September 24, 2025Sep 24 It looks like USA Hockey will be moving forward with it's new Development League starting next season. I would assume the Pens Elite will be part of this, as no other Tier I teams in the area seem to fit the criteria. It looks like they won't be able to compete at the 16U level at Nationals though, so maybe the other area Tier I teams will benefit at the 16U level now. "The USA Hockey Development League is being designed to work in cooperation with Tier I hockey, not to replace it. The current Tier I structure consists of 13O, 14U, 15O, 16U, and 18U age groups. The USA Hockey Development League is intended to have two age categories, 15U (consisting of 14- and 15-year-old players) and 17U (consisting of 16- and 17- year-old players). Existing Tier I programs that become a part of the USA Hockey Development League would still be allowed to field a total of five teams but in the following age groups: 13O (Tier I), 14U (Tier I), 15U (USA Hockey Development League), 17U (USA Hockey Development League), and 18U (Tier I). USA Hockey Development League 15U teams will compete against other USA Hockey Development League 15U teams, in addition to being able to play games against 15O Tier I and 16U Tier I teams. USA Hockey Development League 17U teams will compete against other USA Hockey Development League 17U teams, in addition to being able to play games against 18U Tier I teams. "
September 25, 2025Sep 25 5 hours ago, nemesis8679 said: 💰 100% Which is really a shame because hockey (especially at higher levels) is already ridiculously expensive. I was trying to understand this and the positives, the only thing that I came up with is USA hockey would have better exposure to players if they were playing in their "league". If the Pens for example are playing in Boston and Mid Fairfield is playing in Detroit, they would either have to pick what place to go watch games or send multiple people out to scout games. If you have all the teams playing in your "league" then you just have to schedule your games out and go to whichever location you planned for (assuming its rotating, maybe all games would be played at USA hockey arena in Detroit). It doesn't sound like there is much "development" happening from what they announced, so it's basically just an umbrella to have all the tier 1 teams play in your "league" so you have easy access to who the best players are in the USA on all these teams. This would keep all of the games against strong opponents and remove the issue of coordinating where all the stronger teams are playing on a weekend. The huge downside is, if you create this league then have rotating game locations a team like the Pens who play NEpack and only have to travel to Rhode Island, NJ, and NY for league games would now possibly have to travel to Anaheim? Phoenix? Florida? If you plan your season to travel to those places for games it's one thing, to have to travel there for league play is going to be taxing. Especially if you have to travel to Maine one weekend, then Phoenix the next, then Florida, etc... Even if you had all the games be centralized in Detroit at USA hockey arena, if you are a kid living in Anaheim, that means you have to travel to Detroit multiple weekends a year? You are pushing the brutal travel requirements to play the sport at a high level onto kids at even a younger age, remember they still have to go to school, have a social life, etc. I'm not sure about all this yet, there needs to be more information and answers around how it would work. You have to trust that the people in charge of making the decisions are considering all the challenges and hopefully come up with something useful and productive for everyone. If this is something that's more "lowkey" like centralized games in Detroit, 3-4 weekends out of the season, all the tier 1 teams in the league attend. I could maybe understand that.
September 28, 2025Sep 28 On 9/25/2025 at 11:14 AM, Happy Hockey Fan said: USA hockey should be ashamed To be ashamed, one needs the capacity to feel shame.
September 30, 2025Sep 30 Every league needs cannon fodder to keep the big boys happy. (e.g. look at the Pirates in the MLB or many of the AA/AAA teams in the AHF/THF, ect.) Who will they find to be the cannon fodder for this endeavor?
October 2, 2025Oct 2 The best thing USA Hockey could do to better the sport is to decide what teams are really AAA. Perhaps this is an attempt at that.
October 2, 2025Oct 2 10 hours ago, nemesis8679 said: The best thing USA Hockey could do to better the sport is to decide what teams are really AAA. Perhaps this is an attempt at that. Unfortunately it doesn't really change that. It wouldn't change the landscape at all other than creating that extra tier above everything else. All the AAA teams that don't make this league will still be called AAA and will be pulling in the same players. What USA Hockey needs to do is figure out how to actually manage what we already have.
October 3, 2025Oct 3 17 hours ago, Duck Bill said: Unfortunately it doesn't really change that. It wouldn't change the landscape at all other than creating that extra tier above everything else. All the AAA teams that don't make this league will still be called AAA and will be pulling in the same players. That may be. But at least it would differentiate between teams to pay attention to, and teams to not pay attention to.
May 6May 6 I tried to find one of the fake AAA threads but wasn’t going deeper than page 3 so I’m posting this article here since it is sort of on topic and interesting reading.Adding context to article of total number of 18u & under players registered in each district.Atlantic - 23k, central - 51,30033 Teams and 19 Draft PicksIs Atlantic AAA Hockey Becoming Too Diluted? Edited May 6May 6 by ANKLEBENDER Context
May 11May 11 On 9/26/2025 at 8:33 PM, stickboy said:And all our membership fees will go up to support it!There it is! $81 USA hockey fee plus $5 Mid Am fee for bantam-midget players in 2026-27. That’s $86 before you even pick an organization, sign up, try out, and then pay their tuition!
May 11May 11 2 hours ago, stickboy said:There it is! $81 USA hockey fee plus $5 Mid Am fee for bantam-midget players in 2026-27. That’s $86 before you even pick an organization, sign up, try out, and then pay their tuition!Disgusting. I know squirts is very close to that amount as well. For what? Rules? Because outside of the national teams they aren’t doing anything.
May 11May 11 54 minutes ago, Happy Hockey Fan said:Disgusting. I know squirts is very close to that amount as well. For what? Rules? Because outside of the national teams they aren’t doing anything.Legal fees
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