Faucette, Kaval to full-time Player Safety and Officiating positions

July 5, 2018

The North American Hockey League (NAHL) is pleased to announce that Marc Faucette and Keith Kaval have been named as full-time employees in the Department of Player Safety and Department of Officiating for the NAHL and NA3HL.

 

The Department of Player Safety was created in 2014 and heading it up on a full-time and exclusive basis for the 2018-19 season will be Marc Faucette. This will be Faucette’s fourth season with the NAHL and NA3HL, but will be the first exclusively focused on being the full-time Director of Player Safety. The goal of the Department of Player Safety is to make the game as safe as possible for players while preserving the intensely competitive, physical and passionate nature of hockey. The Department of Player Safety also will continue to educate all team personnel about a safer on-ice environment and the implementation of greater respect for the well being of all players in the NAHL and NA3HL.

 

The NAHL has also announced Keith Kaval as the new Director of Officiating for the 2018-19 season. Kaval will be responsible for all aspects of the NAHL Officiating Program and will report directly to the Commissioner. The primary objective of the Director of Officiating is to build a better and more experienced pool of officials for the NAHL and NA3HL. He will also work with Faucette to develop and implement a comprehensive plan for continuous improvement of NAHL and NA3HL officials. Kaval will also be in charge of recruiting, selecting, and training officials to work all NAHL and NA3HL league games, as well as, building and managing a supervisory staff tasked with monitoring and evaluating the performance of all officials.

 

“Hiring two experienced employees like Marc Faucette and Keith Kaval on a full-time basis in an important step in the evolution of our standards for player safety and the development and quality of our officials,” said NAHL Commissioner and President Mark Frankenfeld. “We want to ensure that we are doing everything we can to provide a safe and competitive environment for our players and to further enhance and educate our players and coaches on the consequences of potential dangerous actions. In addition, we want to be on the forefront in the development and training of officials, so that the product on the ice is not compromised and as competitive as possible.”

 

Faucette was an on-ice official in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 17 seasons and officiated close to 1,000 NHL regular season and Stanley Cup Playoff games. He previously served as a Supervisor of Officials for the USA Hockey Officiating Development Program and also was previously the Director of Player Safety and Officiating for the SPHL. Faucette began officiating at the age of 20, drawing on the influence of his father who worked as a linesman in the American Hockey League, including assignments to the Calder Cup Finals. In 1985, he was hired full-time by the NHL as a referee and before his career ended, he had officiated 912 regular season games as well as numerous playoff assignments, including the NHL Conference Finals. Faucette also skated as a referee at the 1984 Olympic Games in Sarajevo and the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. He was assigned to officiate the 1996 NHL All-Star Game in Boston and the International Ice Hockey Federation's first World Cup of Hockey that same year.

 

Kaval, who is a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, has previous professional hockey officiating experience in the AHL, ECHL, CHL, UHL, and NAHL. He also has officiated major-junior hockey in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and NCAA Division I Men's hockey in Hockey East. Additionally, he is a member of the USA Hockey Officiating Program Instruction Staff and has instructed at many District seminars, Regional Camps and National Camps. Kaval has plenty of international experience, having worked three straight IIHF World Championships.