Policies from our BMHL Rules and Regulations:

Fair Ice: i. All players shall receive fair ice time regardless of their ability to play hockey. Head coaches who are observed by a designated official to have deliberately not followed fair play guidelines (i.e. shorten their bench) may be suspended for 2 games for a first offence, and 5 games for subsequent offences. All other coaching staff on a team may also face suspension if a second occurrence of deliberate bench shortening takes place. All coaches are expected to abide by the spirit and letter of this policy in keeping with the BMHL Guiding Principle #1. ii. Each association will designate a BMHL official to monitor coaches / teams when a complaint is received.

On Fair Play & Balanced Teams: A Guiding Principle of the BMHL is Fair Play at all levels. The BMHL wants to avoid situations where teams are overpowered by other teams within the BMHL. Correcting imbalances early between teams at the same level is our goal. Associations and the BMHL all play a role in ensuring balance within the league. The BMHL believes that competitive balance can be achieved if each member Association submits the appropriate number of teams at any level of play. However not all circumstances can be foreseen before the season starts each year so ‘adjustments’ may be needed to the number of teams at any level. The target date for achieving team balance will be November 15 of each season as this is the HEO date for final official roster to be set. Achieving balance in leagues is not easy and external support is sometimes warranted. If an Association is unable to address an imbalance of its teams, the BMHL will be empowered to have that Association move players as deemed necessary to achieve more effective balance (i.e. this could involve moving players between teams or creating an additional team at a higher/lower level). Intervention by the BMHL to achieve balance may be used, but only as a last resort and only subsequent to balancing attempts by the home Association, and subject to the Parity Rules in Appendix 4.
 

Additional Fair Play and Fair Ice Documentation:

From OEMHA Rules and Regs:

Appendix “B” – Fair Ice Policy Ottawa East Minor Hockey requires commitment to team success and individual development, excellent communication between coaches and players and a commitment to fair playing time. To meet these demands, the following fair ice policy is mandated for this organization. The overall objective is that all players will benefit from equal ice time based on position (i.e. defence vs. goal vs. forward) in all situations including the last two minutes of games and overtime. While equal playing time on a game by game basis is the objective, it is recognized that this objective must be assessed over the course of the season. Players are to be exposed to special circumstances that may arise during the course of a game including penalty killing the power play and overtime in tournament or playoff games. Concerns about the implementation of these policies should be expressed first to the head coach, and then to the convenor and so in in keeping with the OEMA policy on complaint
 
WEHL Fair Ice Policies:  https://www.westendhockey.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2283/2021/05/wehl_fair_ice_policy2015.pdf
 

BMHL Parity Model:

1)    < The Parity Model Rules >

BMHL Parity Model – Guiding Principles
The purpose of the BMHL Parity Model is to establish a mathematically quantifiable means to establish fair, reasonable and enforceable dominance / futility indicators for all member Associations to follow in order to adhere to the BMHL Fair Play Directives as per the BMHL Rules and Regulations.
SCOPE OF THE BMHL PARITY MODEL The BMHL Parity Model would apply to our U11 through U18 age Divisions.
The U9 (Novice Division) is currently left out of the equation as it is undergoing major changes with respect to the Hockey Canada half-ice / cross-ice initiatives so will be dealt with by the BMHL in a separate fashion as things unfold for that Division.
The U21 (Juvenile Division) is currently left out of the equation as it has only one divisional level and has unique aspects to it such as the use of Overage players.

The goals of BMHL Rebalancing if required:
1. Find solutions that will promote fair and competitively balanced play within all divisional levels of the BMHL.
2. Find balancing solutions that will impact as few BMHL teams as possible.
3. Find balancing solutions that will involve moving as few players between BMHL teams as possible.
4. Find balancing solutions that will involve moving as few players between BMHL Division Levels (A, B & C) as possible.
5. Find balancing solutions that will involve moving as few players between BMHL Age Divisions (U11, U13, U15, & U18) as possible.
*** HEO approval required in such cases.
6. Find balancing solutions that will impact BMHL scheduling functions as little as possible.
7. Our goal isn’t to turn winning percentage teams into losing percentage teams or vice versa but to tweak teams or situations to create a more fairly balanced competitive situation for all teams involved ie-) shrink the gap between the top and bottom teams of a Divisional level.
8. Our goal is also not to create an overabundance of work regarding Balancing initiatives by keeping the rules parameters sensible but meaningful.
9. Find balancing solutions that do not unfairly punish any of our BMHL teams for when they play in tournaments sponsored by other Districts within HEO's jurisdiction or beyond in tournaments outside of our region.  The intention is to adjust teams that are indicating Dominance in order to level the playing field for more competitive play but not to bust up teams just because they may be strong for their Divisional Level for whatever reason. Conversely we want to help teams that are indicating Futility to have a better chance at being more competitive with all teams in their Divisional Level.