Free download. Version 1.0, September 2026. Rebuilt when the rules change.
Starting in 2027-28, USA Hockey’s Development League will require a club to hand a family a signed fact sheet before it can offer a player agreement: the specific team, anticipated season fees including player and parent travel, the payment schedule, the weekly practice, game and off-ice load, and the codes of conduct. Most families outside the DL will never be handed one. This is the same sheet, for any team at any level in the United States or Canada.
What it is
A two-page, fillable PDF the club completes and signs, and you keep a copy of, before any commitment is made. Eight sections: the team; itemized season fees with an “included in the team fee?” check on every line; player and required parent travel, including whether stay-to-play hotel blocks apply; the payment schedule and refund policy; weekly load and season shape; development and playing-time policy, including whether body checking is taught before it’s played and whether a non-checking option exists; conduct, safety and supervision; and a sign-off for both sides.
How to use it
Send it before tryouts, not after. Email the PDF to the program director or team manager and ask them to fill it in and sign it. The best time is when they still want you.
Ask for every line. A club that can fill it in has run the numbers. A club that can’t is telling you something about how the season will be run. Either answer is useful; only one of them costs you money later.
Keep your copy. The figures are the club’s good-faith estimates for the season. If the fee schedule moves in December, the sheet is the number you were quoted.
It isn’t a negotiation. The form is neutral on purpose — it doesn’t argue with the club, and you shouldn’t have to either. It just asks the club to write down what it already knows.
Download
The PDF is attached below. It opens and fills in any PDF reader on a phone or computer, or prints to two pages.
Insiders: the annotated version — what a good answer looks like on each line, the red flags, and benchmark fee ranges by tier — is coming to the Insider Kit. Upgrade to Insider.
Not legal advice. Modeled on the Team Fact Sheet requirement in USA Hockey’s Development League Guidebook (2027-28) as reported in September 2026. How the DL rules work, in Issue № 4.
Full Ice is a weekly briefing for hockey parents in the US and Canada — rules, costs, safety, and the pathway, sourced every time. Free, every Thursday at 6 a.m.