Hockey tryout tips

Updated October 17, 2026

Tryouts are a few skates where coaches try to see a whole season's worth of you. You can't change your talent in a week, but you can show up ready, work hard in every drill and make your best hockey easy to notice. Here's how to prepare, what coaches usually look for, what to do on the ice, how to handle nerves, and what to do afterward, including if you get cut.

The weeks before

1. Skate as much as you can. Public skates, stick and puck sessions, clinics. Work on what every drill uses: edges, crossovers, quick starts and stops, and backward skating. How to skate faster and how to hockey stop have drills.
2. Build your conditioning slowly. Three or four short sessions a week, for a few weeks, is better than cramming the week before. Do bodyweight squats, lunges, planks and push-ups, plus intervals like 20 seconds of hard running and 40 seconds of walking, 8 rounds. Form first. Hockey workouts at home has a plan.
3. Keep your hands busy. Ten minutes of stickhandling at home most days, and some shooting if you have a safe spot for it.
4. Sleep. The CDC, using American Academy of Sleep Medicine guidelines, recommends 9 to 12 hours a night for kids 6 to 12, and 8 to 10 hours for teens 13 to 17. Move to your tryout bedtime a week early, so it feels normal by then.
5. Check your gear. Get your skates sharpened a few days before, not the morning of, so you can skate on the new edges at least once. Tape two sticks. Check your helmet fit, straps and laces, and pack spare laces. Skate sharpening and lacing and how to tape a stick have the details.
6. Eat and drink like normal. Regular meals and plenty of water. Skip energy drinks. See what to eat before a game.
7. Know the plan. Find out how many sessions there are and what each one is: skills, drills or scrimmages. In Canada, Hockey Canada's U9 and U11 pathways require at least four practices or skill sessions before evaluations start, and at least three evaluation sessions. One bad skate isn't the whole story.

The day before and the day of

1. Pack the night before. Use a checklist: every piece of equipment, two taped sticks, a water bottle with your name on it, tape, spare laces and a towel.
2. Eat a normal dinner and go to bed at your usual time. Put screens away early.
3. Eat a familiar meal a few hours before you skate, and sip water through the day.
4. Arrive early. Get there 30 to 45 minutes before your ice time, so you're dressed and loose, not rushed.
5. Warm up off the ice for about 10 minutes before you put your gear on: a light jog, leg swings, skips, lunges and arm circles.
6. Check your gear one last time. Laces, straps, helmet and stick tape.

What coaches usually look for

Every coach is different, but most evaluations come down to the same few things. Talent counts, but it's only part of the list.

• Skating. Speed, edges, balance, backward skating, quick starts and stops. It shows up in every drill.
• Compete level. How hard you work, all the way to the end of every drill, and whether you win your battles for the puck.
• Hockey sense. Where you go without the puck, what you do with it and how quickly you read a play.
• Coachability. Whether you listen, do the drill the way it was explained and try a correction right away.
• Attitude. Your body language after a mistake, how you treat the players in line next to you, and whether you pick up your teammates. Coaches are choosing people to spend a whole season with.

What tryout skates usually look like

Most tryouts mix a few kinds of ice time, and each one shows coaches something different.

• Skating drills. These are sometimes timed. Use good technique at full speed, and skate through the finish line, not up to it.
• Puck skills. Stickhandling, passing and shooting stations. Keep your head up. A missed pass is fine. Giving up on it isn't.
• Battles and small-area games. 1-on-1s, 2-on-2s and games in a tight space. This is where compete level shows: win the puck, protect it and move it.
• Scrimmages. Play your position, keep shifts short and talk. Coaches also watch what you do without the puck.

During tryouts

1. Hustle in every drill. Go full speed, stop on the lines instead of curling, finish every rep and skate back to the line.
2. Listen and watch. Watch the demonstration. If you don't understand a drill, it's fine to ask, or watch the first player go through it.
3. Keep shifts short. In scrimmages, skate hard for 30 to 45 seconds and change. Tired players make the mistakes coaches remember.
4. Talk on the ice. Call for the puck. Tell teammates "man on" and "time". Coaches hear it.
5. Play your position. Do your job and make the simple play: a hard, flat pass, the puck deep, a backcheck. Don't try to do everything yourself.
6. Move on from mistakes fast. Everyone makes them. Coaches watch what you do on the next shift.

Goalies: be early for the warm-up, track every puck, recover fast and talk to your defense. How to play goalie covers the basics.

Handling nerves

Almost everyone is nervous at tryouts. Nerves mean you care, and a little bit gives you energy. The goal is to keep them from taking over.

• Breathe slowly. In through your nose for a count of four, out through your mouth for a count of six. Do it four or five times in the car, the locker room or on the bench.
• Use your routine. Do what you do before any game: the same warm-up, the same order putting on your gear, the same music. Familiar steps settle your mind.
• Focus on what you control. Your effort, your attitude, listening, talking and how fast you get back to the line. You don't control how many spots there are, who else is trying out or what the coaches decide.
• Make your first shift simple. A hard first stride, an easy pass, a hard backcheck. Simple plays calm you down.
• Tell someone. If nerves are making you feel sick or keeping you up at night, talk to a parent or coach. Most of them remember their own tryouts.

Parents: keep the car ride light. Tell your player you love watching them play, and save any game review for another day.

After tryouts

• Thank the coaches, even if it's just a wave on the way out.
• Recover: eat, drink water and get to bed on time, especially if there's another session tomorrow.
• Be patient. Don't message the coaches while they're deciding.
• If you make the team, the work starts now. Keep being the player and teammate they picked.

While you wait for the list, get outside, shoot some pucks and see your friends. On a rainy day, Brudvig Hockey is a free 3-on-3 arcade hockey game that runs in a web browser.

If you get cut

Getting cut hurts. It's fine to be upset for a day or two. Then make a plan.

1. Ask for feedback. Send a short, polite message or talk to the coach after the final session: "What should I work on to make this team next year?" It's best coming from you, not a parent. Write down the answer.
2. Find somewhere to play a lot. Another team in your association, a different level, house or rec hockey, a school team, or spring and summer hockey. Lots of ice time and touches on the puck can help you more than sitting on the bench of a higher team. Youth hockey levels and ages explains the options.
3. Work on the feedback. Pick one or two things, like backward skating or your first three strides, and practice them all season.
4. Try out again. Kids grow and develop at very different speeds, especially between about 10 and 15.

Plenty of NHL players were cut along the way. Chris Chelios was cut from his first college team and then by two Junior B teams in Canada, and later made the Hockey Hall of Fame. Martin St. Louis was never drafted, was let go after a tryout with Ottawa, and had his contract bought out by Calgary. He went on to win the Stanley Cup and the Hart Trophy with Tampa Bay in 2004, and he's in the Hall of Fame too. If the NHL is your goal, read how to make it to the NHL.