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Please report any further ridiculous posts by @Chimp Life That user is currently on his last thread as a member on this board. PB

Includes uniforms, independent games and tournament fees too though so actually not too bad considering most others are around $3k with uniforms, independent games and tournaments all being extra.

Agree, lots of top players that could make the Pens roster that are from Pittsburgh choose to not play there for different reasons. Some because they don't want to spend the money on Excel, North Catholic,.... Not sure what the total cost would be for a year with everything including travel costs but would guess around $30,000. It is a great program with good coaches but costs a lot of money. Look at their 2007 birth year team. They lost a lot of their top players for that reason. Not bottom players. They are still a great team. If you take away the top 3-5 players there is not much difference between the rest and top AA players. I have seen this for years. Believe me. Mommy's and Daddy's that are spending lots of money don't want to believe that though. It is a great program but does cost a lot of money. If you could get the next best group of 15-17 kids in Western PA all on the same team I think they would usually be competitive with great coaching. The problem is it is tough to find parents of all the top players that are crazy enough to drive past 5 rinks to build a team like that. Most people that crazy are willing to remortgage their house to play Pens, Prep,.... Some teams have done it. 2006 SHAHA team, 2008 Vengeance team.

I think the lower level travel teams are great as long as the play PAHL and only do 2-3 tournaments that are 2-5 hours max away. Then maybe one to two local tournaments. The kids really enjoy doing those trips and it is great bonding for the players and families. No reason to take that experience away from the kids. It's not like they are charging $7000 plus team fees and selling a bs product like some other programs. As long as people truly know what they are getting and enjoy it I think it is great. It is when orgs. try to make people believe it is a "PATH" to the NHL or D1 college yet they send very few players to play tier one or tier two juniors, (I don't count tier 3 pay to play as there are over 100 teams and literally anyone can play) that is a far bigger problem. I think players of the lower level travel teams all just enjoy playing the game. I don't think anyone is telling them it is a path to anywhere and do all these extras/spend more money. They just enjoy the game and the families they play with. I think that is great.

I’m sure this will be an unpopular opinion but there is too much travel hockey. All these organizations with 4 to 15283847372 sub A major teams would be better suited along with their families having a robust house program and only having 3-4 traveling teams per age group max.