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You asked how to keep your kid's dream alive. You are truly those league's fantasies. They totally prey on a parents' desire to cater to their kids. They are awful. Been subjected to it. I don't understand that reason for playing expensive hockey, 'I don't want to crush my kid's dreams'. I can't help you there. For me personally, if I am funding the dreams, things have to done within reason. No AAA around here for me. I don't have a AAA player. The development is not any better than what we get in PAHL and private lessons. I see the players. If you have the money, your kid can play for a long time. Fund your kid's dream of you want. You have a lot of company.

Really?

"Just"? Yes. PAHL.

go back and really dig. yes those kids get a tender but they never make the NAHL teams that tender them. 98 percent of them are either ACHA NCDC or Premier NOT NAHL. the last Esmark kid to go would be either the goalie thats in Alaska or the kid that went to johnstown and is now playing NCAA D1... so pens do move themes that MAKE the higher rosters

So what AAA teams would you let your kid try out for? Only Pens Elite? If he's not good enough to play for them just let him play PAHL? Could be hard to get a 13 to 15 year old that has been one of the better PAHL players to understand that. Especially when he sees all the kids he grew up playing with and against playing for the so-called FAUX AAA teams. This is all so interesting. Sure not like other High School sports.

Hey Jack, Go find some footage of the old Russian red army team. They were better skaters and more skilled than most of the NHL players and more than held their own vs NHL teams until the Flyers literally gooned them into submission with ~AHEM -COUGH COUGH PUKE~ "tough physical Canandian Hockey" and the game has been worse off ever since. They would turn back and regroup anywhere on the ice - including taking it back out of the offensive zone if they saw fit. They maintained possession and puck control while they looked to set up specific plays. It was not the familiar "get the biscuit to the blue paint and crash the net with your stick down" game that is all too often played today. I grew up playing immediate offsides in the 70's.... I coached and officiated during both tag up and immediate offsides rules periods as well as through the multiple transitions between them. It's not that big of a deal and the players will figure it out.... The problem is more likely that few of the active coaches have any notion of how to coach\teach puck possession from an individual player or a team perspective - let alone have experience playing any way but tag-up dump and chase. As for the less skilled\younger players, by definition they have always had issues with that pesky blueline.