Жасөспірімдерге дейінгі хоккей: негіздер мен жас санаттары

Amateur ice hockey which is played below the junior age level

Minor hockey is an umbrella term for amateur ice hockey which is played below the junior age level. Players are classified by age, with each age group playing in its own league. The rules, especially as it relates to body contact, vary from class to class. In North America, the rules are governed by the national bodies, Hockey Canada and USA Hockey, while local hockey associations administer players and leagues for their region. Many provinces and states organize regional and provincial championship tournaments, and the highest age groups in Canada and USA also participate in national championships. Minor hockey is not to be confused with minor league professional hockey.

In Canada, the age categories are designated by each provincial hockey governing body based on Hockey Canada's guidelines, and each category may have multiple tiers based on skill. In November 2019, Hockey Canada announced that beginning in 2020 (officially taking effect in the 2020–21 season), it would refer to its age categories by their age limits (with "midget" being renamed "U18", for example) rather than by names. It stated that the new names would be more concise, while there had also been concerns over use of the term "midget" in this context—as the word is now considered a pejorative towards dwarfism.

The Amateur Athletic Union has returned to licensing the sport of ice hockey. AAU began licensing scholastic ice hockey programs at the HS Varsity and JV classifications about 2009. Then during the 2011–2012 season the AAU began licensing junior and youth leagues as well. The Western States Hockey League (WSHL) moved their operations from USA Hockey into AAU and Hockey Michigan was formed, providing traditional full ice playing opportunities at the 7U and 8U age classifications (aka mites) in the face of cross ice mandates adopted by the USA Hockey district affiliate. During the 2012–2013 season, AAU junior and youth operations expanded rapidly and currently span coast to coast. More recently, AAU hockey has expanded their youth and Junior programs into Canada. Today, AAU is licensing playing opportunities at all youth age classifications, as well as scholastic, junior, collegiate and adult levels. Although some AAU clubs still use classification terms such as "mites" or "midgets", the official AAU youth designations indicate the age group with the format "xU", where "x" is the maximum age number and the "U" indicates "and under".

Officials for youth hockey are often youth players themselves, calling games in lower levels than the one they participate in themselves. As with players who start out playing youth hockey, officials start their officiating career by officiating youth hockey, making it up through the ranks as their officiating skill increases. USA Hockey defines certain levels of their officials and so does Hockey Canada and the International Ice Hockey Federation. Currently, many youth officials quit after a few games, mainly due to verbal abuse from parents, coaches and players. The other issue faced by young referees is a reluctance from older officials to give them more advanced games. In the US and Canada, news stories pop up from now and then that describes physical abuse on youth officials, in addition to verbal abuse. These problems were addressed in Hockey Canada's "Relax, it's just a game" campaign, which started in 2002. A youth official can usually move up the ladder to juniors after about 2 years of officiating, and after a few years move up to senior hockey. This is, as with players, different for each individual as their skill curves are differently shaped. Many current and former officials feel that their officiating career has aided them in their professional life as well as being more comfortable with handling critical decisions and upset individuals.