Icebucket

2 hours ago, No Politics said:

There are simply too many teams, and that is the age kids most drop off.  No organizations want to admit defeat (or even work with one another), so they try to cobble together teams.  They usually sell themselves as AA, too.

I don't know about teams from the south -- so maybe someone can fill in that information -- but I can tell you that in the north the Arrows 18U roster is full and is stacked.  They are going to be hard to beat at AA.

NP usually is the organization with a crazy amount of teams, but not at 18U.  They advertised AA, but only had eleven skaters last time I talked with anyone there, and were holding supplementals.  I know at least one AA player declined a spot, but couldn't tell you the reason.  At this age it may have nothing at all to do with the team's composition.  

I heard the same thing about the Aviators (low numbers, supplementals, advertised as AA).  I don't know where that one landed, though.  Last year there was a lot of chatter, but this year it's crickets.

Friends from the Yetis told me they have an "almost full" roster.  I was told they have one open forward and D position for any late high-level stragglers, but that they were happy with their roster as it was.  They didn't advertise a level, but that team won 16U A Major Black regular season and playoffs, so depending on who they added, they could play A Major Black or AA.  

I know the Huskies were pushing an 18U AA team, but I have heard absolutely nothing about them since.  Maybe they didn't get enough players to even warrant a supplemental?  It's hard to determine anything based on their website, either.

Friends from the Vengeance told me they have at least two teams at 18U:  AA/NB and an A Major team.  I do not know who is on the AA/NB team, but the A Major team (our friend's team) has a full roster and has many players who are of the A Major Gold/A Major Black caliber.

Westmoreland also has an 18U team.  Last I saw, they had around thirteen skaters, but I don't know if they were planning supplementals.  I do not know all the players, but the ones I do know are also of the A Major Gold/A Major Black caliber.

I don't have information on the other teams.  Badgers, Rebellion, SHAHA, Predators, etc.?  Maybe someone else does, though.

Based on people I have talked to the arrows and the foxes should be the top two teams.

4 hours ago, nemesis8679 said:

Disagree. Maybe the bottom half of A, where teams are lucky to field a team. But MHR, which is pretty close to accurate in most cases, doesn't show much evidence that they'd "destroy" most HS teams is laughable. Not in Western PA, anyway. And "destroy" is a big claim. The best local AA team would probably lose to every team in HS AAA, and most of HS AA. Though there'd be some close games.

You are certainly off. First, you can use MHR to compare the two. I agree MHR is a good gauge, but there is pretty much no crossover.

The extreme example of why you can't do this is that based on MHR, BK Girls 19U is over 2 goals better than their Boys 18U team. Obviously that's not the case, but there is not crossover between the two levels so they ratings don't carry over.

I'd say in any given year the top 18UAA PAHL team is a decent bit better than the top AAA PIHL team. However, once you get about 6 teams deep in PAHL the teams are probably no better than the bottom end AAA PIHL teams.

On 4/26/2025 at 1:04 AM, nemesis8679 said:

The past few years I didn't find QV to be insanely talented as much as well-disciplined, playing a team game, and not taking stupid penalties. 
The A divisions, both of them, had 3 or 4 good teams, a few completive teams, and a bunch of not-so-good teams. Made the top few teams look better than they were. If the top 4-5 teams in each division were in the same division and the bottom teams were in the same division, that would've made for much better divisions.

Completely agree about the divisions. The top 2-3 teams in each division, especially the gold division, didn't play many competitive games outside of playing each other.

I'm really not sure what the answer is. They did an upper/lower division a couple years ago and caught a lot of backlash for it since the same amount of teams from upper and lower made the playoffs.

I'll agree that he earned his rope with all that he did to build the program. But I'd also agree that he has had some very disappointing finishes recently with the huge amount of talent they have had.

On 4/18/2025 at 11:34 PM, nemesis8679 said:

I have heard of a few coaches getting canned. Quaker Valley and Shaler being two of them, which I was surprised to hear. I heard of a few others but not sure on the accuracy. Should be some opportunities out there this season for some coaches to step into places.

I've heard some rumors as well about QV moving on from their coach. Anyone able to confirm?

1 hour ago, CranjisMcBasketball said:

True. But bad form imho to be texting underage players directly. 

It's a complete safesport violation

1 hour ago, aaaahockey said:

What age?

Grades 9-12. They run them as co-op teams split up by region(mostly). They had 6 teams the first year, 7 in the second year, then 9 teams last year and 9 again this year.

32 minutes ago, YardSale said:

Has Gunty gotten his fingers in to the Chicago market?

Chicago Phantoms are a Black Bear program.

They sell that they are tied to the USHL Youngstown team and that they will be the best of the best, then put out a terrible product for a high price tag.

Seems right on par for blackbear.

On 4/7/2025 at 5:40 PM, Carl Racki said:

I like how midget 15u-18u just says "contact for pricing" lol. Must be reasonable!

I'm hearing midget pricing is north of 20k, before you factor in North Catholic.

I'm sure it also depends on who you are though. Top dogs aren't paying what the majority of the team is 

2 hours ago, Carl Racki said:

Pens Elite has a great program.  My only complaint is the expense of the program.  Hockey is in a sad state where a lot of people way over pay chasing a dream.  It sometimes ruins families lives while people are making profits off of them and their child chasing a dream.  It is nice when there are other options but those do tend to be limited and not consistent.  Kudos to teams that make them available from time to time 

This pretty much sums it up.  If you want to stay local and play on the best team possible it's almost always going to be PPE.  The downside is the incredibly high cost.  If you compare PPE to other top end programs in other cities, PPE is often 2x the cost of other programs offering a similar or better product in terms of ice time and training.  In many cases, especially at the older ages, the bottom 17-18 players are paying the bill to showcase the top 2-3 players on that team.  The problem is, 20 different families believe their child is one of those top 2-3.

On 2/27/2025 at 9:23 AM, Icebucket said:

Picked all 6 winners correctly, but did miss on some of the scores. Here's my best guess for what should be a great 2nd round.

CV wins a tight low scoring game. 17 for NC has been excellent down the stretch, but the CV team defense will be too much to overcome.

I think Mars wins big in the only game that's not within 1-2 goals. Mars might not have as much top end talent as a few other teams remaining, but they have the most depth by far. Probably the favorite to win it all IMO.

NH keeps the score close but Moon controls the pace and wins by a couple. Both teams have some very good players at the top end, but Moon has better depth.

Avonworth/QV is a toss up with one excellent offense and probably the top PIHL goalie on the other side. I'll say Avonworth wins a tight one, maybe even in the last few minutes or OT.

Should be a great night of hockey. I'll probably head up to baierl since I can catch portions of two different games there.

Too bad I can't bet on these games because I'm 10/10 so far.  I ended up going to Baierl to see PR/SV and Shaler/Mars which turned out to be great games,

Here is my best guess on what should be two great matchups to determine the finals for A.

Seems like the fight at the end of the Mars game is going to leave them without one of their better players and probably their best overall player.  I initially saw this as a game of a great top line(CV) against good depth(Mars), but without those two I think Mars loses some of that depth advantage and I think it's the determining factor.  I like CV to win a tight game, maybe 3-2.  The winner of this game should be the favorite to win it all.

The other matchup is interesting as these two teams have already met twice this year.  These games resulted in a two Moon wins by a combined score of 9-4, but with Avonworth outshooting them by a combined 85-40.  I didn't see their first meeting, but I caught most of their second matchup and the Moon goalie was just incredible.  However, after seeing them put up 6 against a great goalie for QV, I don't know that I see the Moon goalie putting up another 43/44 save performance.  I say Avonworth wins this one 5-3.

51 minutes ago, hockeydadx3 said:

Rumor mill. There are kids on those teams that don’t go to North Catholic 

It depends who you are. If you are one of the top players you don't need to go all in, but if you aren't one of the top 5 or so they won't consider anyone who isnt paying for everything.

1 hour ago, Ihearthockey said:

Not sure how Avonworth beats QV.  They couldn't beat Mars or Moon in 4 tries this year.  I think this matchup comes down to the goalies and one is exponentially better than the other.  

That wouldn't surprise me at all. I'd think Avonworth might double up QV in shots, but it could still go in favor of QV based on goaltending. This one really is a toss up.

33 minutes ago, Ihearthockey said:

Next round of A playoffs is posted.  Should be some good games.  

Picked all 6 winners correctly, but did miss on some of the scores. Here's my best guess for what should be a great 2nd round.

CV wins a tight low scoring game. 17 for NC has been excellent down the stretch, but the CV team defense will be too much to overcome.

I think Mars wins big in the only game that's not within 1-2 goals. Mars might not have as much top end talent as a few other teams remaining, but they have the most depth by far. Probably the favorite to win it all IMO.

NH keeps the score close but Moon controls the pace and wins by a couple. Both teams have some very good players at the top end, but Moon has better depth.

Avonworth/QV is a toss up with one excellent offense and probably the top PIHL goalie on the other side. I'll say Avonworth wins a tight one, maybe even in the last few minutes or OT.

Should be a great night of hockey. I'll probably head up to baierl since I can catch portions of two different games there.

First round of A playoffs had a lot more blowouts than I would have expected. Very good showing for the Blue division.

Good first day of playoff games. Mars and Avonworth went about as expected. Figured NH might win, but never would have guessed 6-0 and Indiana played shaler closer than expect.

2 hours ago, zam said:

I think Montour is the most likely lower seed to advance. But there are usually surprises so I guess that's why they play the games. 

On the topic of Montour. Does anyone know how they ended up 5th? With a couple games left they had 4th locked up and plum couldn't mathematically catch them. Yet somehow now plum is 4 and Montour is 5

First round of playoffs for A is Monday/Tuesday this week. Anyone have any predictions?

I think Mars, Avonworth, and Shaler win by a wide margin. I think WA gives QV a closer game than expected but QV pulls it out. The other two games should be very close, but I say North Catholic and North Hills move on.

I probably go away from what the majority think, but in watching the games in person the blue division in A seems to be a better pace. I don't like that there is zero cross division play in season, but it does make it interesting for this weeks games.

I haven't seen much of the AA division this year, but in AAA and A there is tons of parody and it should make the upcoming few weeks very exciting.

Also, The weekends are not for HS hockey.

2 hours ago, RefHannah said:

I don't think people can grasp the difference between Minnesota high school hockey and PIHL. The best and deepest teams in PIHL could not compete against most teams in the Minnesota. Its safe to say a PIHL All Star team couldn't beat a Top 10 Minnesota team.

 

Most of the top MN team's rosters each include 5 or 6 players drafted to the USHL or WHL. Many of those kids have already been called up to play some games this season for a Junior team. A number of teams have D1 commits. There are kids in the top 50 on NHL Central scouting list for this year's NHL draft currently playing, not played there a couple years ago, CURRENTLY PLAYING.

Can anybody point to a single PIHL player this year that has a D1 commitment, drafted by Major Junior, or is on the NHL Central scouting list? Anyone?

It's not just safe to say a PIHL All-star team couldn't compete with a top Minnesota HS team.  The two wouldn't belong in the ice together.

The Moon/WP game seemed to be a much better pace than the QV/Plum game. Not sure if it was a case of QV playing cautiously with a backup goalie in, but I thought both Moon and WP looked stronger than QV seeing them back to back.

Should be very interesting to see how those two divisions mix when it comes playoff time. (I know WP isn't in the mix)

44 minutes ago, Happy Hockey Fan said:

I’d disagree and say QV/CV division is stronger. I have seen a number of games in both divisions. But that is just an opinion. 

I think the top of both divisions are pretty close. But in watching quite a few games from both sides, it seems like teams 4-8 are significantly stronger in blue. Also, I didn't include them in my ranking since they can't play in the playoffs, but Wheeling Park looks pretty damn good as well 

2 minutes ago, Happy Hockey Fan said:

I agree, have seen them both play, and saw the game they played against each other, I’d go QV 1, CV 2. The game was better than the 6-2 score but QV is definitely more disciplined and their goalie was the better of the 2 that night.  Next game should be fun. 

Looks like they won't play again unless they meet in the playoffs 

26 minutes ago, twoboys said:

What am I missing about CV?  What we they 1?  QV beat them 6-2 and is ranked behind them.   QV is undefeated.

Id agree here, but I don't think they are quite as far apart as the 6-2 score would indicate. I'd also say that the other division seems to be much stronger. If I had to rank A, I'd probably go:

1. QV

2. Mars

3. Avonworth

4. CV

5. Moon

It was some sort of locker room social media safesport issue. I don't know too many details, but I believe this is a midam issue at this point and not being handled by PIHL