Hockey Quebec keeps minor hockey season on schedule

Minor hockey players across Quebec will begin their seasons on time after all. Hockey Quebec says no leagues will be forced to postpone their opening games, despite recent turbulence linked to the rollout of the new SpordlePlay scheduling system.

Risk of season delays averted

Just a week ago, the start of the season for hundreds of minor hockey teams around the province appeared to be in jeopardy. Several volunteer ice schedulers had resigned in protest over the transition to SpordlePlay, raising concerns that game calendars would not be ready in time.

According to information made public, the deadlock was resolved after a series of emergency meetings in recent days. On Thursday, regional associations that had warned they might delay the opening of their leagues instead published their game schedules online, clearing a major hurdle for the launch of the season.

Hockey Quebec now maintains that no one is being held up by the posting of schedules, and the organization has indicated that games slated to begin as early as Friday evening will go ahead as planned. That confirmation reassures the many families who were bracing for last‑minute changes to their children’s hockey calendars.

SpordlePlay transition stabilized through training

At the centre of the dispute is SpordlePlay, a Quebec-based digital platform being adopted as the new tool for scheduling minor hockey games. Its president, Lyno Côté, acknowledges that the migration to the new system is still underway but insists that it will not result in postponed seasons.

To address the practical problems raised by volunteers, Spordle organized several training sessions in recent days for the various schedulers. These sessions were designed to help them get comfortable with SpordlePlay’s interface and to reduce the issues that had surfaced when the platform was first deployed.

Côté has credited feedback from people within Hockey Quebec’s organizational structure with helping the company identify and fix the main pain points, and he says the product has already been improved. With the season now set to start on time, attention will turn to how smoothly the rest of the transition unfolds, as reliable scheduling remains a key concern for minor hockey officials, volunteers and families across the province.