NSWC Minor Hockey Program

One of the biggest assets of the NSWC is the strength of its hockey program and hockey brand. The program is nationally recognized and is the major driver of membership at the Club. Dominated by one of the strongest coaching lineups, additional ice times, enhanced skill development, and off-ice training, the NSWC is one of the premium choices for hockey.

NSWC Hockey prides itself on offering the most comprehensive hockey development based on LTAD principles for all ages and skill ranges of any association in the world. We work hard to shape teams and players at every level so that they are ready to compete and be successful.  Not only is there a focus on skill/athletic development, but also fundamental movements, life-skills, teamwork, confidence, sportsmanship, leadership and respect throughout all ages and levels.

For Minor Hockey Registration information,please visit our Program and Registration page.

2025-2026 ice schedule

Pre-Season Schedule

Tryout Process – 2025

U7 Tryout Schedule 2025

U9 Tryout Schedule 2025

U11 Tryout Schedule 2025

U13 Tryout Schedule 2025

New Player Minor Hockey Registrations

Please visit the Hockey Canada Registrar (HCR) Platform for information regarding the 2025-2026 Season

New players wanting to transfer to the NSWC to play hockey, or have a sibling already playing at the NSWC, please contact our registrar registrar@nswc.ca for further help and more information.

Transfers from outside NSWC must be approved before you can register.
Any discounts will be honored once transfers can be accepted.
Please contact Kyle Turris, Director, Hockey (kturris@nswc.ca) with any questions.

New players (players that have not played before) are required to send in documents prior to registering. If you have not played for any Minor Hockey Association please contact registrar@nswc.ca

Once the documents have been submitted, you are then able to register.

Returning Player Minor Hockey Registration

Please visit the Hockey Canada Registrar (HCR) Platform for information regarding the 2025-2026 Season

Welcome back for another hockey season!

Our Minor Hockey Registration is now OPEN for returning players. You will notice the registration platform is on the usual Hockey Canada Registry (HCR).

Returning players will have priority registration until May 15^th.  Registration will close on June 15^th for returning players.

• PLEASE UPDATE ALL EMAIL AND CONTACT INFORMATION ON YOUR HCR PROFILES

PLEASE READ** – If you are a new player, would like to transfer to the NSWC to play hockey, or have a sibling already playing here, please contact our registrar Tasha (registrar@nswc.ca) for further help and more information.

REGISTRATION DEADLINES/INFORMATION

• Early Bird Pricing deadline: June 30th
• RETURNING PLAYER REGISTRATION DEADLINE: July 1st
• Registration link:
  • (HERE)
  • You also should be able to access the registration by logging in to your HCR profile and clicking “Register”
• “A” OR “C” DENOMINATION
  • When choosing which level to register your child, please be aware of the following when choosing what level/category they should be registered in:
    • “A” means REP hockey
      • U11A, U13A, U15A, U18 A, means that your son or daughter will be trying out for rep, and will incur the tryout fee of $150.00. The $150.00 non-refundable fee will be charged to your member account on your August statement for those players attending tryouts.
    • “C” means house hockey, where tryouts will not be needed. No tryout fee will be assessed

If you sign up for “C” or House hockey, season will commence later than rep hockey in September

REGISTRATION FEES

In an effort to provide a full overview for members of the various fees and financial expectations for NSWC minor hockey players, we will provide an outline of all fees that have been set for the upcoming season.

1. Hockey Registration Fees

All U6-U18 players will be required to pay the base registration fee with their registration and do not include coach & team development fees.  This is the base fee amount that is based on the standardized elements that are provided to every player.  This includes, but not limited to:

1. NSWC Ice Activity Fee
2. BC Hockey & PCAHA Fees
3. Regularly scheduled games & practices (2 practices/skill dev & 1 home game)
4. Jerseys, socks, & team gear
5. Team Snap fees
6. Certifications/Team supplies/Coach equipment
7. Awards/Banquet
8. Administrative, Referee in Chief, ongoing coach support & mentorship

**- 1/2 of the U6 or Female U7 registration fees are waived for their first year of hockey

2. Coaching & Development Team Fees

These will be charged based on division, roster size and number of development sessions allocated to each team.  To ensure that players are receiving top-end development at all levels, these fees will include:

1. Professional Coaching fees (Rep & Female)
2. Goalie specific development (private & group)
3. Dryland
4. Educational sessions: mental training, nutritional seminars, future planning etc.

This allows for consistency in the program at all levels, and provides families with more transparency into the overall team cost, which will then be billed based on the final roster sizes.

U11-U18 Hawks & Female C teams can expect lower team fees of between $300-$900, where rep teams can expect fees between $800-$2500 per player. These fees will be finalized in September.

• *U6-U9 Team Development Fees included in Registration

3. Team Fees (Managed by the team)

For all levels, parents will be asked to pay a team fee, based on the team budget developed by the team manager.  A parent meeting must be held at the beginning of each season for the manager to present the proposed budget and seek parental input and approval.  The budget must also be submitted to the NSWC Hockey Department for final approval.  These fees are determined by the team and could include, but not limited to:

1. Tournament Expenses
2. Referee Payment
3. Additional team apparel
4. Extra skill development or dryland sessions
5. Additional Outside Ice
6. Team Building events
7. Team photos
8. Coaching software: video analysis
9. Coach gifts
10. Other team costs determined by the team

4. Rep Tryout Fee (optional)

Tryouts for U11 to U18 will occur on or after September 5^th.  Please note, players must attend all sessions. A $150.00 non-refundable fee will be charged to your member account on your September statement for those players attending tryouts.

• ** Those who sign up for rep “A” hockey will be charged the $150.00 fee

NOTE – “A” represents Rep (Tryouts), and “C” represents Hawks (No tryouts)

BILLING

A $500 deposit will be charged on members’ June statement to hold the player’s spot.  This will be fully refundable if your player makes a BC Hockey High-Performance team.  The remainder of the Base Registration fee will be charged to your August statement.

A $150 non-refundable tryout fee will be charged to your member account on your September statement for those players attending tryouts.

The Coaching & Team Development fees will be charged in 3 equal installments, once roster sizes are finalized:  Oct, Nov, Dec.  If any families need additional assistance, we encourage you to reach out so we can help to support your family.

REGISTRATION REFUND POLICY

The following refunds will be granted:

1. 100% until May 15^th
2. 50% until June 15^th
3. No refund after June 15th until the commencement of tryouts for the player’s respective age group, or September 1st (non-tryout cases)
4. 100% refund in the event the player succeeds in getting rostered to a BC Zone, OR Junior team.
5. 100% refund if there is no team offered in the player’s respective age group or if there is no rep team in the player’s respective age group and the player leaves to play at the rep level elsewhere.

Please send all registration questions and inquiries to Jenn Hanna (registrar@nswc.ca).

Thanks,

• NSWC Hockey Department

Section 1: New Officials (Ages 11+)

Officials 11-17years of age (as of Dec 31st of the current year) are eligible to join the program.

We host a New officials clinic in late September or October depending on instructor and ice time availability. There is only ONE clinic annually. Please do not ask for additional options, there are none.

Fill it out Google form to be added to the next clinic invitation list: Form Link Here

ALL new officials have to complete an Online Pre-requisite called “Learning Lab”. The learning lab content is basic rules and information about Hockey. Most players over the age of 11 will be able to complete this course in 1.5-2 hours. You can choose to stop and start the course to break it up into segments if required.

Click here for link

New Officials In-Person clinics are the ONLY hosted by the Minor Hockey Associations to recruit and hire their New officials.

In-person clinics include two components:

• Component 1: In-classroom for theory, rules knowledge and Exam.
• Component 2: On-ice for positioning, puckdroping and physical skills instruction.

Both components are MANDATORY to pass the course.

After the New Officials Clinic expectations: 

New officials in the age of 11-12 are deployed in the Hockey 2/3/4 (U7,U8, U9) games that are normally played on weekend mornings from 7 AM – 11 AM depending on the posted schedule. There are occasional evening games on both weekends and weekdays but not on a regular basis. It is extremely important that young new officials and parents have accurate expectations of what to come in their first years of officiating. The standard would include face offs, goals procedures and “penalties” which is a very loose term in Hockey 2/3/4 (U7,U8, U9).

New officials between the ages of 13-16 are normally deployed in Atom C (U11C) to start until they have become comfortable with the basics (Positioning and procedures such as Icings, Offsides, Penalties). They will then be moved into Atom Rep (U11A) or Peewee C (U13C) to gain experience in a more competitive environment.

Newer officials are generally used as Linespeople first than after some experience will get an opportunity to referee, if they are comfortable.

New officials between the age of 17-18 are normally deployed in U13C to start and get their “feet wet”. These officials normally pick up the basics pretty quick and move into U15/U18C and maybe some Rep, if they show signs of being comfortable quickly.

We aim to be as transparent as possible when it comes to expectations. Young first year officials will expect 2-3 games per month to start However that depends on your schedule being flexible and scheduled appropriately in our scheduling system in advance and frequently updated. We hire a large amount of first years because we generally see a 30-50% decline year over year until year 3. We have tried many strategies for recruitment such as lowering the number of officials to try and give more games to smaller groups but that generally backfires as most of the age group of young officials play on the same teams and have similar availability because of that and that requires us to have a larger group to fill games. In later years (Years 3,4 and later) games will become more available because of the officials age and comfort for the job improve year over year.

Expectation to invest in affordable equipment.

Officials require another set of equipment such as a helmet with visor, whistle, skates that don’t translate to their playing equipment in a small duffle bag.

Required Equipment:

Helmet – Black with CSA Approved half shield visor (Oakleys are not CSA approved visors)

Skates – Must be player skates. No goaltender skates permitted. Toe spike is a hazard for players that might fall into an official’s feet in a puck battle.

Black Pants (suggested waterproof pants) – These can be snow pants, or track pants they can even be Team pants but THEY CANNOT have ANY team related Logos or Text. Player name and number is okay, if need be.

Jersey: Any vertically striped referee jersey is okay but I’d suggest you buy one with snap on armbands. Can be found at any local and sometimes on second platforms such as marketplace and similar.

Other equipment recommended:

Small Shin pads (like ball hockey, mountain bike or even soccer shin guards is a great place to start)

Elbow pads: does not need to be playing elbows but something small and light weight is all you need.

Certification is ANNUALLY REQUIRED to maintain the official certification. 

Returning Officials clinics are hosted by BC Hockey annually between September and November (known as Clinic Season). To find instructions in later years please refer to the next section. 

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Section 2: Returning Officials – Regular returnees

Returning officials over the age of 18 require a Criminal Record check every 3 years. The registration will prompt you if your CRC is outdated and requires an update.

Registration Link Here

Once registered and clinic is attended and passed, you are good to start working games. Officials that certified the previous year can work assignments prior to their clinic completion. Please see my highlighted note below.

Reminder – Officials certification is 1.5 years in duration. When an official certifies in October of 2023, that certification is active until Dec 31st 2024. 

Returning officials must maintain certification to extend the certification beyond the 1.5 year threshold. Annually BC Hockey hosts returning official clinics from Sep through November across the province. 

Link to find active BC Hockey courses

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Section 3: Returning Officials – Extended time away

Officials that previously Officiated under Hockey Canada in the past (2000 and onwards) require their Hockey Canada Registry number.

Contact BC Hockey Head office at Clinics@bchockey.net, to find out your HCR # from the archives. You need this to register with any previous certification experience. Without this information you will have to start from scratch as a brand new official.

Reminder – Officials certification is 1.5 years in duration. When an official certifies in October of 2023, that certification is active until Dec 31st 2024. 

Returning officials must maintain certification to extend the certification beyond the 1.5 year threshold. Annually BC Hockey hosts returning official clinics from Sep through November across the province. 

Link to find active BC Hockey courses: 

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Section 4: Resources

NSWC Applicants List: Click here

BC Hockey

BC Hockey Criminal Record Check

PCAHA

Hockey Canada Learning Lab

Reminder – Officials certification is 1.5 years in duration. When an official certifies in October of 2023, that certification is active until Dec 31st 2024. 

Returning officials must maintain certification to extend the certification beyond the 1.5 year threshold. Annually BC Hockey hosts returning official clinics from Sep through November across the province.