Spear and Magic Helmet

Don't they already have the former Iceoplex at Southpointe? Or is there another rink in the South Hills you're referring to?

Honestly you have to think they will go the way other sports at the KSG went years ago and just have teams enter, rather than individuals. KSG needs to get with the times. Teams are picked in the spring now and many teams practice all summer. It's very expensive to out together a one off team for just one weekend.

They can't be held responsible for what happens if you step in the pools of pee in their locker rooms.

I have to say it is a bit amazing they were able to pull this off after a year where it was cancelled. I didn't have the best experience at the KSG and found my region to be disorganized and the coaching to be lacking. However, it is an event that definitely has potential to be very good.

Ha, very true. I just meant huge supply relative to the number of actual available D1 spots. Tons of kids in the USHL and NAHL, not so many spots to go.

Maybe a correction can be made with a sharpie at the book signing

Recruiting will definitely be tougher, but keep in mind there are only around 60 NCAA D1 teams, period. It's not like football, which has something like 120 teams at the top level, plus 1-AA and so on, or basketball, which has something like 350. On top of that, something like 30% of NCAA D1 rosters are Canadian players. If your choices are play NCAA D1 at RMU or don't play D1 at all, then you might just go to RMU and worry about what happens in the future when it happens. There is a huge supply of US born players for NCAA D1 Hockey.

I saw a toilet come off the wall at PIA a long time ago, maybe 10+ years ago, and they are still open. Condition of the rink doesn't seem to hurt them that much.

What upgrades are needed at the RMU rink? I haven't been there in years, but it seemed fairly nice the last time I was there.

I agree with most of the points made here, definitely a lot of good ones. I think the problem mentioned a few times was bad coaching by dad coaches. That's not just limited to hockey, by the way, other youth sports will take anyone they can because there are just so many teams to find coaches for. Hockey is probably a little worse, because a much higher percentage of kids who play hockey have parents who never played. And on the other hand, as the kids get older, the better coaches generally (not always, but generally) also are the dads of the better players. So more and more of the good dad coaches are concentrated on the same teams and it makes the scarcity problem a little worse. Let's put it this way, how many of the current rinks were build in 1992 or later? Most of them, really. So coaches born before about 1985 would have grown up in an era with very limited ice available. And I agree that when you see some clown on the ice in jeans and possibly not even wearing skates running a terrible practice, you hope the kids are learning just from getting to be on the ice. However, it could very well be the case that the organization had no other choice for coaching that team. I'm not sure there is anything you can do to solve the problem of bad coaches other than time. As more and more of those 1985 and later people get into coaching, I am sure the general pool of coaches will improve, but as others pointed out, the USA Hockey Coaching Education is really not very helpful for people who didn't grow up with the game.

Yeah USA Hockey doesn't care. Just the NCAA. Mik Lemieux is another one that comes to mind. https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/285369/alex-gritz https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/62069/mikael-lemieux

I have also heard this has to do with some loophole. It might be OK to play at an OHL tryout camp and a scrimmage game there

That's been going on a long time though, definitely predates the ADM model.

Looks like it is none then. https://www.eliteprospects.com/search/player?youth-team=Pittsburgh+Pens+Elite&sort=name https://www.eliteprospects.com/search/player?youth-team=Pittsburgh+Penguins+Elite&sort=name

Are you counting the Pittsburgh Hornets as part of this, or just PPE (i.e. 2012 to present)?

What happens when EF's goalie is suspended? I imagine they don't have a 2nd goalie.

http://www.theonlinerocket.com/sports/2021/02/05/mens-club-ice-hockey-suspended-for-hazing/

That is really cool! Back then I bet people didn't appreciate what a treat it was to be there.

Probably was the 1990s, since that rink was built in 1995. Pens held training camp at Mt Lebanon and maybe Rostraver in the 1980s. The rumor was that they had ice making equipment on the sport court side at Iceoplex but never turned it on. I can't imagine it would still work after 25 years though.

Also the schools in WPa are much, much smaller than out east. Many, if not most of the A high schools in the East would be AA or AAA based on their size.

Wow! I guess I need to pay attention. Last time I looked, KO was a co-op team still.

I'm old, but I remember when they were a perennial contender in AA. What schools are in the co-op with them?

Bishop Canevin is in the B division now too? Given the size of the school, I guess not a big surprise, but so much for Catholic schools recruiting.

While I agree that it is absurd to rank teams that haven't played yet, there are certainly other equally absurd rankings. For example, Penn State was a top 25 team in preseason rankings and they went on to lose their first five games. Things would have been different in a regular year (they would not have played their first five games vs big ten opponents), but my point is that other ill-informed opinions are out there. Also the point may be moot as it doesn't look good for Philly reopening anytime soon. While there is probably no limit to how ridiculously long they can make the high school hockey season, it might be a tough sell to have a high school championship after Usa Hockey nationals.

The icing thing while penalty killing has been brewing for years. Would not be surprised to see that adopted in the NHL as well.