Tryout Scrimmage Team Formation Information

How We Form Teams for the Initial Scrimmages in Hockey Tryouts

Each year, one of the most common questions we receive during tryouts is how we form the teams for the initial scrimmages. With nearly 1,500 players trying out this season, we recognize the importance of transparency in our process. While the system isn’t perfect, our goal is always to create balanced scrimmages that give every player a fair opportunity to be evaluated.

The Team Selection Process

We begin by compiling all registered players into a spreadsheet, sorting them by birth year and by the level of hockey they played in the previous season. From there, we assign players to scrimmage teams using a layered approach:

1. First-Year Players - We start by spreading out City League players, ensuring that no single team is weighted too heavily with newer players.
2. Tiered Players - After that, players from tiered programs are distributed across teams to add balance.
3. Elite Players - Finally, elite players are placed to help even out the overall strength of the teams.

We also pay close attention to ensuring a mix of both first- and second-year players on each roster. The aim is to create variety and prevent any single team from being too heavily loaded with players from the same level or experience group.

Balancing and Adjustments

It’s important to note that our team formation is not meant to perfectly equalize talent across scrimmages. Some teams will inevitably look stronger than others. That’s not because we are trying to create uneven competition—it’s simply a byproduct of a process designed to spread out experience levels and backgrounds.

Additionally, when we have committed players at the AAA teams already committed to the program, we work to distribute them as evenly as possible across the teams. As tryouts progress into the Team 1, Team 2, and Team 3 phases, we begin to rely more heavily on rankings from evaluations to ensure fair distribution.

Recognizing the Challenges

With such a large pool of players, mistakes can occasionally happen in team placement. If that occurs, please know it is never intentional, nor is it an attempt to stack a particular team. Our goal is to provide a balanced scrimmage environment that allows coaches and evaluators to see every player’s potential in a fair and consistent way.

By following this structured process, we aim to give each player the opportunity to showcase their skills while keeping the focus on evaluation—not the outcome of the scrimmages themselves.

See you at the Rink!

Jason Stephens - GM/Red Deer Minor Hockey