MD - What is it? Important Message regarding the new Non Body Checking MD Divisions
As our ‘A’ level tryouts get underway this week there seems to be many questions about MD for Minor Bantam through Midget and we would like everyone to have a clear understanding of what MD is.
Several weeks ago, the York Simcoe Minor Hockey League, of which the NMHA is a member Association, voted to replace Alternate Entry (AE) hockey for Minor Development (MD) for the divisions of Minor Bantam through Midget. The ONLY difference between AE and MD is there is no body checking for MD. Players playing MD will still be eligible to AP to an A or AA team. The same Associations that fielded teams for AE will now field teams for MD and there are still tournaments available to be played in.
This is a fantastic opportunity for those skilled players who didn’t want to bother with body checking to play what promises to be a very competitive level of hockey.
The one piece of this change that is still unclear and unfortunately won’t be clear until next fall is how this change may affect our Select program. If the NMHA has a demand for a Select program in these age groups, the NMHA is definitely open to icing teams, however, the question might become, who will our Select teams play? With the advent of MD it is quite possible that our friends in the other local Associations may not run Select programs. If that happens then us having a team is one thing but if the closest team ends up being in the GTHL or Kitchener (this is just an example and has no basis in known fact) then our families may decide having a Select team not to be feasible.
Our message is simple. For the players that don’t make one of our A teams please be careful if you think the next option is to play House League and augment that with Select hockey. There are no guarantees that a Select program will make sense for the coming season.
MD is the next choice for a highly competitive hockey experience. It is Rep hockey, just minus the body checking.
If you hadn’t made up your mind about playing Rep hockey next season this is a viable option and IT’S STILL NOT TOO LATE! Go to the NMHA website and
REGISTER TODAY
We look forward to icing some very competitive MD teams. It promises to be a very enjoyable season for all that are involved.
Regards,
NMHA Executive