By / Graham Perkins
Every year, thousands of players across western Canada finish the season with their club teams just to launch right into a fresh campaign. Crazy? No, it’s just spring hockey.
For years, hockey in May was reserved for elite level hockey players.
It was a chance for the top players from neighbouring provinces to form elite teams and travel to find players of a similar calibre. But with the continued growth of the sport north of the border, more and more players have been signing up for programs in search of that extra “edge” they keep hearing about.
“What spring hockey does is it allows kids to see the best players across western Canada,” said Tim Fragle, director of the North Alberta Hockey Association.
The NAHA has been around since 1991 and runs its spring league from April until the end of June. During that time, Fragle has seen spring hockey explode from only two teams when he started to the multiple leagues and multiple teams that exist today.
“It’s grown to a point where now there’s more saturation. I think it’s reached the peak here; it can’t get too much bigger, because the demand for ice from April to June is crazy.”
Hockey saturation in Canada sounds like a blatant oxymoron, but after experiencing so much growth in the early ‘90s spring hockey does seem ready to hit a plateau in the coming years. Estimations vary depending on the region; in some areas the rinks are simply at full capacity, while other areas have been hit hard by the economic crisis and forced parents to tighten the hockey budget.
But “plateau” certainly doesn’t mean the same as “dropping.” Don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.
“Spring hockey will always be there for elite kids,” said Jon Calvano, the brains behind Elite Level Development and coach of several spring hockey teams.
Calvano started ELD 10 years ago to work with younger players looking to develop their hockey prowess. He credits spring hockey for the accelerated development of many NHL-calibre western Canadians such as Kyle Turris, Karl Alzner, and Brent Seabrook.
“When you sign up for spring hockey you get to choose your coaches and select everything.
The players you train with and against are superior, and the commitment level from all the kids is there. Rep players reap a lot of benefits,” he said.
Calvano’s prediction that spring hockey will always be around for elite players and may not be ground breaking, but it hides a simpler truth; no matter how much it expands and how much leagues get watered down, the elite players will always find a way to rise to the top and find suitable competition. And once they find that level of play, the cream of the crop do everything in their power to become stronger, faster, and smarter than every one of them.
“You can be the best kid in [a weaker geographical area] and think you’re the cat’s meow, but once you step out you realize you’re not that good,” said Brad Bowen, who oversees the Vancouver Selects spring hockey program. “It keeps them focused. You’re not going to get that much better if you don’t work at your trade.” |