CHL Chat Room

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Wayne Bonney
CHL Supervisor of Officials

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What training, if any, do game officials have to have? Is there a "beginning" league that one starts with and then works their way to the NHL?  - Leslie in Olive Branch, MS

The full-time officials are asked to come to camp at a certain weight. We do a running test and we do put them through skating tests as well. They also have many different mental drills and tests during the camps. 

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Wayne, I know the officials take a lot of heat from the fans. In my opinion, they do the best they can. How much experience does the average official have in refereeing hockey games? – Richard in Allen, TX

The officials that are full-time have spent 3-4 year in USA Hockey or one of the Canadian junior leagues most of the officials have worked the finals in the league they just left and are generally considered the best in those leagues.

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Do Official get frustrated with players and call them for things that are questionable? -  Brian in Brighton, CO

Yes, the officials are no different than players or coaches. They know it’s an emotional game and the officials are asked to keep their composure at all times and try to bring the players or coaches down to a level where everyone can communicate. Everyone see’s the play differently it all depends where the officials are on the ice. 

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The CHL has adopted the NHL's new rule on illegal hits to the head. We've already seen over the years that one referee can miss good goals and miss penalties. In a one-referee system, what role will the linesmen play in making the determination on these hits? –Jeremy in Odessa, TX

The linesmen can call too many men - Double minor penalties –Major –Match Penalties. This New Rule will be no different - they will be able to call this play if the referee doesn’t see it.

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There are certain situations in this league where there is a minor penalty called and a diving penalty called on the same play, can you have one with the other ? It seems that if you know one is diving the other could not have committed the hard foul. Just wondering how this is described in the rule book ?  -  Cole in Wichita, KS

We tell the officials if their calling a hooking penalty and the player being hooked attempts to draw a penalty by his actions(diving/ embellishes)  64.1, than call them both.  Just because a player embellishes when he is fouled doesn't mean that a penalty has not occurred.  You can have both.

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I know that it is a very difficult job to see everything on the ice when the game is progressively getting faster, but has the CHL looked into any kind of replay ? or perhaps a camera in the goal to see if a goal is good or bad? Thanks? – John in Rapid City, SD

At this time we are not going to put camera’s over the nets. The CHL arenas are different in every building. The camera’s the NHL use cost a lot of money and it is quite a process to make this type of system operational.  I do not think we will be doing this soon.

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With the influx of new teams from the IHL and their style, compared to the style of the CHL last year, will there be tighter calls for roughing, obvious hooking and holding, and boarding this season? – Jim in Platte City, MO

The focus this year is the puck carrier. If the puck carrier is hooked at anytime there should be a penalty called 1st-2nd or 3rd penalty.  We will let the players battle away from the puck but they can’t interfere with the player trying to get in the play.  There is still plenty of physical play but by freeing up the puck carrier it allows for better flow and for fans to see the skill these players have.

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