Soon to not be Bauer-Emerson

[HockeyTalk18]

Dying?

just a quick pull from Wiki

High school hockey players throughout Minnesota participate in a maximum of 25 contests, excluding the section tournaments and the Minnesota State Boys' High School Hockey Tournament. Teams currently play three 17-minute periods to comprise a game. A lengthened period time was adopted by the Minnesota State High School League in 2003.

Boys hockey concludes their season with a four-day tournament in March that features sixteen teams competing for championships in both classes. From 1945 through 1991 the tournament consisted of a single class, eight team tournament instead of the present day two class (AA and A) tournament. Private schools were not allowed to play in the Tournament until the 1974-75 season. In 1992-93, the tournament was composed of Tier I and II teams. This two-year experiment sent the top teams from each of the eight sections to the Tier I portion of the tournament and the remaining teams conducted a playoff to determine who would be included in the Tier II tournament. In 1994, the dual class system was adopted and teams were placed into a class structure based on school enrollments.

Attendance has been strong throughout the years, with 22 tournaments eclipsing the 100,000+ barrier, and in 2004 a record setting total of 120,114 (both classes).[citation needed] In the 2006 State Tournament, the average attendance per game in the championship brackets was 18,000 people.[citation needed] [b]The Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament is currently the largest state sports tournament in the United States in terms of viewing and attendance, beating both the Texas and Florida's State High School Football Tournament and the Indiana State High School Basketball Tournament.[/b][citation needed]

Since 1994, the MSHSL's process to determine section assignments for boys' hockey is based on school enrollments and activity classifications. The basic premise is to place the largest 64 schools into Class AA and the remaining high schools in Class A. Both Classes are then divided into 8 Sections each. Teams are placed into their section assignments with geographic location as a primary consideration. High schools initially placed in Class A have the option to play at the Class AA level.

Beginning with the 2007 state tournament, the top four teams in each class are seeded. Coaches of the participating schools vote to determine the seeded teams the Saturday before the state tournament. The four teams are then bracketed so that if the seeded teams advance, the top seed plays the fourth seed while the second and third seeds play each other. The quarterfinal opponents of the seeded teams are determined by a blind draw.

[Puckstopper81]

The mascot should be a Gopher with an arrow through it's head.....cause MN High School Hockey is dying! You can fight it all you want, but AAA is taking over. Yea.....it might take 5 or 10 years, but your hockey programs with such storied pasts are the only things MN is going to have to hang onto. Don't get me wrong, I love the community based hockey model....I really do. However, kids and parents are tired of the politics, coaches ego, repetitive short seasons, and the list goes on. It's just a matter of time.

Another Non-Minnesotan predicting the demise of the Community Model. Everyone here is keen to the motive behind this so you guys might as well just start saving your breath. Relax, the State added one Tier 1 team that hasn't even played a game yet. Tired of the politics and coaches ego? Yeah, because it's way worse in Association hockey than AAA. People will try it out because they think Little Richie is wasting his talents playing with the riff-raff in the Association, or that the coach in the Association is not focused enough on little Richie's path to the NHL. To these people the grass is always greener; right up until it isn't. The real test will be how many do it for more than one season. My best guess is that it won't even really get off the ground here. I've said it a hundred times, it only works in other states because you either play AAA or you don't play. Fortunately, we don't have that problem here. Everyone gets to play with their buddies in their communities, at a fraction of the cost, against the best competition in the world, all within a short drive. This "Dying" system produces the most Division 1 and Pro Hockey players in the Country. Winter AAA hockey doesn't have much to offer here for 99.9% of the parents. It's only the .1% that have the next lil' Gretzky that may find it attractive.

I may not have been born here, but I do live and pay taxes here and my kid did play Association hockey and presently plays High School hockey. I will not disagree that Tier 1 is free of politics or coaches egos. It's everywhere. However, in MN hockey if you are the victim of either of these things, where do you play? B1, C or Jurnior Gold A or B if your kid is in High School? If you do not make a certain Tier 1 team, you have the ability to try out for another Tier 1 team. There are options and you don't have to physically sell your home to play for someone else. Additonally, let's be honest, the only reason MN sends more kids to D1 schools is simply because there are more kids who play hockey hear in MN. Guess what? I bet California sends more players to Major League Baseball than say Idaho. Oh....could it be that California has more kids that play baseball?

[green4]

The mascot should be a Gopher with an arrow through it's head.....cause MN High School Hockey is dying! You can fight it all you want, but AAA is taking over. Yea.....it might take 5 or 10 years, but your hockey programs with such storied pasts are the only things MN is going to have to hang onto. Don't get me wrong, I love the community based hockey model....I really do. However, kids and parents are tired of the politics, coaches ego, repetitive short seasons, and the list goes on. It's just a matter of time.

Another Non-Minnesotan predicting the demise of the Community Model. Everyone here is keen to the motive behind this so you guys might as well just start saving your breath. Relax, the State added one Tier 1 team that hasn't even played a game yet. Tired of the politics and coaches ego? Yeah, because it's way worse in Association hockey than AAA. People will try it out because they think Little Richie is wasting his talents playing with the riff-raff in the Association, or that the coach in the Association is not focused enough on little Richie's path to the NHL. To these people the grass is always greener; right up until it isn't. The real test will be how many do it for more than one season. My best guess is that it won't even really get off the ground here. I've said it a hundred times, it only works in other states because you either play AAA or you don't play. Fortunately, we don't have that problem here. Everyone gets to play with their buddies in their communities, at a fraction of the cost, against the best competition in the world, all within a short drive. This "Dying" system produces the most Division 1 and Pro Hockey players in the Country. Winter AAA hockey doesn't have much to offer here for 99.9% of the parents. It's only the .1% that have the next lil' Gretzky that may find it attractive.

I may not have been born here, but I do live and pay taxes here and my kid did play Association hockey and presently plays High School hockey. I will not disagree that Tier 1 is free of politics or coaches egos. It's everywhere. However, in MN hockey if you are the victim of either of these things, where do you play? B1, C or Jurnior Gold A or B if your kid is in High School? If you do not make a certain Tier 1 team, you have the ability to try out for another Tier 1 team. There are options and you don't have to physically sell your home to play for someone else. Additonally, let's be honest, the only reason MN sends more kids to D1 schools is simply because there are more kids who play hockey hear in MN. Guess what? I bet California sends more players to Major League Baseball than say Idaho. Oh....could it be that California has more kids that play baseball?

I guess I can speak from experience, I played JV two years and then got cut. So yes i played Junior Gold A. I had a blast because its actually a fun and competitive league *gasp*
My thought process after playing that senior year on JGA was I just wasn't good enough for much after high school. Maybe politics played a part in why another guy who I played JV two years with made the big boy team but maybe he was just the better player.
I could have played Tier 1 at some point, I could have got cut from one team and tried to play for another Tier 1 team like you said, but in the end why would I want to waste all that money when I had the option to play competitive hockey at my high school? When that didn't work out why would I waste all that money when there is another competitive league in my town?
Once I got cut I realized I didn't have a future in hockey. I had no reason to waste my money playing Tier 1.
My point is this, why waste your money with Tier 1 when so many kids get noticed here in High school hockey? If you're good enough to play college or juniors they will find you. You don't have to change towns to get noticed.(Example: Andrew Sackrison, played on a bad St. Louis Park team but was noticed, or Hanowski in small town Little Falls) And this last part is my own personal view but if you get cut you probably weren't good enough to make the next step so why waste your money for Tier 1 hockey when Junior Gold is a fine option?

[Froggy Richards]

The mascot should be a Gopher with an arrow through it's head.....cause MN High School Hockey is dying! You can fight it all you want, but AAA is taking over. Yea.....it might take 5 or 10 years, but your hockey programs with such storied pasts are the only things MN is going to have to hang onto. Don't get me wrong, I love the community based hockey model....I really do. However, kids and parents are tired of the politics, coaches ego, repetitive short seasons, and the list goes on. It's just a matter of time.

Another Non-Minnesotan predicting the demise of the Community Model. Everyone here is keen to the motive behind this so you guys might as well just start saving your breath. Relax, the State added one Tier 1 team that hasn't even played a game yet. Tired of the politics and coaches ego? Yeah, because it's way worse in Association hockey than AAA. People will try it out because they think Little Richie is wasting his talents playing with the riff-raff in the Association, or that the coach in the Association is not focused enough on little Richie's path to the NHL. To these people the grass is always greener; right up until it isn't. The real test will be how many do it for more than one season. My best guess is that it won't even really get off the ground here. I've said it a hundred times, it only works in other states because you either play AAA or you don't play. Fortunately, we don't have that problem here. Everyone gets to play with their buddies in their communities, at a fraction of the cost, against the best competition in the world, all within a short drive. This "Dying" system produces the most Division 1 and Pro Hockey players in the Country. Winter AAA hockey doesn't have much to offer here for 99.9% of the parents. It's only the .1% that have the next lil' Gretzky that may find it attractive.

I may not have been born here, but I do live and pay taxes here and my kid did play Association hockey and presently plays High School hockey. I will not disagree that Tier 1 is free of politics or coaches egos. It's everywhere. However, in MN hockey if you are the victim of either of these things, where do you play? B1, C or Jurnior Gold A or B if your kid is in High School? If you do not make a certain Tier 1 team, you have the ability to try out for another Tier 1 team. There are options and you don't have to physically sell your home to play for someone else. Additonally, let's be honest, the only reason MN sends more kids to D1 schools is simply because there are more kids who play hockey hear in MN. Guess what? I bet California sends more players to Major League Baseball than say Idaho. Oh....could it be that California has more kids that play baseball?

EXACTLY! And why do you think more kids play Hockey in Minnesota? It's because we have a Community Based Model. Just because you feel that your kid was the victim of politics or that the coach was out to get him does not change that.

[JSR]

Another Non-Minnesotan predicting the demise of the Community Model. Everyone here is keen to the motive behind this so you guys might as well just start saving your breath. Relax, the State added one Tier 1 team that hasn't even played a game yet. Tired of the politics and coaches ego? Yeah, because it's way worse in Association hockey than AAA. People will try it out because they think Little Richie is wasting his talents playing with the riff-raff in the Association, or that the coach in the Association is not focused enough on little Richie's path to the NHL. To these people the grass is always greener; right up until it isn't. The real test will be how many do it for more than one season. My best guess is that it won't even really get off the ground here. I've said it a hundred times, it only works in other states because you either play AAA or you don't play. Fortunately, we don't have that problem here. Everyone gets to play with their buddies in their communities, at a fraction of the cost, against the best competition in the world, all within a short drive. This "Dying" system produces the most Division 1 and Pro Hockey players in the Country. Winter AAA hockey doesn't have much to offer here for 99.9% of the parents. It's only the .1% that have the next lil' Gretzky that may find it attractive.

I may not have been born here, but I do live and pay taxes here and my kid did play Association hockey and presently plays High School hockey. I will not disagree that Tier 1 is free of politics or coaches egos. It's everywhere. However, in MN hockey if you are the victim of either of these things, where do you play? B1, C or Jurnior Gold A or B if your kid is in High School? If you do not make a certain Tier 1 team, you have the ability to try out for another Tier 1 team. There are options and you don't have to physically sell your home to play for someone else. Additonally, let's be honest, the only reason MN sends more kids to D1 schools is simply because there are more kids who play hockey hear in MN. Guess what? I bet California sends more players to Major League Baseball than say Idaho. Oh....could it be that California has more kids that play baseball?

I guess I can speak from experience, I played JV two years and then got cut. So yes i played Junior Gold A. I had a blast because its actually a fun and competitive league *gasp*
My thought process after playing that senior year on JGA was I just wasn't good enough for much after high school. Maybe politics played a part in why another guy who I played JV two years with made the big boy team but maybe he was just the better player.
I could have played Tier 1 at some point, I could have got cut from one team and tried to play for another Tier 1 team like you said, but in the end why would I want to waste all that money when I had the option to play competitive hockey at my high school? When that didn't work out why would I waste all that money when there is another competitive league in my town?
Once I got cut I realized I didn't have a future in hockey. I had no reason to waste my money playing Tier 1.
My point is this, why waste your money with Tier 1 when so many kids get noticed here in High school hockey? If you're good enough to play college or juniors they will find you. You don't have to change towns to get noticed.(Example: Andrew Sackrison, played on a bad St. Louis Park team but was noticed, or Hanowski in small town Little Falls) And this last part is my own personal view but if you get cut you probably weren't good enough to make the next step so why waste your money for Tier 1 hockey when Junior Gold is a fine option?

Green this is an excellent post. Well thought out, humble and a quality attitude about your playing days.... that said your last statement is somewhat telling of the one downside of MN Hockey for some people. That being that there are so many kids playing in MN and they do have so much talent that some kids aren't allowed to grow and progress at their own rate. To say you weren't good enough for the next level just because you got cut from your high school may or may not be true, I mean I know there are players who probably got cut from say, Edina that would be excellent players elsewhere..... I mean we have high school hockey here in WI and kids rarely get cut due to most of them needing numbers jsut to field two teams or even one team in some places and you'd be amazed at how many of them start to finally flourish in their senior year on teams not close to as good as MN High School teams playing against teams that aren't as good as most MN High School teams.... that is the rub for some kids and players in MN, the fact that they never really get to reach those higher peaks beause some uber talent is always ahead of them yet they themselves might have it in them to play beyond high school if only they had a legitimate chance to keep playing at a level that isn't looked down upon by unknowing outsiders. I mean JR Gold might be better than most WI High Schools but I'd wager that if you had two IDENTICAL kids with one playing at a WI High School abnd the other playing MN JR Gold, the WI High School kid would probably still have a chance to get a sniff while the JR Gold kid probably would not. The WI kid would also probably still have the "dream alive", while the JR Gold kid probably let it die... these are not facts but observations based on what I see as well.... (PS this does NOT mean I think MN Hockey is dying, and it does NOT mean I think Tier 1 is the answer, I merely respnding to that last line of green's post)

[JSR]

Ok, different question. Does anyone know any actual facts related to B-E. How are they doing? Will they actually be able to field teams at all their levels this year? Any objective, factual news anyone has heard or read recently? Just curious how it's doing?

[WestMetro]

Regarding PuckStopper81s comment:

Yes, for now Minn continues to beat all states in D1 and American born NHL draftees. And of course a big part of that is because of having more kids playing youth hockey , which in turn traces back to climate, arena funding, cultural and other factors.

But , as youth hockey continues to increase and improve in more populous Eastern states as well as Chicago, Texas and LA, Minn will have more difficulty rankings tops in those benchmarks by the sheer force of demographics.

So Minn needs to come up with additional new and creative ways to stay on top. Retaining best of what we have and improving upon it.

Many threads have debated about the need for more games per season, more all star in state competition, spring Elite national tournaments, HS vs Juniors, etc so no sense rehashing all that again here.

Additionally, we need to work harder at being an importer of more young youth hockey talent and make sure none of our home grown talent is early exported. To name a couple specifics: 1) continue to work harder at attracting Scandinavian hockey playing immigrant families , which is a natural for Minnesota anyway and Scandys also happen to be larger people 2) lobby to get the NTDP moved to Rochester concurrent with Mayos $5 billion expansion , since Ann Arbor is a 60s and 70s logic location, and clearly in 2015 the NTDP should be locate in the State of Hockey

[JSR]

Regarding PuckStopper81s comment:

Yes, for now Minn continues to beat all states in D1 and American born NHL draftees. And of course a big part of that is because of having more kids playing youth hockey , which in turn traces back to climate, arena funding, cultural and other factors.

But , as youth hockey continues to increase and improve in more populous Eastern states as well as Chicago, Texas and LA, Minn will have more difficulty rankings tops in those benchmarks by the sheer force of demographics.

So Minn needs to come up with additional new and creative ways to stay on top. Retaining best of what we have and improving upon it.

Many threads have debated about the need for more games per season, more all star in state competition, spring Elite national tournaments, HS vs Juniors, etc so no sense rehashing all that again here.

Additionally, we need to work harder at being an importer of more young youth hockey talent and make sure none of our home grown talent is early exported. To name a couple specifics: 1) continue to work harder at attracting Scandinavian hockey playing immigrant families , which is a natural for Minnesota anyway and Scandys also happen to be larger people 2) lobby to get the NTDP moved to Rochester concurrent with Mayos $5 billion expansion , since Ann Arbor is a 60s and 70s logic location, and clearly in 2015 the NTDP should be locate in the State of Hockey

Just curious, the US NTDP was launched in 1996, how was 60s and 70s logic used for a program launched in the mid 90's. Just curious?

[WestMetro]

Amongst the likely inputs for the location choices were the influence/glory days of the University of Michigan hockey program which was dominant in decades gone by, and approximate location midpoint between Chicago, Detroit/Windsor and Port Huron/Sarnia. As well as between Massachusetts and Minnesota.

None of these seem as relevant as in the past in terms of the national NTDP brand image, or matter as much for travel efficiency

Nor did the original location choice foresee the explosive growth of youth hockey in the NW Chicago suburbs, Wisc St. Louis, Texas, Phoenix, LA.

Assuming one believes in the concept of a robust NTDP to begin with, Minnesota seems now to be a more natural national reputation brand choice, and more natural centralized geographic location, with equal or better transportation choices and efficiency for all relevant transportation needs.

Rochester MN would be an excellent new site. Every parent in youth hockey outside of Minnesota has a good feeling about Minnesota hockey and community, and good name recognition of Mayo Clinic.

[JSR]

Amongst the likely inputs for the location choices were the influence/glory days of the University of Michigan hockey program which was dominant in decades gone by, and approximate location midpoint between Chicago, Detroit/Windsor and Port Huron/Sarnia. As well as between Massachusetts and Minnesota.

None of these seem as relevant as in the past in terms of the national NTDP brand image, or matter as much for travel efficiency

Nor did the original location choice foresee the explosive growth of youth hockey in the NW Chicago suburbs, Wisc St. Louis, Texas, Phoenix, LA.

Assuming one believes in the concept of a robust NTDP to begin with, Minnesota seems now to be a more natural national reputation brand choice, and more natural centralized geographic location, with equal or better transportation choices and efficiency for all relevant transportation needs.

Rochester MN would be an excellent new site. Every parent in youth hockey outside of Minnesota has a good feeling about Minnesota hockey and community, and good name recognition of Mayo Clinic.

Interesting take... I disagree with some of it, but interesting none the less

[karl(east)]

Amongst the likely inputs for the location choices were the influence/glory days of the University of Michigan hockey program which was dominant in decades gone by, and approximate location midpoint between Chicago, Detroit/Windsor and Port Huron/Sarnia. As well as between Massachusetts and Minnesota.

None of these seem as relevant as in the past in terms of the national NTDP brand image, or matter as much for travel efficiency

Nor did the original location choice foresee the explosive growth of youth hockey in the NW Chicago suburbs, Wisc St. Louis, Texas, Phoenix, LA.

Assuming one believes in the concept of a robust NTDP to begin with, Minnesota seems now to be a more natural national reputation brand choice, and more natural centralized geographic location, with equal or better transportation choices and efficiency for all relevant transportation needs.

Rochester MN would be an excellent new site. Every parent in youth hockey outside of Minnesota has a good feeling about Minnesota hockey and community, and good name recognition of Mayo Clinic.

Interesting take... I disagree with some of it, but interesting none the less

Interesting, certainly...any questions I ask are out of genuine curiosity. But, when I read this, my question is...what is the tangible benefit to MN for bringing the NTDP here? Is it really going to help MN players more? Same thing with recruiting Scandinavians...sure, it might help MN team win things and help MN keep this vague claim to being the "state of hockey," but does that really strengthen the foundations of hockey in the state?

I always go back to Herb Brooks here, who hated it when the US tried naturalizing Canadians to improve its Olympic teams. I'm not sure I'm as rigid as Herbie was; those players could help in the short term, and a handful (like Lou Nanne) have gone on to do great things for MN hockey. But is that really a long-term strategy?

To really strengthen hockey in this state long-term, it probably makes most sense to stick with the old Brooks-ism about expanding the base of the pyramid. Keep things as cheap as possible, and expand into areas where hockey is still relatively weak (southern MN, among minorities), allow as much year-round access to ice as possible, good (but sane) offseason training, and so on.

[WestMetro]

No disagreement about keeping what works. Like I said in my earlier post:

" Retaining best of what we have and improving upon it. "

But lets realize that the sheer demographics of the growth of youth hockey in other megapopulation centers is going to outpace Minnesotas normal organic growth


"So Minn needs to come up with additional new and creative ways to stay on top."

[JSR]

Amongst the likely inputs for the location choices were the influence/glory days of the University of Michigan hockey program which was dominant in decades gone by, and approximate location midpoint between Chicago, Detroit/Windsor and Port Huron/Sarnia. As well as between Massachusetts and Minnesota.

None of these seem as relevant as in the past in terms of the national NTDP brand image, or matter as much for travel efficiency

Nor did the original location choice foresee the explosive growth of youth hockey in the NW Chicago suburbs, Wisc St. Louis, Texas, Phoenix, LA.

Assuming one believes in the concept of a robust NTDP to begin with, Minnesota seems now to be a more natural national reputation brand choice, and more natural centralized geographic location, with equal or better transportation choices and efficiency for all relevant transportation needs.

Rochester MN would be an excellent new site. Every parent in youth hockey outside of Minnesota has a good feeling about Minnesota hockey and community, and good name recognition of Mayo Clinic.

Interesting take... I disagree with some of it, but interesting none the less

Interesting, certainly...any questions I ask are out of genuine curiosity. But, when I read this, my question is...what is the tangible benefit to MN for bringing the NTDP here? Is it really going to help MN players more? Same thing with recruiting Scandinavians...sure, it might help MN team win things and help MN keep this vague claim to being the "state of hockey," but does that really strengthen the foundations of hockey in the state?

I always go back to Herb Brooks here, who hated it when the US tried naturalizing Canadians to improve its Olympic teams. I'm not sure I'm as rigid as Herbie was; those players could help in the short term, and a handful (like Lou Nanne) have gone on to do great things for MN hockey. But is that really a long-term strategy?

To really strengthen hockey in this state long-term, it probably makes most sense to stick with the old Brooks-ism about expanding the base of the pyramid. Keep things as cheap as possible, and expand into areas where hockey is still relatively weak (southern MN, among minorities), allow as much year-round access to ice as possible, good (but sane) offseason training, and so on.

Something occurred to me in reading your response Karl, that being would relocating the USNTDP to MN strengthen hockey in MN, or would it potentially weaken the base of the pyramid. right now staying at home, being with your friends, skating for a state title are still decent incentives for a kid to "stay home" and play hockey and alot of kids who could be on the USNDTP do stay home for almost no other rreason than not wanting to move away from family etc... at such a young age yet. Move the USNTDP to MN and would more Minnesotans take them up on their offer (not tons but still more) and in turn inadvertantly take even more high school players from their commuity based programs (not tons but still more) hence weakening the base of the pyamid because now they can play USNTDP without leaving home. Does that make sense?

[WestMetro]

JSR

That's one of the many complex questions involved.

I don't claim to have all the answers.

As I say, obviously keep what works, including the community association model, and come up with additional creative ideas.

Lets start with the (my) premise that Minn internal organic growth at the base of the pyramid, even with best efforts, cant keep up with the huge growth of youth hockey in the megapopulation centers, therefore eventually threatening Minn's longheld first place ranking as talent provider to D1 college and NHL American player ranks.

What then does Minn do?

Two high level themes , each with many subthemes and complexities which have been the discussion of numerous threads ....

1 Find ways to keep and improve the talent that we DO generate organically.

2 Attract new young outstate/outcountry families at the Mite/Squirt level to further increase the base of the pyramid beyond the organic level.

Regarding the complexities of moving NTDP to Rochester:

Moving NTDP to Rochester is probably neutral with respect to #1, being that a Rochester location would probably mean no more or less Minn U18 HS departures that we have already, but at least weve kept our talent and related economic activity in the state rather than acceptingly let it go outstate. Also easier on Minnesota families and hockey viewers of course.

But a Minnesota NTDP location is a plus to #2, in helping to further spotlight Minn which will help to attract more nationwide young families to relocate to Minnesota in the first place, to be closer to the best youth hockey programs in the country.

Those young families in suburban Chic, St L. , Dallas, LA, Phoenix would have a good feeling about relocating to Minn. Should their kid have a shot at NTDP later, Im sure theyd have a better feeling about sending him to Minn vs Southern Michigan.

A Rochester location, concurrent with Mayos $5 billion expansion program, might also help rejump start Southern Minns AA hockey talent feeder programs, which needs some juicing as mentioned in Karls note.

,

[karl(east)]

Interesting discussion. A little more food for thought?

Do people move to Ann Arbor just to get close to NTDP? Does being in the same place as it actually increase the likelihood of making the team? Obviously it helps to be in a region of the country that is well-scouted, but beyond that, does location really matter? I'm just wondering if this actually happens. I've been around enough hockey parents to believe it could happen, but I'd need a little more than that to believe it makes sense.

Additionally, there are (uncorroborated, but not implausible) claims that USA Hockey effectively has a quota system in place on the number of players they bring in from different regions, so as to spread the love and give players from non-traditional hockey regions a chance to play at a high level. If that's true, does it really matter where it's located?

If that isn't true...JSR, I don't think it would really damage the base of they pyramid to lose 4 more players to the NTDP. We've already been at the point for a while where many NTDP-caliber players leave, at least one year early. I'm not yet convinced it would help either, though, and if it doesn't, that's a lot of time, effort, and money...all for what?

I agree that, if done right, this could generate some enthusiasm for hockey in a place like Rochester. That could be a tangible benefit. Is it enough of one?

[Juggernaut]

Ok, different question. Does anyone know any actual facts related to B-E. How are they doing? Will they actually be able to field teams at all their levels this year? Any objective, factual news anyone has heard or read recently? Just curious how it's doing?

Anyone know any answers?

[imlisteningtothefnsong]

All questions should be answered during the weekend of September 18th-21st
The Schwann Showcase has both Bauer-Emerson U18 and U16 teams playing. The girls program seems to be solid. I will be just as curious as you Jugger to see who stayed or is new over there.

[mnhockeyguy2014]

All questions should be answered during the weekend of September 18th-21st
The Schwann Showcase has both Bauer-Emerson U18 and U16 teams playing. The girls program seems to be solid. I will be just as curious as you Jugger to see who stayed or is new over there.

I agree that the girls program should be solid and competitive with most Tier 1 teams.. They have picked up quite a few high end HS upper classmen for this season and only lost a couple players. They hoped to field a U14 team this year but will have a U16 and U19 this season.
Being that all Tier I tryouts were done across the country when BE announced their Tier 1 status I suspect the 1st year will be rocky for the boys but could improve dramatically the following year. I wish both programs eventual success.

[fastncrash]

U16 Boys

MN Magicians 18 - B E Rev. 1

Ouch.

[old goalie85]

How many T1 teams are in Mn ?

[BP]

How many T1 teams are in Mn ?

I think 4. There may be 5. Blades, Magicians, Northern MN, and B-E Rev.

[Froggy Richards]

How many T1 teams are in Mn ?

I think 4. There may be 5. Blades, Magicians, Northern MN, and B-E Rev.

There are 5. Blades, Magicians and Northern Wings are Before and After.
Shattuck and B-E are full timers.

[old goalie85]

When does BE play the Blades ??

[observer]

What/who are the Magicians U16?

[old goalie85]

I think they are out of Prior Lake/ They run the Warrior Cup in the spring.