BCHL Roster Rules For 2013-14:

This is posted on Brian Wiebe's Blog:

BCHL Roster Rules for 2013-14:

Just like last off-season, the BC Hockey League announced a number of changes to rosters after the AGM in June, and I thought I'd recap them and the other rules as we are just weeks away from the start of the 2013-14 season.

These are directly from various sections of the BCHL website. My comments are in italics after the rule.

- The BCHL Roster limit is 22 players at any time, 20 of which are eligible to dress and participate in any regular season or playoff game. (Same as it was in 2012-13.)

- An injured player can be placed on long-term injured reserve and another brought in to fill that spot. (Same as 2012-13.)

- Teams must have a minimum of two players 17-years-old or younger on their active roster. Failure to comply would result in the offending team losing a roster spot for each player under that minimum. (Also same as it was in 2012-13.)

- A team may only have seven import players on their roster at any one time and may sign maximum of 12 during a season. An import is defined as an American-born player. No Canadian-born players who are age-eligible to play in any Junior A leagues across the country are considered imports. (This drops to six import players in 2014-15. Previously, any players who were registered in a branch outside of BC were considered imports. Also, an import player is now considered an import for his entire junior A career.)

- A maximum of 17 "veteran" players may dress in any single game. (Meaning a team must dress a minimum of 3 "rookie" players in each game.)

- Once a player has signed a CHA playing certificate (also known as a "card"), players are bound by the regulations of Hockey Canada and movement to other teams is restricted. (When players are "traded", the actual process is that they've been released by their current team with the agreement that they'll be signed to a CHA playing certificate by their new team.)

- Creation of a "not-in-good-standing" list for players refusing to report to a team after a CJHL Player Transfer Agreement. (If players don't report after being traded, they'll receive this new designation. Not sure what the implications are of the "not-in-good-standing" list, but it's a start.)