team an easy as pie, fun and enjoyable process.

Play Hockey this Winter!

Hockey is the fastest, most exhilarating game on the planet. When you’re on the ice, time seems to stand still no matter what time of day it is. If you don’t make your game you feel empty, you can’t wait to get back on the ice to make that perfect pass, score the game winning goal or stone that all-star forward on the breakaway again and again.

“Everyone has to get up and go to work in the morning …”

Like anything, with the good, sometimes come the bad and the ugly. Some will say “Fighting is part of the game”, but we don’t believe for one second there is any more reason to fight during an adult recreational hockey game then there would be to square off on the 18th hole of your favorite golf course. After all aren’t we out there for a little exercise and a good time? The NCHL was the first hockey league in Alberta to completely ban fighting.

We strictly enforce our ‘one and done’ policy, if you fight once, you will be suspended indefinitely from the league. We don’t want goons, wingnuts or meatheads in our league. We want guys and girls that want to play hockey to the best of their ability with character, integrity, maturity and respect. Most of us have to get up and go to work the next morning and what would it look like if you were to show up to a meeting with a shiner or worse, a few missing teeth perhaps?

“Did you know, anyone can play …?”

If you didn’t grow up playing Minor hockey it seemed like your chances of playing as an adult was slim to none. We believe that anyone can learn to play, at any age, and the NCHL is a living, breathing proof of that. If you have never skated before, we can teach you how, and get you on a team. You can find out more about this program at Discover Hockey

If you played earlier in life but fell out of love with the game for a ‘few years’, welcome back, we’ve got a place for you too. Even if you played for most of your life already, you can still play to the best of your potential with us. There is a place for you here, no matter what your skill level is!

“Let your teammates pay fees online …”

It has never been easier to get in the game. Grab your buddies and start a team. All you need is 5 guys with 2 friends and a goalie and you are on your way. What’s more, this winter season you may not even have to collect fees from your players. We know, this is almost always a painful process for so many team general managers. This season we will do the work on your behalf, all you need to do is let your players know what their fees are and have them fill out a simple online form with a valid credit card number. We’ll do everything else.

Someone wants to pay monthly? No problem, we can do that too! For a nominal administration fee (8%), we can break the player fees into equal monthly payments, spreading the financial burden. Now you can concentrate on the more important parts of running the team instead of worrying about chasing players for money.