Speaking as someone who started their kid late in hockey, if he is 9, you will want to start him in a program that has both skating and hockey skills and, ideally, some positional training as well. If he were a lot younger, I would tell you to have him learn to skate before he ever touches a stick.
My kid started at second year Novice (8?), barely knowing how to skate, on a bottom level team, had lots of fun, became a phenomenal skater by the end of the first year, but learned minimal positional play. Second year, at 9, he made a mid level Atom team, coaches had no patience to catch him up, he never got to play anything but D, and one coach in particular just yelled at him on the ice all season. I am embarrassed now that I didn't speak up or do anything about it.
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