Expectations of Players

First and foremost, all players must be at least 18 years old, are expected to have and wear complete gear, and have their Rink Rats jersey with them for each game. If there is a delay with the jersey order and we do not have the colored jerseys for the first few games, "home" players will need to wear a dark jersey and "away" players will need to wear a light jersey.

With this being a purely unofficial league everybody needs to know up front that they are are assuming all personal risks and cannot hold me, the Society as a whole, the facility we rent from, or any other players involved responsible for any injury or damage to personal property sustained during play. More of this in the Release of Liability section.

All players are responsible to be familiar with and follow the posted rules/code of conduct of the facility that we rent to play in. I've put a lot of time and effort into this to the benefit of a lot of people, and it's not worth not following the rules and losing the ability to move forward with future seasons.

Players who become ineligible to play in Rink Rats games due to a facility suspension/ban will not receive a refund of any Rink Rats fees. Additionally, if a Rink Rats player receives a facility suspension/ban due to behavior occurring during Rink Rats activities, including but not limited to games, meetings, events, etc., that player may be ineligible (at my sole discretion) to continue playing/participating with the Rink Rats.

Everyone needs to acknowledge that we are all out to have a good time and aside from routine chirping, we all need to be respectful of each other. This especially extends to volunteer officials. If you disagree with a call, you can disagree, but arguing with the official may get you ejected from the game.

No fighting. We're an amateur hockey league and most people are here to learn and develop. If you get frustrated about something, skate it off. 

Finally, there are going to be a lot of newbies here. Elite, A, and B level players, you know who you are. I have no problem with you signing up, but please keep in mind that this league is primarily for newer/lower level players and as an upper level player you will be asked to play down and take on more of a supportive/coaching role (Please see the section below on the "Modified Gretzky Rule". If you don't believe you can do this, please consider not participating as I would prefer not to have to ask you to leave.

Again, If you are a high level player expecting this to be a large group of skilled players, this may not be the place for you. If you still choose to play and it becomes problematic, you may be asked to stop attending and will be issued a refund of your fee (minus $85 if the season fee included a jersey and socks) divided and equal to the portion of remaining games. (e.g. if a fee of $185 was paid and 2 games have been played, only $80 will be refunded).

Modified Gretzky Rule - After having a discussion with the 2026 Team Captains, we have decided to continue with a modified version of the Gretzky rule that we had implemented for the 2025 Contest of Chaos. While I have, for the sake of inclusiveness, allowed upper level players to play with the Rink Rats, our league has always been geared towards the Rookie/ D level players and I have encouraged upper-level players to use their skills to support the lower levels and encourage player development. As such, beginning with Spring 2026, all players will be allowed to achieve one hat trick (3 goals in a single game) per season after which that individual player will only be allowed to score two goals max per game. If a player scores beyond their allowable goals, those goals will not count towards that game's score. Assists on a non-allowed goal will still be recorded for stat keeping purposes, but the goal will not be recorded. Our hope is that this will continue to encourage the upper level players to help facilitate other player development and improve the league as a whole. If an upper level player chooses to ignore this rule and blatantly continues to "score" goals after they have reached their limit, there will be a 3 strike type progression before that player is no longer eligible to continue with the Rink Rats. (1. Player will be notified via email that since their hat trick was already achieved in a prior game that their goals beyond 2 were not recorded. 2. Player will be warned via email that another occurrence will result in ineligibility to continue with the Rink Rats. 3. Player will be notified via email that they are no longer eligible to continue with the Rink Rats. A refund will be paid at the above mentioned rate).