Player Affiliation

Carefully read the HEO Hockey Policy (Minor) 6.59, concerning player affiliation.

To determine which division or category a player can affiliate to, click on the following Link: District 3 Affiliation Chart 2021-2022.

The following is an extract from the District 3 Operating Procedures, Paragraph 5 concerning player affiliation. 

5. PLAYER AFFILIATION

1. The purpose of affiliation as per Hockey Canada: To provide an opportunity for higher Division or Category Teams to dress the maximum number of players allowable for a game in accordance with the Playing Rules. This also gives an opportunity for players of lower division or category teams to practice their skills with a higher category.
2. Affiliation is a game-related process. Players do not need to be affiliated to practice with a higher Division or Category team, provided they are duly rostered at the lower Division or Category. 
3. All teams will use the 19-player affiliation list. 
4. All players must be registered as an affiliate before stepping on the ice with their affiliated team. 
5. The Specially Affiliated Player Permission Form must be completed and signed by both Associations/AAA as is applicable (both the lower team’s and the higher team’s Association), as well as the District Registrar, prior to the player’s name appearing on the affiliating team’s official roster. All affiliations are terminated at the end of the season. 
6. Affiliated players, used by a higher division or category team in a game, shall be designated on the official game report using the “A/P” after their name.
7. Players may only affiliate to a higher category/division team as outlined in the District 3 Affiliation Chart with the exception of the following two scenarios:
   1. HEO “emergency goalie rule”, which does allow a goalie to play for another team in their own category under very special circumstances. All requests to utilize this emergency goalie rule require written permission from the relevant House League Convenor or District Chair before the game is played; and 
   2. Where there is no Representative between a House League A team and a Competitive A or AA team of the applicable age division, the House League A player may affiliate to the lowest available Competitive team. i.e. U18HLA can affiliate to U18AA. 
8. A player of a team of a lower Division or Category of the same club, or of an affiliated team, or a specially affiliated player, may affiliate to a team or teams of higher Divisions and Categories at any time, to a maximum of fifteen (15) games per team. Due to provincial and national championships, U13 and U14 AAA players may affiliate to a maximum of 10 games with each team. Only regular season and playoff games count. However, if the player’s registered team completes its regular season and playoffs before the player’s affiliated team or teams, the player may thereafter affiliate an unlimited number of times. 
9. Goalies will only count games in which they participate and not as backup. Only regular season and playoff games count towards this total. Goalies have no limit on affiliated games from House to AA. 
10. The deadline for adding affiliates to any roster is Feb. 15 of any given season, except for Regional/National Championship levels (AAA) which have a deadline of Jan. 15 of any given season. The deadline to release affiliates is Jan. 10. 
11. Suspensions are to be served with the lower category team, regardless of which team the player incurred the suspension with. (Refer to 15.7.8 re rules regarding out-of-town tournaments where they will be allowed to serve during the tournament) 
12. A coach cannot deny a player the opportunity to establish an affiliation with a higher-level team. 
13. Age specific rules: 
    1. There is no affiliation of players at U7 Level. U7 players cannot affiliate to play with a U9 Level Team.
    2. U9 players may not affiliate to an U11 team on or before January 15th.  After January 15th only 2nd year U9 players may affiliate to an U11 team.
    3. Any player wanting to affiliate to a team that has body checking must have completed a body checking clinic (Goalies are exempt). Proof that the player has attended a body checking clinic must be provided to the affiliating team’s Head Coach and be entered into the player’s record in the Hockey Canada Registry (HCR) database. 
    4. A player can affiliate to a minor hockey team and a junior team at the same time. 
14. AAA teams will have the first option to affiliate players on teams within their Zone of operation. Should Zone teams decline to affiliate any player, that player may affiliate to any other AAA team. 
15. Affiliation call-up procedures for all Competitive/Representative and House League players are: 
    1. The coach of the higher-level team must ask permission from the coach of the affiliated player before contacting the player to find out if available to play. A coach cannot reasonably deny a player to play a game. 
    2. All call-ups require the approval of the player and the player’s parent(s). The player is not to report if he would miss a meaningful game with his substantive team except with his coach’s permission. 
    3. All competitive call-ups are to be entered into the D3 affiliation database in TTM, prior to the game being played. 
16. The D3 Affiliation Chart can be found in Appendix A to this document.