Dear Players and Parents:
Hello and welcome to the 2025 Spring NMHA U18 BB Evaluations. My name is Mike Maltais and I am excited and honoured to be your Head Coach this season. I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself, while providing an outline of my expectations and coaching philosophy for the upcoming season.
Coaching is a passion of mine and is something I have been actively involved in for the past 24 years. I am an intermediate and physical education teacher with YRDSB and have been involved with athletics my whole career. I feel that I have gained a lot of experience dealing with athletes of all ages and in a variety of sports. Although I have experience with a variety of sports, hockey still remains my number one passion and being at the rink is like a second home for me. I have been involved with the NMHA for over 10 years. The 2025/26 season will be my 12th season on the bench, either as a head coach or assistant coach, helping develop the 2009 age group. I have had the experience of coaching at all the levels offered by our rep program and look forward to another season as the head coach of the U18 BB team.
My coaching philosophy is to provide all my athletes with an opportunity to improve their individual and team skills while enhancing their knowledge of the game in a safe competitive environment. It is really important for my athletes to continue to have fun and further develop their love of the game. My focus will continue to be on developing technical skills and individual tactics, while incorporating team tactics, strategy, and systems as well. I believe that the athletes should be informed on their progress throughout the season and therefore meet with the coaching staff both individually and as a team to discuss progress and goals. I also like to create an environment where the players feel comfortable reaching out to the coaching staff for guidance and clarification throughout the season.
Our hockey season will be structured around the fundamental development of both individual skills and team tactics. Our goal will be to continue developing on our progress from last season and to ice a competitive team that is both mentally and physically prepared to compete on a consistent basis. Every player will have a role on this team and is expected to be committed to developing their individual skills and tactics as well as understanding our team tactics and systems.
During the evaluation process, each player will be evaluated on individual skills, ability to take direction, and their compete level. We are looking for players who understand the game and want to work hard in a team environment. There will be a few independent evaluators helping me in this process. Evaluations will focus on a series of two skates and two exhibition games that will provide an opportunity to assess the following hockey skills:
• Skating / Passing / Shooting / Puck Handling
• Compete Level / Hockey Sense-IQ / Focus / Desire
• Player and body positioning
Post Evaluation Instructions (please read carefully):
1) The Evaluation/Releases will be posted on the NMHA website, “U18 BB/Evaluation Player List” by 9:00 a.m. the day following your Evaluation, you will need to have your players passport number on hand.
2) Players who are invited back will see your passport number listed along with instructions on next steps.
3) For NMHA players who have been released, registration details for house league will be posted on the NMHA website.
Thank you and good luck to all!
Mike Maltais
Head Coach U18 BB
[email protected]