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I think if the person's name is displayed in a crazy large font or formatted in a strange way, or clipped and pasted from a spreadsheet then it is allowed.

The GOAT takes down the Paper Champs in overtime!

Who?

Huge announcement. coming soon Collaborators wanted

Imma let ya finish, but Drotos and Barefoot are having the best seasons of all time!

Here's the deal, I think we will all agree he's the best there is. Plain and simple. He wakes up in the morning and pisses excellence. I expect this is finally the year he will hoist the 6ft 5 son of a lineman and the rest of this team mates upon his back and carry them on to penguin cup glory.

First of all I said "very few exceptions" so that 09 you mention would be one exception, and you say 29th ranked? That's essentially top 25, so really isn't much of an outlier. Also I didn't say some kid on an 80th ranked team isn't as talented as some kid on a top 25 team. I'm not arguing that point. There are plenty of kids on top 25 teams that aren't going anywhere either just like the kid on the 80th ranked team. If you want to argue with me, then find me some data disputing what I said, With very few exceptions, Pro, D1 college and Tier1 Junior players come from organizations in the Top 25 like Caesars, SSM, Mount, Mission, Gulls, Mid Fairfield, and Minnesota HS and NE prep. And I'm talking Bantam and Midget ages, not a kid that played squirts for the Amherst Knights. It's just a fact, the best players find their way onto these top teams. And these are the teams that scouts pay attention to. You don't have to like the system, but that's just how it is right now.

By the time you are playing 14U or 16U if you aren't playing for a top 25 ranked AAA team, then you are just playing for fun. Just look back in the last 5 years, look at the CHL and USHL drafts and junior team rosters, with VERY few exception the players moving on came from Minnesota High schools, New England prep schools, or top 25 US and Canadian AAA programs. Dig even deeper and it's the same for D1 players and NHL players. Go ahead and point to Tomko, but that SHAHA team was in the top 25. So if someone wants to play for the 3rd best Pittsburgh team, the 100th ranked AAA team in the country, ok, just know you are playing for fun. And if you are playing for fun, then of course you shouldn't pay for Excel and go to their school. If you're playing for something more, then unfortunately the "other option" is leaving the area. Boy I can't wait until the Hornets website is complete!

"Good news Sergey, some guy named Vlad called, he said you were drafted. But he said he was going to use you on the front line, not the top line, what do you think he meant by that?"

Those goalies don't seem to be listed as part of the All-Star game but maybe I'm missing something.

I'm not sure either.

Especially when the term is generally understood to be used in the context of racial inequities, and to a lesser extent and more recently sexual orientation. So is he saying that too many non-white and gay athletes made the All-Star Game? That would be a bold accusation.

I got Dibs on him for my beer League team next season.

A few weeks is an appropriate suspension? How about criminal charges for underage drinking?

How about arming the refs and coaches with stun guns or pepper spray? That should act as a sufficient deterrent for these out of control kids, since it's doesn't seem the coaches were able to control their players otherwise. Actually if I was a ref at this level I wouldn't intervene in these situations, just let the kids settle things themselves and send out the suspensions following the game. They don't get paid enough to be breaking up fights with fully padded players potentially a third of their age and twice their size.

There will definitely be CHL players that move on to play US collegiate hockey. But not 1200 players. If there are 1200 total players in the CHL, id guess 300 are aging out or in a position to leave the league after playing a couple years. The top hundred are still likely to go into a pro league, NHL, AHL, Europe. The bottom hundred players are probably not desirable collegiate players. So that leaves the hundred in the middle. So you have a 100 players that haven't had any schooling for a couple years, have been treated like rockstars, playing 70 game seasons in arenas with thousands of fans. How desirable is going to say Robert Morris, for example, to play a 25 game season in front of a hundred fans? When they already have a CHL scholarship that would allow them to choose a school in Canada and play USports hockey. Change is coming, but I don't think we need to build a border wall to keep the Canadians from rushing in.

No, and if my band did those things I would perform my own due diligence. I wouldnt take what the band was selling to be fact. And I would look around and see if there were better band options. And I wouldn't blame the band for doing what's in the band's best interest, I would look in the mirror and blame the sucker looking back at me.

Why does playing high level youth hockey always come down to discussions about D1 college scholarships and a cost/benefit analysis?? Can't kids play hockey for fun, teamwork, exercise, camaraderie, or any other number of reasons? And if you play, why not play at the highest level you can achieve? My kid was in the band, never did I think he was getting a college scholarship or becoming a professional musician. Never did I say I wouldn't pay for private lessons because it's unlikely it will result in a record deal.

For every one "Nice guy, trys hard, loves the game player" that finds success in the game of hockey there are 100 "skill robots" that have similar or greater success. I'll use the golf comparison again!! I might have the greatest "compete level, mental awareness, positional play" in the game of golf. I might be able to read a green like a pro, might know exactly where I want to place my shot. But if I can only drive the ball 100 yards, I don't know how to use half the clubs in my bag, and I can't putt then what good are those other traits? It's the same thing with hockey. If you know exactly how you want to angle and forecheck a player, but he's three strides past you, and just stick handled you out of your jock, what good is that positional play? I haven't even delved into the life lessons that come from a kid committing himself to a sport, practicing hard, making incremental improvements, gaining confidence in his abilities, and seeing results. But it sounds like I'm outnumbered so I guess the answer to your question about the consensus is less skill is preferred, less commitment to hockey is better, just play a bunch of sports and see what happens.

Give me the 50 most skilled 12-year-old ice hockey players, and you can have your choice of all the street hockey players and non hockey players in the country. We will come back when they are 16 and let them play each other, I assure you it won't even be a game.

Yes I understand the benefits of being a multi sport athlete. But that doesn't take the place of hockey training and skill development. Perhaps it takes the place or supplements dryland training. If you want to be a better golfer, you don't expect to get there by playing baseball? Does it help with some body mechanics, athleticism, general fitness, ya I suppose that's true. But you're getting better by driving balls, chipping balls, putting balls. I'll bet you a ham sandwich if I go to the rink every day for a year and work on my edges and puck protection, and you go to the YMCA and play Volleyball and Basketball I'm going to be the more improved hockey player. I would love to see a list of successful Varsity players that played Dek hockey and waited until they reached the Midget level to begin playing competitive amateur ice hockey. A current list, not some guys from 1974.

I just saw an interview the other day where Crosby attributed his ability to constantly pull pucks off the boards to playing flag football. And Letang became a master of walking the blue line by spending his summers shooting free throws. 🙄

What do you mean by "smothered"? I am assuming you mean overwhelmed? Is there such thing as too much skill training? That's how the game is played these days, skating, skill, speed.

Lots of experts in this forum, is PA Hockey the only one qualified to put out a Ranking? I'd like to see some others take a stab... Put your money where your mouth is.

That's why they play the games.