Starting in January, Development League programs can sign players for 2027-28, weeks before any other Tier I club is allowed to hold a tryout. For most families the choice isn’t between DL programs. It’s between the DL offer in front of them and what they already have: the current club, a prep school, high school hockey. This sheet lines them up side by side, on one page.
What it is
A one-page, fillable PDF with three columns: the DL offer, where you are now, and an optional third for another option. Fourteen lines in six groups:
The team: program, team and level.
Money: season fee and what it includes; payment schedule and deposit; refund or release terms; travel and estimated family cost.
The week: practices per week and minutes per practice; off-ice sessions.
The season: total games and games against DL teams.
People: coaching staff; how playing time is decided and communicated; whether the roster spot is guaranteed all season.
Signing: the signing date offered and the deadline to respond; whether you’ve received the program’s Team Fact Sheet.
It works for any program at any level, DL or not.
How to use it
Fill it from what each program tells you. Every DL team has to hand a family a Team Fact Sheet before it offers an agreement, and most of these lines come straight off it. For your current club, our free Team Fact Sheet asks for the same information.
Leave a blank where there’s no answer. An empty box is information too.
Download
The PDF fills in on a phone or computer in any PDF reader, or prints to one landscape page.
Insiders: the annotated version, with what a strong answer looks like on each line and what to ask when one is missing, is coming to the Decision Kit. Upgrade to Insider.
Not legal advice. The signing calendar and Team Fact Sheet requirement are from USA Hockey’s Development League page. No club or company had a hand in this sheet.
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