Leaderboard

I think the more interesting story would be at Liberty University. They have plenty of Canadian players too.

This sounds like it has "Netflix documentary" all over it.

What is likely to happen with the 09s is pretty predictable. 1 or 2 Strong pens kids will leave for opportunities elsewhere, 2 or 3 weak players will be cut. They will pick up a couple out of towners, and maybe 1 or 2 local 09s will make the team The Preds, Vengeance, Shaha and Icemen will each swap a couple players amongst themselves. These are players seeking greener pastures or players cut and looking for another option. Esmark will grab some Russians, a couple cut pens, and a dozen local players and end up the 2nd or 3rd best team locally. And before you get all excited about the Iceman, what did they do this season? Beat a few 50, 60,70 ranked teams. Now if they can prove they can do that consistently through the course of next season what does that make them.... Pretty much A 50-70th ranked team. But as JoePa used to say, "if you aren't getting better you're getting worse." And historically the best kids are going to leave Icemen, and they're unlikely to attract any relevant players to the frozen pond. And all the other teams are consolidating talent and getting better, so icemen are more likely to decline next season. Not taking anything away from this past season, but I doubt they can take a step forward. Let's reconnect after tryouts and see if this is what happened.

Are we talking about one game? You know (as well as I know) that it “could” be the #1 team in the nation playing #50 from EBF Wherever, Iowa. If the inferior team has a goalie standing on his/her head whilst making unconscious saves on multiple occasions…and team Numero Uno starts having internal struggles with who gets the puck and coach starts panicking by switching up linemates (only to hinder offensive production and impede defensive responsibilities) it can inevitably come down to who’s going to blink first. When you have that large of a disparity in rankings…and the longer the time goes where the margin on the scoreboard is negligible…the more likely that the higher ranked team implodes and the lower ranked team builds esteem and momentum.

Jamestown only had 2 US players on their team. Alot of the top ten schools in ACHA D1 are filled with foreign players

And doesn’t Esmark do 2-3 tournaments that require air travel? minnesota/texas?

It's funny, you are mostly spot on in my opinion. I also thought it was a shame the Preds and SHAHA wouldn't combine and make a legit top team IF WELL COACHED. I can't believe guys would drive across town again to pay a ton of money to play for the 2009 Esmark team. I thought the reason everyone left was they finally figured out that the 2009 Esmark team was no better than SHAHA , PREDS,..... and why the hell are we driving/paying all this money? My guess is it will just be a long drive and a lor of money for a similar team. Makes no sense.

A lot of you don't understand the landscape and just spread rumors. Have any of you dads that have zero hockey experience even watch anything but your own child? Pens - Top two lines are solidified. Good luck to any new kids breaking their top two lines. Better have good attitude and happy you are wearing Pens gear if on 3rd and 4th line. Preds - We all know the dad that loves to be on the bench that ruined Esmark. Otherwise they could be a very good AAA team, but south hills area doesn't seem to figure it out. Vengeance - That team has not improved in the last 2 years and only holds its ranking bc of teams they play and being a "AAA" team. Import a coach from Detroit that doesn't attend practices really shows how invested the organization/coach is with these kids. So keep spending $10,000 to fill pockets. Also, how many other shady things can happen over there before it's exposed. SHAHA - Tough to compete with Preds in same area. Would be a good team if they combined top two lines. But much cheaper option than Preds. Icemen - The rink sucks and the location isn't good to attract players. This is the only team out of the 3 listed above that has consistently rose in the ranks the last two years and proving to all the haters. Pens have been a top 5 team for the last 3 years. We all know they are the top dog and is #1 destination. Esmark - Team folded last year bc of a certain parent taking players to Preds. We see it every year, whoever has the money and filling these organizations pockets the most, thats all they care about, they have the control or balls of these organization heads. This team next year will be nothing but a A major team next year if they even get enough to field. If you ask me, a lot of kids stay put and all of this is nonsense. Get on with your lives and enjoy the limited time you have with your kids. Spend your money wisely. And if you have extra cash to toss around. I will gladly accept your money and tell you how good your kid is and how he is going to the NHL. Seems to be the way things are anymore.

I absolutely do remember that. The school exists still and coincidentally, one of the better players on the River Monsters is a Canadian who went and played there. I also don't know if Life is still a powerhouse or if they even still have a team, but yeah in that era, they were always at Nationals in D2 and won a few times. I want to say that the ACHA might have made it harder for grad students to play. They definitely reduce the amount of eligibility. It was 12 semesters or 6 years back in that era (I forget which) and I know at one point it went down to 10 semesters or 5 years. https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/222041/kynan-tarnowski https://www.achahockey.org/mens-division-1-national-champions-2

And per usual, the second tier AAA players crawl back to Esmark at midget with tender and draft dreams.

@nemesis8679 this is a common thread in all the cases you hear about. They often involve well-known coaches or organizations who parents think can help their kids go somewhere. This is not only horrifying but also unbelievable. You'd think that with all that has gone on in recent years in hockey across the country - and the media visibility of the big cases - at least the pro organizations would insist on proper responses to these things. I mean you'd think they'd do the right thing in these cases for human reasons, but certainly they have substantial incentives to do the right things for business reasons.

This whole 15U argument reminds me of Miracle. "If we played 'em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them." Except the underdog still lost this game. And you can all thank My Hockey Ratings for this argument. Winning isn't good enough anymore, if you don't exceed the "expected goal differential" Even a 2-0 SHUT OUT in a championship game wasn't good enough because they "should" have won by 5. If you don't key into one single game but look at the course of the season, PPE beat Esmark back to back at MidAms 9-4, and 2-0. Beat them In two regular season games, 7-0, 8-0. That's a 26-4 aggregate score, +22 spread over those 4 games. Almost exactly the " average expected goal differential" Plus, that expected spread is based on an entire season of data. Knowing Esmark, their roster for the first month of the season probably differed from their roster the last month of the season. It doesn't take that into account. It doesn't take into account injured players in the game, or long term injuries, doesn't take into account starting goalies. It's simply a number that compares past results and theoretically tells you what to expect a match up to look like. And over the course of the season it does a pretty remarkable job. One nice thing about PIHL games is nobody talks about these theoretical spreads. "Sure you beat BP, but you should have done it by 3 more goals." Sounds laughable right??? And going back to what I said about At large bids to nationals being good for instances where a deserving team is upset in a playoff game. Look at PIHL AA we could have a PT 7-9 team going to the state final, instead of a 17-1 SF team. And I'm not knocking PT, awesome for them, I'm rooting for them! But which team would likely give us a better chance against Philly? At the end of the day Kansas City is the super bowl champion. Nobody cares that they needed overtime to do it or if they beat the spread or not. They won, the other team lost.

I don’t know Jeff Docking. I never met him. All I do know, is that he almost pulled off the exact same feat at W&J as he is currently doing at Adrian. Just didn’t quite get the overall push like he wanted from the school. As far as I know/remember, he was thee entire reason W&J had a brief, but illustrious ACHA college hockey flash in the pan. He was the reason why W&J acquired their own Iceoplex locker room, training room,, everything that comes with a traditional legitimate college hockey program during a time where it just didn’t happen (unless you were NCAA).

I believe the pred kids who left are talking about returning as well. It's silly season have to see how it plays out.

The majority went to predators last year. rumor has it all the esmark kids that came to allegheny are going back to esmark and that 09 team that won pahl is going to end up having to be 08/09 mixed since their 08 team was not competitive at all in u16 and lost most of their good players

Shaha and icemen played each other several times. Kudos to them btw.

This ^

That 14u Icemen team had a great run. They went 20 games straight without a loss before that loosing to the Renegades in Mid Ams. They beating a team 6-3 that was ranked in the 50's AAA the weekend before Mid Ams. A couple weeks before that the beat the Badgers 7-0. They won their first Mid AM game 11-0 against Mt Lebo and the 2nd 5-0 against North Pitt who lost to the Badgers in the PAHL championship game. That's just how it goes sometimes when it is just one game. The 2009 Pens lost to a team ranked in the 60's earlier in the season. It happens. Unfortunately, it ended the run. Would playing in PAHL been better for them? I don't think looking at those scores. Driving to NJ to play AHF probably didn't make the most sense either though as it is similar ranked competition. Playing an independent schedule probably would have made the most sense but it is tuff for the tweener teams to get games sometimes. Preds, Vengeance, SHAHA, and Icemen should have been playing each other but teams are to worried about the ranking. It's a shame.