Hello D tier players,

After some issues came up during the fall season, the JAHA board has voted (8-2) in favor of putting a new rule in place for D tier. Pursuant to our bylaws, the new rule will be submitted to the affected tier for a 10 day comment period. After the 10 day period expires, the board will consider any comment and the rule will either be modified and resubmitted for another comment period, withdraw the rule, or have the rule go into effect immediately upon the end of this comment period.

Notice of this rule change will be posted at the rink tomorrow evening and as such, this rule change will be slated to go into effect next Wednesday (so it won’t affect any of you until winter season begins).

Please submit your comments via email to juneauadulthockey@gmail.com

Thanks,

-Andrew Dimond, JAHA president.

C.4 – Substitutions

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When substitutes are required for the beginner tier, and no substitutes are available from that tier, players that substitute from higher leagues will be ineligible to score goals in this game. Referees will be informed before the start of play who these substitutes are, an indication will also be included on the scoresheet, and in the event that a goal is scored by one of these players, play will be stopped and a faceoff will occur at the nearest faceoff circle.

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Explanation: The skill gap that exists between C tier and D tier combined with the lack of pool of substitutes for D tier games given the tier often has exactly 2 teams, there has been a repeated issue of D tier players feeling like they have a lack of agency in their own games when C tier subs are involved. Similarly, there are very few concrete guidelines that exist for these players to follow when subbing down. The aim of this rule is to specifically discourage these players from attempting to score goals and instead facilitate play for D tier players. We want to foster an environment where C tier players still find some benefit in subbing down for D tier games while also continuing to involve D tier players in play rather than dominating and attempting to score.