Over the past few weeks, many stakeholders with the Minor Hockey Associations in Labrador who will be travelling to Newfoundland for Provincials this year have been reaching out to voice concerns over schedules of games, flights, etc. Hockey NL is in contact with the presidents of the associations in Labrador and we are working closely with them as well as with our contacts at PAL to ensure that Labrador teams are able to attend all tournament games.

While we do not communicate directly with parents, team managers, etc., rest assured that your presidents are diligently bringing your concerns to us and we are working through them as is reasonable.

At this point we have asked your presidents to share this information with you in order to clear up a few of the points that are being raised that do not fall under the scope of Hockey NL or PAL and to clarify the process of arranging your flights.

In order to secure flights around our hockey schedules, we send PAL dates, numbers, departure and destination sites and they take this information to build us flights to our specifications. We are then provided with a tentative schedule from PAL and the flights are assigned from there. This happens quite early and Hockey NL then works to ensure that teams travelling from Labrador will be placed in tournaments that are within reasonable vicinity of the airport to which they are arriving. It must be noted that these flights are built to accommodate teams and family members and PAL and Hockey NL have no control over people who may book on other flights outside of these or for teams who choose different destinations for personal reasons.

This is the first season that Hockey NL has scheduled Provincials to happen Monday-Wednesday and Friday-Sunday as opposed to Monday-Wednesday and Thursday-Saturday as was past practice. This was done in response to a membership vote at the AGM in 2024 as association representatives saw merit in providing a travel day in the middle of the schedule to accommodate those families who have children in more than one division.

This meant that Labrador teams would be travelling home after hockey on Sunday, which it seems some did not anticipate.

Since flight schedules and tournament schedules have been made public, Hockey NL has worked with host associations as well as PAL to ensure that all teams, including those travelling from Labrador, will be able to attend all games and will not miss out on medal game opportunities. PAL has been very supportive throughout this process and our hosts have made changes as required as everyone is in agreement that ALL players and teams must be a part of the Provincial Tournament process, just as they are all a part of the province.

To those stakeholders who have been reaching out publicly and demanding answers, let us assure you that your association presidents have the information you need, and they are being given updates regularly as we work through any issues within our scope at Hockey NL and PAL.   Hockey NL cares about the players and families in Labrador and we are doing everything possible to make this a successful Provincial Tournament for everyone.

Yours in Hockey,

Greg Barton

Leigh-Ann Ryder