Minor hockey in Tavistock in good shape despite new player-movement rules

Lee Griffi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The success of any minor hockey system is based first and foremost on its numbers. The Tavistock Minor Hockey Association (TMHA) has increased enrolment for the 2025-2026 Ontario Minor Hockey League season despite the Ontario Hockey Federation allowing any player to play in the centre of their choice.

As of December 2024, the Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF) approved a series of updates to its player-movement rules to take effect for this season.

Players from the U10 age group up to U18 were no longer bound by where they live to play for a given association. In other words, they can try out or play for any association in the OHF regardless of their home address.

For players in U9 and younger, if they are playing house league, the rules are mostly unchanged and they can play anywhere in the OHF. For minor development (MD or AE) and select levels in U9 and under, the boundary rules still apply.

TMHA president Brad Witzel said the organization’s numbers are up substantially.

“We are over 300 registrations and you can add another 45 once First Shift gets going in November. What we are seeing is some really big numbers at our younger ages. The U5 and U7 programs are over 70 each, the U8 and U9 combined are pretty good, so we are seeing overall growth in the organization.”

First Shift is an introductory or beginner hockey program in partnership with the NHL/NHLPA, Hockey Canada and local minor hockey associations. It’s designed for kids who are new to organized hockey and are between the ages of six and 10 years old.

Despite the increased numbers in the younger age groups, Witzel said TMHA has seen older players take advantage of the increased migration opportunities.

“We saw the biggest impact at the competitive U13 and U15 predominantly, not to the same degree at U18, where we saw a good number of players take the option to go elsewhere through the open borders. Time will tell where those teams are going to land in their new competitive structure.”

Witzel said they have to find out how competitive Tavistock teams are in the Southern Counties league as the season proceeds.

“Are we still all relatively balanced or did some centres get stronger and some get weaker. We will need a little more time to tell.”

Part of the reason for the hike in registrations is the presence of more non-resident players, those who chose to come to Tavistock from other centres.

“There were some in U9 and up to U15, so there were players from other centres looking for a change or who were potentially displaced through their tryout processes. Others came here for tryouts, had great things to say and ended up staying for our Local League program.”     

Some of the organization’s top players, particularly at the U13 and U15 levels, have left Tavistock (a B centre) to play BB or A elsewhere, but Witzel hopes they will, at some point in their careers, decide to come back home.

The Gazette asked Witzel how he would rate the overall health of the TMHA, from one to 10, in light of the many changes occurring not only this year, but in recent years.

“Well, I would like to think it’s pretty high on the scale. Financially, we are in very good shape. We do a very good job of monitoring that very closely, ensuring our registration rates are set appropriately, and we are maintaining that fiscal responsibility. We are very fortunate to have some members on the board who have that fiscal acumen.”

He added the lofty registration numbers at young ages bodes well for the organization’s future.

“It’s promising to see the younger players progress up and if we can backfill the U5 to U7 ages with another group of 75 kids, you can appreciate how that dominoes throughout the system.”

Witzel added he’s pleased with the coaches at the representative and local-league levels. He said what remains to be seen is what open borders does to the organization when it comes to being competitive at the rep level.

“At this point, it’s too early to comment on that. If we have a great year, obviously, we are very healthy from that competitive standpoint, but (if we) have a down year in comparison to the past, it’s the new normal and we will have to monitor what it looks like in uncharted territory.”

One criticism of hockey bodies like the Ontario Minor Hockey Association and the OHF has been the absence of opportunities to provide meaningful feedback on existing and new policies and processes. There are some opportunities, but overall, minor hockey associations are largely on the receiving end of what comes down the pipe from those above.

“There are ways to provide feedback, but we are a very small fish in a massive pond. We share what we can through our local OMHA representative, but some things are administratively difficult and we do our best to manage them,” Witzel said.

Witzel explained the association does what it can to deal with the new rules and regulations.

“At the end of the day we do our absolute best to manage all of that administration through the executive and let the players and parents enjoy the on-ice product. There is a lot to manage and make sure we are on top of.”