Chronicle | Many recommendations, little audacity

At the end of November 2021, less than a year from the elections, François Legault had surprised by forming a committee of 15 personalities responsible for looking into the future of Quebec hockey.

The Prime Minister’s approach was surprising because the management of hockey is not the responsibility of the government. And especially because a week earlier, after a very rigorous hiring process, Hockey Quebec had presented its new general manager, Jocelyn Thibault, who was supposed to have free rein to modernize Quebec hockey.

Moreover, the Prime Minister’s committee, whose members acted on a voluntary basis and almost all had full-time jobs, had to deal with an extremely tight deadline. They had only four months to carry out consultations, reflect on the operation of one of the largest hockey federations in the world and to formulate recommendations intended to improve the quality of the experience of young Quebec hockey players.

The least we can say is that the members of the committee chaired by Marc Denis did not skimp on quantity.

Initiation, retention, women’s hockey, cultural communities, first peoples, junior hockey, university hockey, infrastructures, reduction in participation costs, tax credits, status of the federation, redesign of age groups, RSEQ staff… There are has few stones that have not been turned over.

And almost on every page, you think you hear the sound of a cash register. Where will the money come from to fund all these initiatives? Does a bantam AAA (M-15) coach really need to be paid full time?

The requests were not encrypted. Minister Charest acknowledged that this is large financial commitments that will have to be studied . Marc Denis emphasized that the intention is not to pass the bill on to the parents.

Suspense.

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Reading this report, I thought back to all the resources that HQ had to mobilize a few years ago to implement a harmless change: half-ice hockey for novice-age hockey players (M-9) .

Because when you manage a large federation, a lot of time inevitably passes between the moment when a good idea arises and the moment when it becomes applicable on the ground.

For U-9 half-ice hockey, for example, pilot projects had to be carried out in certain regions of Quebec for one or two seasons. These pilot projects were used to set up a program and to enact rules that thousands of volunteers would then be able to apply throughout Quebec.

It was also necessary to train the said volunteers in addition to giving the necessary time to the local associations to obtain the famous removable strips used to split the rink in two. And I’m not talking about the necessary communication campaign to educate parents outraged that their child as tall as three apples cannot play the real hockey on a full rink.

Jocelyn Thibault and his team at the federation will therefore have to establish priorities and a long timetable to hope to materialize a good part of the recommendations that have been made to them.

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That said, there are a lot of good things in this document. There are also several themes with which the readers of this column have been familiar for several years.

Getting all kids introduced to ice skating in elementary school, for example, is a great recommendation. Not because it is absolutely necessary to convert each Quebecer into a hockey player, but rather because it is a motor skill that must be acquired in the same way as swimming, running, jumping , ride a bike, catch a ball, kick a ball, maintain your balance and lark.

Ensuring that each minor hockey association can count on the support of a full-time technical advisor, as recommended in the report, would also be a huge step forward.

The kind of benevolent person who ends up knowing all the children of the association and who identifies the talents. The kind of mentor who offers ongoing training and follow-up to coaches and who assists them during the delicate period of team composition. The resource person capable of resolving trivial problems in the field which, otherwise, generate dissatisfaction or numerous calls to the head office of the federation.

I also particularly savored the passages lamenting that children are too quickly categorized in their journey. According to the authors of the report, this creates an unhealthy elitist climate that leads to longer trips and additional expenses for parents. And above all, pressure to perform for children and a high dropout rate before the age of 13.

Among the recommendations aimed at prioritizing fun, we note the elimination of rankings and statistics up to and including the M-13 (pee-wee) category; limiting travel and creating calendars that are more respectful of the reality of families. These positive ideas are in line with an observation made several years ago by the leaders of the Swedish Hockey Federation.

The demographics of Quebec are changing and the need to make hockey more inviting for members of cultural communities, and more accessible for all families in Quebec, was also noted by the committee.

Each year, the Swedish federation sends a letter of invitation, written in six languages, to several hundred thousand children. This is a fairly easy measure to adopt. And if it is possible for the Swedes to offer $200 hockey seasons to beginner hockey players, there is no reason that could prevent us from doing something similar at home.

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The report also contains some eyebrow-raising recommendations.

Like the one wanting the government to consider Hockey Quebec as a special federation, to withdraw it from standardized programs and to provide it with adequate funding just for it. And above all, that we makes it compulsory to join Hockey Québec for all ice hockey activities, for everyone .

The protection of the good old monopoly that reappears!

If this regulation had existed ten years ago, Quebec hockey would probably be in a worse state today. For example, the school leagues that shook Hockey Quebec and forced everyone to reflect on the shortcomings of the network would never have seen the light of day.

Monopolies, by definition, are brakes on innovation. It is also because we have killed innovation for a long time in Quebec that the report on the future of hockey was commissioned. Nice irony! The new leaders of Hockey Quebec are dynamic. Let’s take advantage of it. But the next ones may not be. This special status could become a double-edged sword.

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The report also recommends the formation of three Quebec national development programs: one in para hockey, one female and one male in the U-18 category.

But surprisingly, the 17-year-old boys who would be part of the Quebec national program would not be the best players in their age group. It would actually be 17-year-old players who failed to break into the roster of a QMJHL team.

The members of the committee believe that by taking advantage of optimal supervision and the support of the National Sports Institute (INS) and by playing games against junior AAA and collegiate teams, these players could access the QMJHL at 18 years old. .

The 17-year-old clientele is rather poorly supervised in Quebec, it’s true. But it is still surprising that we choose to create an additional structure instead of simply forcing, for example, the Junior AAA League to play 17-year-olds and provide them with adequate support. Also, the mandate of the INS is to develop Olympians. Not QMJHL rookies.

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Speaking of the QMJHL, the report contains very few recommendations about it. However, it is at the heart of Quebec’s development structure.

This modesty is perhaps related to the fact that several members of the committee are closely related to or work within the Quebec major junior circuit. As if to touch up everything else, but not really the QMJHL.

Still, the committee recommends that league teams be forced to abide by a particular form of coaching when deciding to keep a 16-year-old player. Thus, they would not have the right to exchange these young players (which should be obvious) and they would have to commit to respecting a development plan and using them regularly throughout the season.

A small line also recommends reviewing the games/practices ratio within the QMJHL.

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Finally, the report emphasizes the importance of creating a true university network in Quebec for men’s hockey.

You have read it at least 100 times in this column: it is abnormal that the top of the pyramid of a federation of 85,000 to 95,000 members (depending on the year), is made up of only three men’s university teams, including only one French speaker.

Once this wish has been formulated (we already know that several universities intend to create programs), the committee does not, however, answer the million dollar question: what does it suggest to make this university network relevant?

There are already 35 college teams in Canada and NHL organizations aren’t even going to see them play. Across the border, scouts are spending their time in NCAA arenas.

The situation will not change if we simply add three or four more teams.

University hockey will have to be truly part of Hockey Québec’s development strategy, at least in the same way as the QMJHL, for such a revolution to occur. But don’t bet too hard on it.

In short, congratulations to the members of the committee, who obviously worked and debated very hard to produce this report. And good luck to the employees of Hockey Quebec, who have a whole job ahead of them.