James Gatz

Inventory is hit or miss this time of year. Pure Hockey (Cannonsburg, Monroeville, or Cranberry) are good choices. Perani's Hockey World (Greentree) is good too. They all have the abilty to get accurate foot measurements with scanners. They all bake too. Pro Shops at RMU or Delmont would be next tier options. Don't go to Dick's.

To make the debate sillier, the high school teams would have had an advantage with delayed offsides play being allowed but for the upcoming season, that advantage goes away.

This is a major factor. Was talking to one of the Shane Clifford instructors about this and he said that when Fleury was here, teams were cutting goalies at tryouts fairly regularly. Now, there is less interest in the position and organizations end up cutting otherwise capable skaters because there are no extra goalies around which to build those teams. The correlation between interest in the position at the amateur level and the state of net-minding at the nearest NHL franchise is real. There is no shortage of amateur goalies in Winnipeg right now. This could be the next chapter if Malcom Gladwell ever updated Outliers.

It is getting pretty crazy. When you add in school devo games that many of these kids are playing in addition to their club teams, some of them are playing in excess of 80 games from August-early March. I've seen it with both PAHL Squirt teams supplementing their season with independent games and some of the quasi-independent teams playing in the AHF from the region. I worry we will burn out these kids, the parents, or both.

Domain was registered on December 6. Doesn't look like much work put into since then. Wonder if anyone owns the copyright to the logo.

Nemesis8679 is 100% correct. At the Squirt level, if a team has 2 goalies they should be very close to a 50/50 split. Maybe one goalie gets more time in a tournament if the team is making a run at a championship, but otherwise, young goalies need playing time to develop. The sport needs more goalies and there is a lot of growth to be had in the next few years. The #2 now on a Squirt team may really bloom by high school and be an all star. How you get the split varies from team to team. USA hockey suggests splitting periods giving each goalie a 6-8 minute shift per period. I don't know anyone that does this. Some teams split games mid-way through the 2d. Other teams (probably most) alternate games. With this third scenario, it is realistic for a goalie to skate out when not in net. I think it will make them a better goalie long run and keep them from falling too far behind as a skater should they decide playing goal is not for them. As for your case, if you kid is a Red Mite, he will likely place on one of your organizations' upper half teams. Talk to the organizations and coaches in advance and let them guide you on whether they want him to split days at the tryouts, only tryout as a skater or goalie. If they know what you all want to try in advance, it will help them help you. Be ready to accept, however, some trade-offs. Your kid may make a lower team than they otherwise would have. For example, they may have made the #2 team as a pure skater, but to accommodate your development plan, the organization places him on the #3 team. Don't let that bother you and it may be for the best. There are a lot of spring and summer leagues that are especially popular for rising mites making the transition to full ice. They mostly involve games with fewer practices, but they can be good. I'd suggest considering that if you can make it fit your schedule and let your kid play some of both positions to see if that smaller sample of games tilts the scales one way or the other.

Ditto. The thread is just highlighting a supply/demand issue. The growth in the supply of eligible and talented players is outpacing the demand in terms of D1 roster spots.

I’ve always had good experiences with the Gene Herrington tournaments. And here, they went out of their way to avoid the situation of PAHL teams traveling to Buffalo to play. They made a 6 team division and the PAHL teams won’t play until Sunday.

Gene Herrington. I can ask them. They are usually pretty cooperative. I just wanted to do some research in advance.

To make a Western PA connection, three PAHL 10u teams will be grouped with a Boston Imperials team at an upcoming tournament. All other teams in the pod seem to be comparably ranked on MHR. The PAHL teams are in Mid-A divisions (Major white and Minor black). The wildcard is this Boston Imperials team. They have no games entered in MHR and had no team in this age group before this year. Their website describes them as a 2014 AAA team and the organization describes itself as a year-round elite program. Any way to get a read on whether they fit in this grouping or if they are hunting for a banner?

This question is not specific to hockey. This may be in the linked articles (I did not read them all), but there a few topics that come to mind whenever I have this conversation with people. They are: I do lament the increasing challenges to playing multiple sports throughout the year. That said, the anecdotes from pro athletes are only so helpful. They are pro athletes due in very large part to the fact that they have extraordinary athletic talents that most humans do not have. Flag football may have helped Crosby, but he would have been elite if he had replaced flag football with squash, bowling, or Math Bowl for example. There is a friction between short term and long term objectives. Long term, there is a lot of evidence that the young athletes benefits from playing multiple sports, taking breaks between seasons, ect. Short term, if you goal is to get whatever you want at the next tryout, extra skills training will have a more immediate impact on achieving that goal. Hockey and baseball seem to be the two sports where individual skills training has the most immediate and noticeable impacts. They are probably even more pronounced at the younger ages. You can tell the difference between the 9 year olds that have been doing weekly power skating from those that played fall baseball. That's not to say that by age 16 the baseball kid hasn't caught up, but come tryouts next year, the kid with the extra skills will likely fair better than the more "well rounded" kid. Parents should be considering the long term objectives too. Another complicating factor are the business pressures. It's not the case everywhere, but at some places, the supplemental skills training, which is a revenue generator for the coaches, organizers, ect., can "buy" a lot of favoritism. This is shameful, but at some places it is just a dirty reality.

Like so many other aspects of hockey, there is a correlation between cost and the amount of services the consumer receives. A general menu might look like: Free--no supplemental goalie training. Only coaching is whatever they get, if anything, during team practices. Some organizations may offer bi-weekly goalie clinics. ~$40-$45/50 minute session--supplemental goalie clinic with multiple stations, goalies, and coaches in a session. Probably looking at a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio without too much time for individual instruction. Times are limited and inflexible due to requiring full sheet. ~$50-$75 per 30-45 minute session--private or semi-private with 1-2 goalies sharing a crease. Can be done on goalie creases opening scheduling options. Mostly drills, but more easily tailored to the individuals compared to the clinic format. ~$75 plus, start adding video analysis >$100 outside coach will attend team practices or games, video training and instruction based on game video. For most A and AA goalies, the first couple pay tiers offer a good return on investment in my opinion.

I've noticed that too. Pure speculation here, but I am thinking teams are reporting to MHR and Blackbear hasn't gotten the Western PA managers in line yet. Those coming out of a PAHL background are accustomed to self-reporting scores to MHR, so Blackbear cutting off the automatic reporting via Scoresheet hasn't changed the reporting practices in WPA teams yet.

Maybe they have moved past it, but Blackbear was on an anti-MHR kick for a while and promoting their Karch Ranking system over MHR. AHF/THF was discouraging the reporting of statistics to MHR, so it remains unclear if the comparison you propose is useful or based on incomplete, and sometimes, misleading data.

I was at what I think was a BB rink (at least the main tenants played THF/AHF), and they did have coin operated heaters for the stands.

$2,600 for a 4 game showcase with no rules posted yet. For that price, I'd expect ice cuts every period.

Is Frozen Pond doing the same if its Yetis or a high schools vs. an Icemen game? Its not a Black Bear rink, but the Icemen play in AHF/THF.

From PAHL pre-season placements today:

There was a thread about this on the AHF Youth Hockey parents group uncensored on facebook. The news started breaking at an AHF managers meeting a month or so ago. I am not involved with an AHF team and was not present at any of the meetings but followed the treads out of curiosity. According to some of the posts, if you put much weight in a facebook post, is that there is a rule (quoted below). ************** 11.0 Streaming and/or Recording of Games It is illegal to video any games in the AHF. If a player, parent, family member or friend product (or any other version of such) a video or livestream or any other broadcast production of an AHF even or game, the player can be immediately suspended or dismissed from the team, league, tournament for the remainder of the season with no refunds provided. ************* Apparently there will be a $50/athlete fee for AHF teams this season for the video service. The comments were generally upset with the fee, wording of the rule, and threats of expulsion.

USA Hockey added this rule in 2020-2021 rule changes. The original goal was to adopt the same rules for high school and adult leagues, but that has not happened yet. Not trying to weigh in on the merits of USA Hockey rule, but for anyone not familiar with the philosophy behind it, USA Hockey explains it at Frequently Asked Questions About New Rules For 2021-22 Season (usahockey.com) In a nutshell, USA Hockey wants to keep the focus on player/skill development and views icing a puck on the PK as a lesser skill than a deliberate break-out with passing and skating. They want to keep the motivation to make deliberate hockey plays over simply icing. They recognize the NHL rules add to the viewing experience and minimize stoppages and give some relief to the PK unit. For amateur hockey, which has less than 2 minute penalties for some age groups, they don't want to give the advantage of suspending icing to the PK unit.

I know families that have done both in the same season. Mites is the only level you can do this. North Pittsburgh’s mite program is a house league. Games are on the weekends. Yetis mites play in the PAHL so you will play jamborees at different rinks. It is possible to do both though there may be some weekends with conflicting schedules. Levi Rogers runs the Mite program at the Yetis and is very good with the kids and emphasizes skating skills. The teams will have parent coaches for the jamborees. Looking into the future, beyond the Mites, someone above mentioned that North Pittsburgh’s program is large. They will usually field 4+ squirt teams that play in the PAHL. It can be a good long term home. The next step for Yetis, would be either the Icemen birthyear team, which plays an AHF and independent schedule or to continue with the Yetis which fields PAHL teams. There will likely be fewer Yetis teams than North Pittsburgh teams, so there may be a wider range of talent up and down the roster. Both are good organizations and have supporters. its easy for me to spend your time and commit your free time, but if you are in a position to do both, consider it. The extra practices are a good thing and you can see which fits the best and have great visibility into each organizations plans for next year come tryout season.

If you are in the North, they still do hands-on sharpening at Lemieux, Baierl, and Frozen Pond. The guy at the Frozen Pond is good, but it is tough to catch him there. I'd try to call ahead and schedule if you go that route. Hours are more steady at Lemieux or Baierl.

There are 8U and 10U house leagues in the close suburbs. There probably are few options the further you get from Pittsburgh, but it’s not like there are no options. I don’t understand the comment about watering down the PAHL. They have lots of divisions and if you expelled the bottom half of every roster, the top half would be homeless

Don't see many posts like this on the board, but kudos for working to create opportunities for this group.

I keep hearing that Covid most impacted the 2012-2015 birth years (with 13/14 the most). From talking with friends with interest in these age groups at various organizations it does seem like there are fewer athletes in the cohort. Several have said their organizations are fielding fewer teams than usual. Is everyone seeing the same thing? For the good of future 16U hockey, I hope the organizations find a way to keep kids in the sport. If attrition happens at the same rate, it could be bleak for a couple years as this bubble move through the age groups.