How to Organize a Successful Hockey Tryout: Complete Guide for Evaluators

The year we switched from having coaches evaluate their own returning players to using three independent evaluators, we cut our appeals by 75%. Not because our placements got dramatically better—though they did—but because families could see the process was actually fair.

That shift happened after a season where I watched a coach give obviously inflated scores to two kids whose families he knew well, place them above objectively stronger players, and then act confused when the emails started. I spent October defending a process I couldn't actually defend. Never again.

Here's the tryout system I've built and refined over six years running evaluations for 800-plus players. It's not perfect. Nothing is. But it's defensible, and defensible is what keeps you out of trouble.

Start Recruiting Evaluators Before You Do Anything Else

Your evaluators are the foundation. Get this wrong and everything else you build is compromised. The ideal evaluator is hockey-knowledgeable, has no children in your program, and is available for every session in your age group. Minimum three per ice sheet, ideally five. Compensate them—$50-100 per session is reasonable—or find experienced hockey people willing to volunteer with proper training.

Do not use coaches from within your program. You already know why, but someone in your organization will push for it every year. The answer is no.

Six weeks out, I contact former players, coaches from neighboring associations, and sometimes experienced referees who know the game well. The goal is people who can recognize skill without recognizing faces. Number pinnies instead of team jerseys help too—evaluators focus on what's happening on the ice rather than who they think they recognize.

Reserve ice four weeks out. Plan for 2-3 sessions per age group, 60-90 minutes each. You need enough ice for a meaningful scrimmage segment in every session.

Evaluation Criteria That Actually Work

Here's what I use. Adjust for your level, but keep the structure:

Weight skating heavily at younger levels. By 14U, game sense and compete level are equally important. Goalies need their own criteria entirely—if you don't have an evaluator who specifically knows goaltending, recruit one, because the former defenseman you brought in cannot tell a good butterfly from a bad one.

The 90-Minute Session Structure

The scrimmage is where you actually learn who can play. Drills show isolated skills in a controlled environment. The scrimmage shows whether a kid can make decisions when the game is real and they're tired. I've seen players who looked elite in drills become invisible in scrimmage, and quiet kids in drills who suddenly dominated when the puck was live. You need both, but if I had to cut one, I'd cut 15 minutes of drills before I'd cut 15 minutes of scrimmage.

Rotate lines every 90 seconds so you see everyone in roughly equal time. Keep evaluators away from the bench. They should be watching the whole ice, not listening to what's happening on the boards.

What Evaluators Should Not Do

Brief your evaluators explicitly on this. No talking to coaches or parents during the session. No discussing players within earshot of anyone. No showing visible reactions to plays—the evaluator pumping his fist when a kid makes a nice move is telling everyone in the building where that kid's going. No rating players they know personally; flag the conflict and have someone else score that player.

Compiling Scores and Making Placement Decisions

After each session, collect forms before anyone leaves. Enter everything into a spreadsheet that evening. Calculate average scores per player. Build a ranked list. Do this for every session before you hold the placement meeting.

The placement meeting should include all evaluators, the program director, and division coordinators if you have them. Bring the ranked list. Review the clear top and clear bottom first—they're easy. Then spend your time on the middle third, specifically the players within half a point of a division cutoff line.

For borderline players, consider position balance across teams, what the player's development trajectory looks like, and historical placement. If two players are statistically identical and one is a center and the other a wing, and one team needs centers, that's a legitimate tiebreaker. Document your reasoning. Not because you'll share it with families, but because when the appeal comes in, you need to be able to say "here's the documented rationale" rather than "we talked about it and decided."

Announcing Results and Handling What Comes Next

Email all families simultaneously, at the same time. Include team assignment, first practice date, and a thank-you for participating. Do not call families individually first. The phone calls that start with "I heard that Marcus made the A team" before the email goes out create a rumor mill that takes weeks to settle down. One email, everyone at once.

Have a written appeals process and publish it before tryouts begin. Written appeal required within 48 hours. Review by a committee that does not include the original evaluators. A re-evaluation skate if warranted. Final decision within one week. Decision is final.

Most appeals are emotional, not evidence-based. A parent who watched through the glass for 90 minutes and is certain their kid was robbed isn't going to be convinced by your spreadsheet—but the documented process gives you legitimate ground to stand on when you say "we've reviewed the evaluation, the process was followed, the decision stands."

Common Tryout Failures

Not enough evaluators. One or two people evaluating is just one or two opinions, and parents know it. Three is the minimum for any reasonable credibility.

Coaches evaluating their own returning players. This one writes itself, and yet I still see it every season somewhere. Do not do this.

Too much weight on drills, not enough on scrimmage. The kid who threads cones perfectly doesn't automatically make good decisions in traffic. Balance matters.

Rushing placement decisions. The extra hour you spend in the placement meeting discussing borderline cases saves you ten hours of complaints and appeals. Take the time.

Poor pre-tryout communication. Families should understand how the process works before they show up. If they're surprised by something they didn't expect, you own that problem.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should returning players try out? Yes. Annual evaluation keeps placement accurate and communicates that spots are earned, not inherited. The kid who dominated two seasons ago may be in the wrong division now.

What if we don't have enough players to cut anyone? Tryouts still matter. You're determining team balance, line assignments, and appropriate placement within the division.

Should parents be allowed to watch? If you allow it, require silence and keep parents off the glass. Many programs say no, and honestly the ones that do report fewer post-tryout problems.

How many teams per division? 12-16 players per team is ideal. Forty players works as three teams of 13-14, not two teams of 20.

For more on running a well-organized youth hockey association, our youth hockey management guide covers the full operational picture, and our youth hockey registration guide covers the intake side of the process.