The NYHL season kicks off on Monday and with the first week of the Fall Season schedule released, we thought it would be best to help breakdown how the league schedule works and what factors effect how the league schedules games.

The NYHL operates on a 3-week rolling schedule and can be found on our Game Centre.

The rolling schedule is to accommodate the 5-week deadline to apply for tournament entry or exemption days which limit the league’s ability to schedule games any further in advance.

Each WEEK of the schedule begins on Monday and ends on Sunday.

Impacting Factors to the League Schedule:

Blackout Days

Each team is offered two (2) weekly blackout days from the league schedule. The purpose of the weekly blackout days is to accommodate Club house leagues and practice nights. Teams will not be scheduled to play NYHL games on their blackout days. Over 50% of all blackout days are on Friday and Saturday.

Arena and Ice Allocation

Below is a list of arenas for the upcoming 2025-2026 season:

Tiering

The NYHL operates its standings based upon a tiering system. This system is to best match team skill levels in order to maintain a standard of competition. Teams will only play against other teams within their designated tier. The NYHL Tiering Committee will decide the composition of each tier based upon in-season play as well as feedback from tiering forms submitted by teams. Tiers can vary in size from 4 teams to as many as 10+ teams.

How do these factors impact the schedule?

The distribution of teams in your tier (your opponents), their chosen blackout dates, as well as your team’s chosen blackout dates, work to limit team availability, and therefore, limits the available arenas to schedule games.

Examples:

Warren Park is in a Tier of 5 teams. Warren Park has blackout days as Monday and Thursday. The 4 other teams in their tier have Friday as their blackout day.

• • Warren Park will not be scheduled a game on Friday as none of their opponents are available to be scheduled.

Forest Hill is in a Tier of 6. They have their blackout days as Friday and Saturday. 3 teams have Monday as their blackout day.

• • Forest Hill will only be able to be scheduled on Monday night against two opponents in their tier.

While the schedule is not always perfect, the NYHL recognizes these challenges and continues to strive toward making sure that the schedule is as fair and accommodating to our participating families as possible.