Disagree with your assessment on last years PIHL teams and no strong 18AA teams in PAHL last year. Are you forgetting about Armstrong, Predators and Arctic Foxes?
to put numbers to your argument...
PIHL
NA (AAA) ranked #1 in WPA 90.92 rating
Pine (AA) ranked #1 in WPA 92.7 rating
Latrobe (AA) ranked #2 in WPA 91.18 rating
PAHL 18AA
Armstrong ranked #10 with 93.75 rating (don’t see doors getting beat by any PIHL team)
Predators ranked #18 with 93.11 rating (doors get blown off? Nope.)
Arctic Foxes ranked #25 with 92.64 rating (doors are firmly on still)
if you didn’t have a dog in the fight and we’re able to watch these teams play without bias you’d realize you are way overstating PIHL (at least in W.PA...)