Coach’s Corner
Everything you need to get your team on board: a ready-to-send parent invite, the short how-to videos for every role, and what changed in the rulebook this season.
Invite your parents
A ready-to-send email. You invite parents, never players.
Copy it, fill in the [brackets] (team, your name), and send it to your team’s parents. The 1-minute parent setup video link is built right in.
Subject: Setting up [Team]'s off-ice training, takes about 5 minutes Hi everyone, This season we're using an app called Honest Hockey for off-ice training. I've set the program, shooting, fitness and stretching, with targets for each week, and your player logs what they actually do each day. They'll see their streak and progress build, and it helps me plan. Getting your player set up (about 5 minutes): 1. You'll get an invite from me by email. Tap the link and set your password. 2. Create your player's profile, then set them a username and a short PIN. That's how they'll log in from now on, on their own phone or any computer, no email needed. 3. For players under 16, you'll give consent as part of setup, and that's on purpose. A short setup video walks through every step here: https://youtu.be/oo4LlZo_P4w (about 1 min) A few things worth knowing: - You'll see everything your player does, and every message between us. Nothing is hidden from you. - There are no leaderboards and no rankings, ever. No other family can see your player's information. - It's private by design. Any questions, just reply to this email. Thanks for helping them put in the work. [Coach Name], [Team]
The how-to videos
Short walkthroughs for every role.
Share these with your team, or point parents and players to the Resources page for the videos plus written steps.
New rules for 2026-27
The rulebook changed this season. Here is what will actually come up in your games.
Hockey Canada works on a two-year cycle. The 2026-2028 edition, 16th edition, dated June 2026 is in force now and stands through 2027-28. There is one brand new rule and a set of changes worth knowing before your first game.
Play stops when a goalie takes a puck to the head
If your goaltender is struck in the head by the puck, the referee stops play as soon as it is safe to do so. One exception: if the puck deflects directly into the goal off that contact, the goal counts, so officials are told to hold the whistle a moment to see whether it goes in. Otherwise the face-off goes to the nearest end-zone spot to wherever the shot was taken.
It exists so your team staff can get out there and check on the goalie, and so concussion protocols can be applied instead of play carrying on around a goalie who just took a puck off the mask.
Worth knowing: "head" means the mask or helmet. A throat protector hanging from the mask does not count.
What it means for you: tell your goalie parents this rule exists. It is a good change, and it reassures a family whose eleven year old has just started playing the position.
Refusing to start play now forfeits the game
The old two-minute warning procedure is gone. A team that will not start play takes a Bench Minor for Delay of Game, or a Penalty Shot against them in the last two minutes of regulation or any time in overtime. If the team still will not resume, the head coach receives a Game Misconduct and the game is forfeited. The old wording said "suspended".
What it means for you: this one is aimed squarely at coaches. Whatever the grievance, pulling your team off the ice now ends the game against you and puts a Game Misconduct on your record.
Deliberate illegal substitution can now be a penalty shot
There is a new offence: intentionally sending extra players on to gain an advantage, cause a stoppage, or prevent a goal. In the last two minutes of regulation or any time in overtime, that is a Penalty Shot.
The reassuring part: someone going over the boards a fraction early on a normal line change is explicitly not this. It is about intent, not sloppiness.
The visiting team puts the stick down first on every face-off
Previously the visiting player placed their stick first only on neutral-zone face-offs. Now it applies to all face-offs, attacking and defending, everywhere on the ice. Also new: on an encroachment violation no change of players is permitted, even if the puck was physically dropped, unless a penalty leaves a team shorthanded.
What it means for you: two minutes at your next practice, especially for your centres. Small thing, cleaner draw.
You get a second chance to change after a timeout
There are now two exceptions permitting an extra change where there was one. The new one: if you make a line change and a timeout is then called, you may change again. It does not apply where "no change on icing" is in effect.
High-sticking the puck, and a renumbering that breaks old cheat sheets
The separate Rule 6.10 for Junior and Senior is deleted and folded into 6.9. The goal test is now defined by crossbar height: if the puck touches a part of the stick below the crossbar and goes directly in, the goal counts, even if another part of the stick was above it. In Minor and Female hockey, high-sticking the puck where it then contacts an opponent is penalised under Rule 7.6, Head Contact.
The practical trap: everything in Section 6 from 6.10 onward has been renumbered. If you or your association have a cheat sheet citing 6.11 for Kicking or 6.12 for Off-side, it is now wrong. Print a new one.
Blindside hits: the angle is judged before the hit
The blindside definition moves from a Note into an Interpretation and is expanded. The 90 degree angle of approach is now determined by the orientation of the player's body before they receive the hit, and the direction the player being hit was travelling is explicitly not a key consideration.
What it means for you: a hit you thought was fine because the player skated into it may now be called. Worth explaining to your defence.
Discrimination is judged from the receiving end
New guidance separates an emotional outburst from chirping intended to incite, and directs referees to work proactively with head coaches and captains rather than only reacting. On discrimination, the conduct is judged from the perspective of the person it was directed at, not the intent of the person who said it.
What it means for you: "I didn't mean it that way" is no longer the test. Say this one out loud to your room at your first practice of the season, not after an incident.
Smaller things worth knowing
Delayed penalties are now called deferred penalties. A third concurrent penalty against a team already down to three skaters is deferred, and the book now states plainly that it still must be served, starting when a preceding penalty expires.
Which penalty ends when you are scored on has been rewritten. New tie-breaker: where two Minors have equal time remaining, the one that occurred first terminates.
Clipping/Tripping and Slew-Footing are now separate referee's signals where they used to share one. Slew-footing is a back-to-front leg strike; clipping and tripping are front-to-back.
Not for your division: Rule 6.1(g), a dislodged net creating a no-change situation, is U18 AAA, Junior and Senior at Member option. Rule 6.6(h), a goal awarded on a displaced net, is Junior only.
Watch the explainers
From the Rule of the Week channel on YouTube.
These are not ours and we have not re-uploaded them. They come from the YouTube channel Hockey Canada Rule of the Week, which is the clearest explanation of these changes anyone has published. Note that the channel is not linked from Hockey Canada's own officiating pages, so treat the rulebook PDF below as the authority and these as the explanation.
All the 2026-2028 changes
Goaltender safety, the new rule
Penalty termination after a goal
Also available in French: Sécurité des gardiens de but.
Go to the source
Hockey Canada Playing Rules 2026-2028 (PDF)
16th edition, June 2026. 167 pages. This is the source of truth and everything above is drawn from it.
Two links to avoid. The generic rulebook link on Hockey Canada's officiating page still serves the old 2024-26 edition, and rulebook.hockeycanada.ca is stale back to 2023. Use the direct PDF above.
How complete is this?
Every item above is taken from Hockey Canada's own rulebook, so each one is accurate. What we cannot promise is that the list is complete: Hockey Canada did not publish a rule-change summary for this cycle the way it did for 2024-2026, so this was built by comparing the new rulebook against the old one.
Check with your own association before you treat it as the full picture. We found no Ontario-specific on-ice playing-rule changes for 2026-27, and OHF's own modifications are administrative rather than on-ice, but we could not reach OMHA's rule-changes page and the GTHL rulebook available to us was 2025-26.
If you are a referee-in-chief and we have missed something or got something wrong, tell us and we will fix it the same day: info@gethonesthockey.com