Kids' Hockey Gets More Physical

Denver Post

As stick-handling and power skating camps are underway in preparation for youth hockey tryouts this month, 12-under players also are preparing for a significant change in how they play.

In June, USA Hockey's board of directors unanimously passed the Progressive Checking Skill Development Program, an NHL-backed system that will introduce legal body contact at the 10-and-younger levels, but delay full body checking from peewees (ages 11-12) to bantams (13-14).

No longer will a 10-and-younger player be penalized for "angling off" or "rubbing out" a puck-carrying opponent while both are skating in the same direction, as long as the player who wins the battle is only attempting to play the puck with his or her stick and it's obvious contact is incidental.

For peewees, no longer will they be allowed to deliver traditional body checks — defined as an attempt to separate the puck carrier from the puck — from the opposite direction or without intent to immediately play the puck. Incidental checking, however, will be allowed if a collision is caused by two players going stick-first for the puck.

Studies from Canada and the U.S. have found that serious injuries are four times more common in peewee checking leagues than non-checking leagues.

"We are going to teach (body contact) the right way, the angling and the rubbing people out and using your body to separate the puck carrier from the puck," USA Hockey executive Jim Johannson said Tuesday in a phone interview from Chicago. "Those are all parts that we still want in the game at every level. The easiest way to describe it is, the hits that are just fully intended to knock a player down and are completely made to (intimidate), those are the parts at the 12-under level you want out of the game."

Ryan Stewart, a native of Kelowna, British Columbia, who was a first-round draft choice of the Winnipeg Jets in 1985 before knee injuries limited his NHL career to three games, coached the University of Denver Junior Pioneers Peewee AA's to the semifinals of USA Hockey's Tier II national championships in San Jose, Calif., last spring. His team also made it to the quarterfinals of the no-checking Quebec International Peewee Tournament in February.

Stewart has no problem with the new peewee program, because body checking is just one-quarter of what is required to play defense and attempt to cause a turnover.

"The first part is skating, the second part is angling, the third part is body contact and then the fourth step is body checking," Stewart said. "When we were up in Quebec, there was no body checking, but there was plenty of body contact. The difference in terminology is body checking is when players are going into opposing directions and there is a collision. With body contact, you're working on your skating and angling, moving in the same direction, and just taking away space."

Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com