Brick Team

Starting in the 2022 season we altered our Brick tryout and team selection process to give players a more conducive format to show their effectiveness and a longer runway and more honest format for the coaches to select the team.

The format and process used before 2022 (the team was selected in mid-January after viewing the players in 3-5 scrimmages) worked well, but we felt it did not allow players to show their true abilities and there can be a lot of changes from January to May.

We will have an open tryout in December and January, and from those tryouts, we will select (approx.) 18F-12D-4G to play on our Brick Top 35 Teams.

Those 35 players will train and practice together in March and April. They will play in two tournaments as well as a training weekend with CJR’s Top 35. The two tournaments the 2014 Brick Top 35 will play in are the Shamrock in Boston and the Klevr Super Challenge in Montreal (April 26-28).

Following Montreal, we will finalize our 2014 Brick team. The Brick team’s tentative schedule for 2024:

Team PA Showcase
Boston Showdown
Green Mountain Cup
Tournament TBA

The Brick is offered for one age group (ten-year-olds) each July.

Exact dates vary from year to year, but it typically starts in late June or early July.

The 2024 Brick dates: Monday, July 1-Sunday, July 7.

Edmonton, Alberta
West Edmonton Mall

The Brick is a six day tournament. Round robin play starts on Monday and the finals and closing ceremonies finish on Sunday. Players would need to arrive two days before the opening round game. Due to traveling west, time change, a scrimmage game in Edmonton the day before the tournament start players need to be in Edmonton the Saturday before the tournament starts.

The championship game takes place Sunday at 12:30 PM and is followed by the closing ceremonies. All players/teams are required to participate in the closing ceremonies and on ice jersey swap. Flights departing Edmonton should not be booked prior to 5:00 PM.

A week in Edmonton may sound like a long time, but it flies by. There is plenty to do in the Mall itself; Water Park, Galaxyland, Santa Maria, Ed’s Rec Room, Dining & Nightlife and more. A popular place for the team to visit and take the kids is the Northlands Park.

There are six round-robin games, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and championship games. There are two divisions of 7 teams, and you play the six other teams in your division. The top three teams in each division advance to the playoff round. Teams will play one game per day (except for one day that you play twice) during the round-robin portion of the tournament.

While some other tournaments call themselves invitationals, they do not compare to the selection process of the Brick. There are 14 charters that are extended to the top programs in North America and only those can bring teams to the tournament each year. They are:  Junior Bruins, Pro Hockey Toronto, Team Manitoba, Detroit Red Wings, CT. Jr. Rangers, CCM Chicago, Team Minnesota, Team Pennsylvania, BC Junior Canucks, Team Saskatchewan, Team Brick Alberta, Western Selects, Team Quebec and the Toronto Bulldogs.

Each of the aforementioned teams who play at the Brick have a geographical protected area that they can select players from. In addition to that teams are allowed an “import(s)”. An “import” is any player who lives outside of the teams protected area. The Junior Bruins protected area are Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. They can take as many players from those four states as they want. The Junior Bruins are allowed three import players as well. If you live in another team’s protected area but want to play for the Junior Bruins, you would need to get a release from that team and you would still be considered an import.

There is a mandatory tryout process that all players must attend. The next step is the Brick Top 35. Those that make the Brick Top 35 out of tryouts will practice, train, and play with the Junior Bruins during the late winter and early spring.

Following the Brick Top 35, the final roster will be set the team will practice 10-15 times, scrimmage, and play in three or four tournaments leading up to the Edmonton.

No, as we do every year, we clean the slate and see who showed up at tryouts and take the best players we feel are. Each year our Brick team has players that have played with us in the past and those that are new to our program and playing with us for the first time.

We encourage all players interested in playing on our Brick team to come to our tryouts for the two to three years before the Brick year (7, 8 and 9-year-old teams). It certainly helps if we have some familiarity with the players and families from playing for us in the years leading up to the Brick. We also encourage those to come to our Brick Tryout Camp in August.

The Brick is a big commitment, and the teams and families spend a lot of time together it helps the Bruins staff to have some relationship and history before the Brick year, so we decrease the probability of making a mistake in player/family selection.

We learned in our first few years that you can not go there with just the nine forwards, six defensemen, and two most talented goalies you can find. You need talent, but you also need players willing to play a “team” game, play in all three zones and do all the little things to win games.

You need to find players who can fill certain roles on the team. Some players might fit a certain need on the team; the team might need a left-shot winger for the final spot, a right-shot defenseman, someone with size, or a player who brings tons of speed to the mix to round out the roster. This is one reason why we have open tryouts, in addition to the staff going out and watching games throughout the fall and winter. There are players we may miss while watching a game on a Saturday morning at rink XYZ but that stand out during the tryout process.