Adult League Playbook

1.  Team composition, registration, and payment

1.1 Team Composition

1.1.1    Teams will consist of a maximum of 20 players including a goaltender.

1.1.2    Rostered players must adhere to divisional skill-levels listed within this document.

1.1.3    Substitute goalies must be from your division or lower and added to GameSheets at game time. Prior to the start of the season, the league will provide team captains with a list of goalies including name, division(s), team(s), and phone number.

1.2  Registration

1.2.1    Captains must register their team in Crossbar. There is a $250 non-refundable registration fee.

1.2.2    All participants must register with LECOM Sports Park (on Crossbar website) and provide USA Hockey number as part of this registration prior to beginning of season (after captains meetings). League to send out detailed instructions of process to ensure everyone does it correctly.

1.3       Payment 

1.3.1    $5,475 annual team fee. This may be broken up into two installments of $2,737.50 each.

1.3.1.1      1st installment payment deadline: 9/3/2025 (8/5/2025 early registration discount applied $125)

1.3.1.2      2nd installment payment deadline: 12/3/2025 (11/15/2025 early registration discount applied $125)

1.3.2    $250 annual team discount ($125 per installment) will be applied for payments received by “early registration” deadlines, which will be set by the league prior to registration.

1.3.2.1      1st installment early registration deadline: 8/5/2025

1.3.2.2      2nd installment early registration deadline: 11/15/2025

1.3.2.3      Team captains must have registered by 7/1/2025 for discount to apply

1.3.3    Monies will be tracked via team Captain’s Crossbar profile. Captains are responsible for collection and submission of monies. Payments may be made to the rink via cash, check, or card (additional processing fees may apply). Checks should be made payable to “BBT Hockey.” Payments may be made via Crossbar (additional processing fees may apply), turned into the commissioner of adult league hockey, or turned into front desk personnel at the rink. Please send commissioner an email when a payment is made for a secondary tracking.

1.3.4    Failure to meet installment payment deadline will result in automatic forfeiture(s) of game(s) for the first week of the applicable session. Financials will be checked weekly, every subsequent Wednesday (minimum of 7 days after deadline), to determine eligibility for the following week of the session. Weekly forfeitures will occur until payment is received in full. Once payment reaches three weeks past due, the delinquent team will be removed from the schedule for the session. There is no refund for any monies collected unless the committee or commissioner cannot find a replacement team for participation for the player(s) who made said payment.

2 Schedules and Important Dates 

2.1       Registration 6/15-7/15 with deposit of $250 

2.2       Season schedule released 8/5 

2.3       Captain's meeting 8/5 

2.4       Early Bird discount payment first half in full by 8/5 

2.5       Initial payment first half in full by 9/3 

2.6       Season start 9/7 

2.7       Early Bird discount second payment in full by 11/15 

2.8       Final payment in full by 12/3 

3  Deadlines for team registration 

3.1 All Registrations must be submitted by the captain to crossbar on or prior to 7/15

3.2  All rosters will be completely frozen (no additions or “subs” with the exception of a goaltender) on 12/4

4   Rosters and Eligibility/ Playoff Eligibility 

4.1   Divisions with subjective parameters outlining skill level, captains provide list of players and where they fall in these guidelines by 7/21, if player exceeds skill levels or is a deemed to have become a problem, they will be subject to a 72-hr surveymonkey vote dispersed to proposed team's division's participants, if voted too good/ or a problem (behavioral or otherwise) by 70% majority of votes received (with minimum of 25% division participant participation), then the committee and commissioner will attempt to place this player on a team at the level in which they should be playing. If no team is willing to take said player, then a vote amongst captains and hearing with the player will occur to attempt to intervene with the problem. In the situation that this intervention does not work, the player will be removed from the division and another attempt at higher placement will occur. After the 2nd attempt to place the player into the higher level with no success, the player will be deemed ineligible for the remainder of the season.

4.2  There will be a team restructuring opportunity after 11 games with the same voting process across all leagues. Should a team be excessively good or excessively deficient in compete level for the standard of the division, this is the opportunity to express and restructure the division as necessary.

4.3       General Guidelines of Expected Play per Level

Division 1

Open 

Division 2 

Highest level of hockey: College club 

10+ years post-higher level 

Division 3  

Highest level of hockey: Varsity High School 

30 or older and 7+ years post-higher level 

Division 4  

Highest level of hockey: JV High School 

40 or older and 10+ years post-higher level 

Division 5 

Highest level of hockey: Non-competitive/ Beginner

45 or older and 10+ years post-competitive level

30 and over open division

No parameters for prior playing experience

Division is geared towards “mid-level” players who want to play within their age classification as opposed to skill classification

Idea is to utilize age, demeanor, and ideology of “just wanting to play” as the parameters

4.4 There must be a minimum of 4 teams registered in a division. If not, teams will be placed by committee, captains, and rink personnel accordingly prior to 8/5 

4.5 Playoff eligibility

4.5.1 Players must participate in a minimum of 8 games (just over 1/3 of the season) to be eligible for playoffs. This will be monitored by the players signing in weekly at the front desk and being placed properly into gamesheets. 

4.6 Roster Eligibility (Tracking)

4.6.1 Players must check in at front desk upon arrival to be listed as present for the game (please have ID available for front desk staff) 

4.6.2  iPad will rotate from scorekeeper to front desk, if player is added at game time or comes late, both captains should be present at natural stoppage to agree that the player is who they say that they are and is eligible. This will be monitored via gamesheets via the flagging system built within the software.

5 Playing Rules and Suspendable Offenses

5.1 Any rule or rules are subject to change via USA Hockey determination and the new USA Hockey Rulebook (primarily in rule change years) 

5.2  USA Hockey Rulebook - The league follows the USA Hockey Rulebook in its entirety and does not, to the knowledge of the Lake Erie Sports Alliance, the Commissioner, or the committee, have any rules that are lesser in severity than the USA Hockey Rulebook requires. Any amendment to the USA Hockey Rulebook is a more severe punishment than the recommendation.

5.3  The league and committee retain the right to revisit and convene on any suspension at any time throughout the season.

5.4  A committee will be built for the Safety and Discipline of the league, its players and its personnel. This committee with include both members of the league, officiating staff, and members of the Commission for Adult League. (will be announced at or prior to captains meeting on 8/5)

5.5  Game misconduct 

5.5.1    Any game misconduct must carry the remainder of the game that it occurs and the next game (USA Hockey standard). Officials will report this to the RIC/ Scheduler as well as the commissioner and committee chairman

5.5.2    First offense does not deem the player a repeat offender, but is tracked and closely monitored

5.5.3    Two offenses in SAME season puts the player on the repeat offender list 

5.6  Repeat Offender List

5.6.1    Any match penalty automatically places the player on the repeat offender list

5.6.2    Timeline for removal from ROL: 24 months with no incidents or suspensions

5.6.3    Any repeat offender is subject to supplemental discipline and/ or a hearing with the Safety and Discipline Committee

5.6.4    Any suspension to a person who is on the repeat offender list will automatically be AT LEAST double the USA Hockey recommended suspension and will be reviewed automatically by the Safety and Discipline Committee in conjunction with the Committee for Adult Hockey and the Commissioner of the league.

5.7  Standardized Discipline (USA Hockey)

5.7.1 The Mid Am District has allowed a committee to be built to handle any of these matters internally.

5.7.2    All findings will be reported back to USA Hockey and the Mid Am District

5.7.3    Any player who is suspended under the Standardized Discipline Policy is entitled to a hearing. This must take place within 30 days of the incident. The player will not be eligible to participate in ANY game during that time (even if it is another division).

5.7.4    If the player is unhappy with the findings of the committee, they are entitled to appeal directly to the Mid Am District board. This appeal process has a $250 fee and will not take any new testimony, simply will determine if the committee had an error in their process.

5.7.5    USA Hockey Standardized Discipline Chart 

5.7.5.1      Level 1 

6-10 games 

5.7.5.2      Level 2 

   4-8 games 

5.7.5.3      Level 3 

3-5 games 

5.7.5.3.1   601.E3 - 3 games for initial offense (League Determination)

5.7.6    Any player who is assessed a major penalty for fighting will be given 3 games total in supplemental discipline for a first time offense.

5.7.6.1      Any player who is assessed a major penalty for fighting a second time in the same season will be assessed a minimum of 6 games and will be subject to a disciplinary hearing.

6    Suspension List, Communication of Suspensions, Repeat Offender List

6.1       Weekly email will be distributed to league with suspended players' number, team, offense or rule references 

6.2       Suspension list will be relayed to front desk and scorekeeper as well as uploaded into Gamesheets  with the number of games

6.3       Repeat offender list will be dispersed in the same fashion with players team and number.

6.4       Captains shall agree that the information that they are being provided from a disciplinary standpoint is confidential information pertaining strictly to the transparency of the league and the committee(s).

7           Officials/ Abuse of Officials Code and Conduct 

7.1       Abuse of Officials Progression

7.1.1    Warning to player and captain on first instance 

7.1.2    Minor penalty to player 

7.1.3    Misconduct to player 

7.1.4    Game misconduct to player 

7.1.5    If player refuses to leave, match penalty is assessed due to refusal to start play 

7.2       When a player is removed from the game for any reason, the player must leave immediately and his/her team is responsible for retrieving and returning equipment from bench to player (sticks, water bottle, etc.). 

7.3       When a player is penalized and has a question about the call made, the penalized player must report directly to the box, the captain may ask the ref a question at that time if necessary, or the penalized player may ask the ref after serving the penalty, in a non-argumentative manner. The penalty is not to be debated at this time; clarification and questions only. 

7.4       3-penalties is an automatic ejection (regardless of associated independent penalty times) 

8           Curfew and Game Times

8.1       All games will be played in 3 separate 12 minute periods with no overtime in the situation of a tie game

8.2       All games will have a curfew time of 60 minutes

8.3       Zamboni operator shall start curfew clock after closing the doors OR at the scheduled game start time; whichever is later. 

8.4       3 minute warmup clock should start simultaneously with curfew clock

9    Playoffs and Tie Breakers

9.1  Playoff format will be decided prior to the captains meeting after a definitive number of teams is set for each division

9.2   Any ties for playoff seeding, when needed will be broken by the following subsection in the order in which they are listed per this document.

9.2.1    Head to Head

9.2.2    Goal Differential

9.2.3    Coin Toss