Player Evaluation/Draft/Tryout Schedule Released for the CWHL 2010-2011 Season

Dear Prospective CWHL player,

Thank you for your interest in playing in the CWHL for the 2010-2011 seasons. We appreciate your patience as the CWHL transitions towards a professional women’s hockey league. This is a very exciting time for women's hockey. This letter is to update you on the next steps that will occur in order to commence our season in October of 2010.

The first step of the CWHL was to hire five General Managers to work directly with League Head office. This has been done and all five (see list below) are very excited to be involved with our league and eager to work hard to ensure a successful 2010-2011 for the players.

The league will work directly with the five General Managers for the next step of hiring the head coaches of each respective team. The General Managers and Head Coach will then be tasked with selecting a coaching staff for each team.

Please do not forget that the deadline for applications to be a player in the CWHL for the 2010-2011 seasons is July 16th, 2010.

Players in the Greater Toronto Area
For players in wanting to play on one of the three teams in the Greater Toronto Area, there will be a chance for you to be evaluated by those three coaching staffs on July 27th and July 28th, 2010 (Westwood Arena 8 – 9:30 pm). The evaluation skates are not mandatory, and if you do not participate your name will still be included in the draft, however, it would serve as an excellent opportunity to showcase your skills to the evaluators. You may skate one or both nights, however you must pre-register for the skate by emailing Brenda Andress at cwhled@owha.on.ca and indicate which nights you will be in attendance. The fee for each ice time is $15 which can be paid upon arrival at the rink.

Once the evaluation skate has occurred and players are ranked, a draft for the three Greater Toronto Teams will occur on August 12th, 2010 at 7:00pm (location TBA). This will be the first ever draft in women’s hockey and players, fans and media are encouraged to attend.

The draft will be headlined by each of the three Greater Toronto coaching staffs and General Managers indicating up to five “protected players” that they wish to create the core of their team. A “protected player” must have played in the CWHL once during the last three seasons and must agree to the team that they are being “protected” by. If a team chooses not to protect five players, they will gain the ability to select first in the draft until all teams have five players on their roster. This is to ensure parity for this season and to evenly distribute incoming talent to the CWHL.

Once all teams have five players, an open draft will occur with a lottery indicating who will select first. All players who have submitted player applications for one of the Greater Toronto Teams will be drafted. Being drafted does not ensure a spot on a team; instead it indicates the team that the player is eligible to attend their tryouts. Teams will be comprised of up to a 22 person roster.

Tryouts for the Greater Toronto Teams will be announced by each respective team and will occur in late September (Date TBA)
For any players released from an organization (including Montreal and Boston) or players new to the region who missed the deadline for applications a late September evaluation skate will occur with the three Greater Toronto Area coaching staff in attendance. Another mini-draft will occur for those players.

Players in Boston and Montreal
All players indicating that they wish to play in Montreal or Boston are eligible to attend an open tryout for each team respectively. Players released from three Greater Toronto teams will also be eligible. Montreal will be holding on ice tryouts in late September with dates to be confirmed shortly.

• All preseason skates and tryouts will be held at Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington, MA - the practice home of the Boston Bruins
• Pre-season open skate - Saturday August 21 at 4:00 - 6:00 pm
• Tryouts - September 17, 18, and 19 - all sessions at 4:00 pm