Category Overview

For U11 AA and U13 Tier 1 teams, players must try out to earn a position on the age-appropriate team for seasonal play. SEERA teams will compete against competitive teams from other Edmonton area Minor Hockey Associations during the season.

U15 and U18 players will go through a few rounds of evaluations in September to facilitate grouping together similarly skilled players on tiered teams for seasonal play. SEERA tiered teams will be placed into the city-wide tiering grid with teams from the other Edmonton area Minor Hockey Associations to start the season.

U15 and U18 teams can expect to play a set number of games for the tiering round (October – November), which will be evaluated for adjusting their position in the city tiering grid for the regular season (December – February). In mid-January, the regular season takes a pause for Minor Hockey Week where teams participate within their tiering group in one of the world's largest hockey tournaments. Following the regular season in March, teams will play within their tiering group in the city playoffs.

U21 New to SEERA this year, we are planning to host a U21 Rec Team within the EFHL. The U21 Rec team is for players who have finished U18 in the Non-Contact Tiers (1 NBC, 2 NBC and 3 NBC) It is not for players who have played contact hockey. This program for U21 consists of 1 practice at the start of the season, followed by 18 League Games. There are no exhibition games, no tournaments, no playoffs, and no team events, it is essentially adult recreation hockey for players born in 2004, 2005 & 2006 (for the 2024-25 Season). Rules for this league include no body contact, a maximum three goals per game per player and after three penalties, the player is ejected from the game. Last year there were teams hosted by SWZ, St Albert and Sherwood Park.

As this is a new program for SEERA, and we do think we have enough players interested, however there are no guarantees. On the other side If we have too many players, we will also work through that as there are no boundaries and players can play elsewhere as well and it may be a first-come, first served approach or we may have “tryouts” (not based on skill, but rather the attitude and commitment of that player on previous teams) – so please be patient as we work through this. Players with more than 50 PIMs and/or multiple suspensions in their final year of league play in U18 will not be eligible for U21 REC.

Teams in all categories are also allocated a standard number of practice ice times for the season. Teams can acquire additional ice for practices, exhibition games and tournaments if they so choose. Should teams pursue additional ice times or other team activities, the cost can be covered through seed money contributed by each family at the start of the season, and/or through team fundraising activities. Generally speaking, higher tier teams are more likely to request additional practices, exhibition games and tournaments.

Note: Body checking is not permitted in tier 4 or lower for age groups U15 and U18. Players will be asked to opt-in or opt-out of body checking/contact for evaluations. A player opting in to body checking/contact does not guarantee the player will play in a body checking/contact tier. They must still evaluate in the top 3 tiers for body checking/contact play.