If there were a person and a place to experiment with expanding USA Hockey’s Try Hockey For Free program, Rick Hutchinson and California were the perfect choices.

Hutchinson spent 29 years working in the local hockey scene as the Anaheim Ducks’ director of hockey for The Rinks and Great Park Ice, as well as other various hockey-related roles. But in 2024, Hutchinson left his post with the Ducks to become executive vice president of Ice Realm, which took over a shuttered rink in Westminster to add to its rink in Carlsbad.

It was a move to continue to grow the game in Southern California. In 2023, Hutchinson became the Pacific District director for the USA Hockey Membership Council. He has also been the vice president of the California Amateur Hockey Association since 2001 and the director and coach of a high school club team since 2013.

Therefore, joining Ice Realm was right in Hutchinson’s wheelhouse.

Over the last year, Hutchinson has used his NHL experience and merged it with USA Hockey’s Try Hockey For Free program to create what could be a future game plan to get more boys, girls and adults involved in hockey.

USA Hockey’s Try Hockey For Free national events happen twice a year and is just one day for one hour. This season, Try Hockey For Free, presented by Discover, is slated for Sept. 13, 2025, and March 7, 2026. Host sites and interested players can register HERE. 

In his first year with Ice Realm, Hutchinson decided to expand beyond the regular weekends, and will be hosting a third-consecutive Try Hockey For Free event on Sept. 6. 

“The response has been great because, No. 1, the rink was closed and we kind of went in and breathed some life back into the community,” Hutchinson said. “What we realized was — once you close an ice rink, everyone scatters like roaches and they all go to their different other rinks and they get embedded in those programs. So, we had to kind of start from fresh, grassroots with players that have never played. That’s always been my success working with the Ducks in their rinks program — build from the bottom up with brand-new players and not fight over the players that we already have. ... We went after [players] between 4 and 9 (years old) and we went after players that haven’t played the game, both youth and adult.”

There have been hundreds of players who have participated in Hutchinson’s spin on Try Hockey For Free in the first year, whereas a typical rink would have about 80 in its annual two sessions. 

The idea to get adults involved came from parents watching their kids and saying that they would like to get out on the ice and try themselves.

“It’s a real user-friendly, entry-level deal where we have our adult coordinators and coaches come out and teach them basic stuff, the same kind of stuff that their kids are learning — how to skate and stride and hold the stick and pass the puck and shoot,” Hutchinson said.

Hosting events on three consecutive weekends also has its benefits. Not only for the extra ice time, but also for the flexibility if someone is not able to attend at least one of the three workouts. Players can jump in and even come back for another course if desired.

During the first weekend, Hutchinson said the staff provides players skate aids to get them comfortable skating on the ice. By the third weekend, every kid can skate freely and develop other skills. 

But the experience doesn’t end with the three Try Hockey For Free weekends. Hutchinson says the key component in his program is having a plan for what comes next. There is Hockey 101, which targets boys and girls ages 5 to 12 and continues player development. Players can also join rec leagues at the rink.

And that is part of what Hutchinson will take to USA Hockey during its winter meeting. He will give an update on how his expanded program is going and what challenges and benefits USA Hockey could expect if it decides to go to Hutchinson’s version in the future. 

One aspect that could prove daunting is all the extra equipment needed. Currently, USA Hockey requires participating rinks to have at least 40 sets of equipment available for each of the two national days.

With two NHL clubs in the area, Hutchinson gets plenty of support in equipment drives. As he enters his second year, Hutchinson plans on scaling back to about six sessions a year.

“A lot of great stuff happening in California around the Try Hockey idea,” Hutchinson said. “California has become a huge hotbed of hockey. I mean, 20, 30 years ago, they would kind of chuckle at California hockey players. Now, everyone from college to NHL to every high-level Junior organization looks at California first because there’s so many great athletes and hockey players coming out of California that now we’re on the map.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.