aaaahockey

The most shocking thing about that chart to me is that birth month is less important than I expected. Are these scholarship players only?

Ask yourself this question. The typo (pay instead of play) is very accurate. I have no idea to be honest with you.

Tell them to play PAHL and get good grades because it's super easy to get a scholarship for academics if you maintain above a 3.2 or so GPA and that there are many things in life such as family and friends more important than hockey.

That's a question for my friend Tyt

I think most if not all of their tryouts are over. Ask my friend Lou

If we did it "correctly" contact would begin at mites and full checking as soon as the kids can do it properly without hurting each other. Instead because of poor coaching, wussying of society, inconsistent reffing, and the ability to milk parents of money until bantam when their children quit early, we put off checking until puberty when kids differ 4-6 inches and 20-100 lbs. Very smart!

If you get cut, then you take the road to Cleveland!

Results don't really matter. Preds will also find more people willing to pay for an extra A. Happens every single year despite results on the ice or blowups that happen among teams.

Question because it seems like this is happening across multiple years. Are people moving to Florida for hockey or for weather/politics? I know the kid who got drafted went to Florida for a while right? I never really thought about Florida as a place to move to develop hockey but maybe I'm old school or out of the loop?

SHAHA had a lot more than 4 teams last year. My hockey rankings lists 15 teams above mites. A few of the top AA teams created their own sub-websites and those were the ones listed. The ice advantage they have comes from the fact SHAHA and Bethel HS basically rent all of the ice. There isn't figure skating, open skates, learn to skate, etc. on a regular schedule there during the season. They also don't cram teams on a tiny studio ice like Lebo does. I think the down side is it sounds like several of their teams are starting to get in the business of chasing As and I guess we will see how that works out. Their 09 team was strong in PAHL but tied several games and I'm still not sure what possessed them to want to go independent. The older AAA teams have had some mixed levels of success. The Lebo 08 team (becoming SHAHA) was 66th in the country last year. That to me seems borderline going independent but as everyone else points out in here where are they going to find competition if all these other 08 teams are going independent in the area?

I think the AAA hornets team have been AAA for a few years. I believe they have been one of the few orgs who have had pretty good success being independent. I think they went to SHAHA because of ice time being much better. Hornets have been shrinking and bleeding players/teams for several years now due to ice time.

The 08 Lebo AAA team is moving to SHAHA.

"Tryouts"

I agree with this but I think the Pens create the situation.

The Lebo goalie had the second lowest goals allowed in PAHL AA and took his team to the championship (although they lost). I think Preds had two goalies? Looking at their scores it looks like goaltending carried them a lot too.

This is my question. Paying 10K- 35K for the "best development" but the kids who start rarely if ever finish at Pens (except relatives of coaches and a couple rare exceptional athletes). What does that say about their development model?

Yep - the goalie son is an 09 and he is listed as 09 coach. Edwards also head coached his own son and it is apparent on the girls side as well.

No. That doesn't stop any of the other birth years either.

Pre-Excel I used to defend PPE in a sense that it was a money grab but at least you were getting some of the best development around. Now, I question both that the development is that good and when you factor in the associated Excel and travel costs it is insane. Even if we are crazy or rich enough to spend that kind of money, step back and think about better hockey opportunities you could pay for your kids with that amount of money? I could rent a condo in Minnesota and live there for high school for that money ?

Last year the WPA hockey forums took on politics. This year: Religion.

I find this funny. I would laugh if I was the coach and pat the kid on the back. In this day and age he's literally just trying to make a fun joke and it sounds like nothing else.

More importantly why would 2011s want an invite?

I feel like I'm missing an inside joke somewhere

For me it's how much the game changes. You could be winning PAHL this year and next year when the game changes suddenly your team is no where near as good as it was due to the change. If I was a parent on that team I think I'd wait at least one more year before traveling around the country.