Looking for any rec hockey league that is NOT the NCHL

[cam_wmh]

I fully agree with NCHL being the worst of any league in town.

I've subbed in almost all of them, but play in HNA. James who runs HNA plays in our division. He's a classy guy, and will take any and all feedback.

Their own goalie was kicked out of the semi-final vs my own team, for blockering one of our guys. He was not completely innocent either, and also received a misconduct.
If that's not unbiased officiating I don't know what is.

That said, totally hear you guys on the gloves/helmets rule & glad to hear they're dropping it if it means good teams will now join.

That said, we won our division, so James mentioned going to "big final" where-ever that is.

What's the caliber of play like against the other teams from all over? (europe etc; )

[TheSutterDynasty]

Question -

A few years ago I joined NCHL as a free agent and they had a crappy system where they only made a few free agent teams, and of course had a lot of intermediate players on them.

Which leagues offer a good free agent system where you can join an existing team? I'm looking for one of the better divisions. Either with postings or a tryout.

[lazypucker]

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

Question -

A few years ago I joined NCHL as a free agent and they had a crappy system where they only made a few free agent teams, and of course had a lot of intermediate players on them.

Which leagues offer a good free agent system where you can join an existing team? I'm looking for one of the better divisions. Either with postings or a tryout.

So what is your skill level? I believe leagues usually want free agents to be higher skilled.

If you are a lower-tier guy, I don't think you will have trouble finding a lower division team to add you in.

[TheSutterDynasty]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

So what is your skill level? I believe leagues usually want free agents to be higher skilled.

If you are a lower-tier guy, I don't think you will have trouble finding a lower division team to add you in.

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

Which leagues offer a good free agent system where you can join an existing team? I'm looking for one of the better divisions. Either with postings or a tryout.

Yes, the higher skilled divisions. NCHL did not have many options for me to join the better ones.

[renny]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, my team has decided to try the HNA for the summer and then we'll weigh our options from there.

[jaydaybay]

Have played in Alberta summer hockey league for number of years, big fan. 2x per week tho.

For winter I second the winsport recomendation. Have played in wrahl and cahl and had virtually no problems in either. I like win sports ice and times and awesome if u live in the NW. HNA just seemed like a hassle to me. Nchl just started getting silly. U get a whistle happy ref and the game gets called. Ugh

I've encountered good bad and brutal refs in any league I have played so can't vouch for any one in particular

[jaydaybay]

Just read the post re: hna relaxing on the equip colors (jerseys I understand). That was my main gripe, having to buy a black helmet to play.

[meanmachine13]

Originally Posted by Phaneufenstein

Our Hounds IV team left the NCHL this year to join HNA.

Don't know how that's going to be, but it can't be any worse than NCHL, I am certain.

Brutal refs and sub-par organizational functions are my main complaints.

For example - our only playoff game this year:
We were short guys. Only 7 skaters plus goalie = 2 subs on the bench, which is pretty bad.
One guy played 20 games of the season, but according to timekeeper's paperwork he only played 10 or something. According to league rules, the player has to play at least half the season to be eligible to play in the playoffs, so they kicked him out. Played with one sub due to a clerical error.

Another example of incompetence.
First 5-6 games are supposed to be seeding round. We lost first 8 games and never got moved down a division or anything. Proceeded to get destroyed on a regular basis, winning only 2 games the entire season. Just disheartening..... couldn't wait for it to be over.

Just a bad experience with that league.

We played against your team. I agree, you should have been moved down based off your record.

For future, if you ever come back to NCHL, if that happens again in playoffs, tell the timekeeper you are willing to take the risk that if it turns out that player in question does NOT have the required games, then you know that you will forfeit.

Our team had players on our playoff roster that did NOT have 10 games, and we were missing players that DID have 10 games. So we just told them we accept the risk and played with those players.

[meanmachine13]

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

Question -

A few years ago I joined NCHL as a free agent and they had a crappy system where they only made a few free agent teams, and of course had a lot of intermediate players on them.

Which leagues offer a good free agent system where you can join an existing team? I'm looking for one of the better divisions. Either with postings or a tryout.

Try contacting the GM's of higher division teams a few months before seasons start (as thats when fees are usually starting to be collected)