AAA

[slapper5]

What AAA team ould be your choice of being on

[woody22]

Blades.

[buckeyehockey17]

well in the summer, i am not looking at where i can go to win a lot of games. I am looking for a place where my son as a player can develop his skills. So I would have to say i would go to the Rockets.

[jancze5]

Detroit HONEYBAKED

[regdunlop77]

The Marlies, for sure.

http://www.torontomarlboros.com/

[Mr. Danglz 69]

I was originally going to play for the 93 minnesota fighting saints which i have been playing for, for the past 5 years but the parents didnt want it so its done. I will be playing for the minnesota rockets or possibly the minnesota stars

[hattrickhockey6]

personally, i wouldn't play on a team. Go to a good camp with lots of ice and dryland training. Get bigger faster and stronger. You play lots of games during the regular season. You need to work on strength speed and skills

[ozone1]

Right on Hattrickhockey6, AAA is more about the dad's trying to prove to the world they should be behind the Wild or Gopher bench than anything else. Get into at least two other sports, do a hockey camp or stp and work on your strength and conditioning. Come back stronger and hungrier and by then the AAA kids will be so fed up at getting screamed at by daddy they will be very beatable come tryouts.

[gabT]

It all depends on which team you are on. I played for the 91' icemen and i think our practice to game ratio was about 4:1. If you are looking for development try to find a team who practices a lot.

[northwoods oldtimer]

hattrickhockey6 you are absolutely correct on this comment. I have to listen to way too many Dads in our program who brag about some July triple A B.S. all winter long. Double whammy as my duaghters 14U has some parents talking the same smack. Than when I watch their kids play all winter long some are 3rd liners and some of them lack team playing skills and WILL NOT move the puck.
AAA feeds some dads ego and that is about it. Some of the guys who do STP and one or 2 weekends are far better off. That seems to be the norm over in Duluth area and look where East, Marshall, Hermantown end up every year!
Your approach makes sense to many of us who cover this forum.

[greenwayhockey19]

does anybody know how the 93 bruins are?

[greenwayhockey19]

[quote="northwoods oldtimer"]hattrickhockey6 you are absolutely correct on this comment. I have to listen to way too many Dads in our program who brag about some July triple A B.S. all winter long. Double whammy as my duaghters 14U has some parents talking the same smack. Than when I watch their kids play all winter long some are 3rd liners and some of them lack team playing skills and WILL NOT move the puck.
AAA feeds some dads ego and that is about it. Some of the guys who do STP and one or 2 weekends are far better off. That seems to be the norm over in Duluth area and look where East, Marshall, Hermantown end up every year!
Your approach makes sense to many of us who cover this forum.[/quote]


I couldnt agree more i've been in stp for 4 years and its payed off big time. It not only got me an all around better player it gave me more confidence. With everything this programe has given me its made me one of the better players around for my age group and i just want to say thanks to who put this program together.

[youngblood52]

I agree with the camps way also. During AAA you work on powerplay, forecheck, breakout, pk, etc. Thats not necessarily going to help you. If you go to camp and wokr on your skills, then you go into a tryout and impress the coaches. Let's say you play on the rockets, just for an example dont get it twisted, what the coaches there are teaching, may not be the same thing that the coach in your associations bantam team, or the varsity coach is looking for. Most of the time they look for a player who would fit into their system well, and if you're playing a bsystem that you learned in the summer, you could get screwed over.

So if you ask me, go get stronger, and get faster, and overall learn the fundamentals because they will go a long way

[Hockeyguy_27]

I agree with the camps way also. During AAA you work on powerplay, forecheck, breakout, pk, etc. Thats not necessarily going to help you. If you go to camp and wokr on your skills, then you go into a tryout and impress the coaches. Let's say you play on the rockets, just for an example dont get it twisted, what the coaches there are teaching, may not be the same thing that the coach in your associations bantam team, or the varsity coach is looking for. Most of the time they look for a player who would fit into their system well, and if you're playing a bsystem that you learned in the summer, you could get screwed over.

So if you ask me, go get stronger, and get faster, and overall learn the fundamentals because they will go a long way

I don't know it seems to me there is far too much emphasis on individual skill being developed and not enough understanding of team concepts and mental hockey development. Don't get me wrong you need skill but experiencing game situations with and against better players is invaluable. True AAA hockey is some of the best hockey I've seen. I do agree however with the contention that many AAA teams are barely AA quality and a lot of the parents want to get their kids involved for their own egos. If you kid is good enough to play for the Blades or the Machine and you don't mind spending the majority of your summer playing hockey, then by all means go for it but this doesn't insure your kid will be a top level high school or college player contrary to the thoughts of many parents.

[jancze5]

AAA is about taking the best kids and playing them together against other organizations that do the same...

EXAMPLE: on the 94 or Minnesota PW A level this year...the Colorado Thunderbirds 94 PW MAJ team went to the AAA National Championship in USA Hockey...just so happens this same team came to Minnesota around Christmas and lambasted every top Minnesota PWA team...why??

Because they have the top 17 kids in the Denver/Springs area all together on a AAA team against the Minnesota teams of local players only.

If we took the top 17 kids from Minnesota and placed them together each winter as the Little Gopher AAA's...they would do the same thing, but Minnesota doesn't need to do that to produce players.

Just a thought, but for some players in other parts of the US, the AAA is the best place to develop because the local AA/A/B leagues have zero talent at all. If a 14 year old kid scores 100 goals in the Atlanta Metro league, it means nothing, he'd score 3 in District 6.

[skillbuilder]

Youngblood52
The off season AAA team that I coach works on individual skill items for the lions share of all our practices. The kids enjoy playing games and we reward their hard work in practice with enough of them to keep them excited about hockey. Our group uses AAA hockey to develop kids because club hockey is not set up to do it. A participation based model is inherently flawed in that capacity and when you compound that with in season agenda's the off season is the only hope for some kids to keep pace with other players. Your one size fits all discription of what AAA is does not define all of us.
Skillbuilder

[Reality Check]

Kids sure have changed these days. Don't get me wrong, I love hockey and always will, but the last thing I wanted to do in the summer was go to a hockey practice. We talking bout PRACTICE!

[Hockeyguy_27]

Kids sure have changed these days. Don't get me wrong, I love hockey and always will, but the last thing I wanted to do in the summer was go to a hockey practice. We talking bout PRACTICE!

I agree, hockey has become a little psycho these days. There are too many hockey robots who play nothing but this sport.

[watchdog]

triple a can help a kid make good transfers from squirt to peewee ect... there's something to be said about playing with and against the best to bring up your game speed and thought process that you dont get going to a camp. when you really get down to it the best place to hone skills in the summer are in your drive way or in the gym. camps in my opinion are worth zero....ok you can meet some coaches at these camps to make some connections.

[High Flyer]

CO dosn't have nearly the number of kids playing hockey that MN does and so this not a good comparision. Two years ago this same group from CO came up hear and played the top PW A teams and beat them all. Did you know that 8 of those kids were 94's outplaying 91's????

I also know a team from Nashville, TN (TPH Thunder) that would love to come to MN and play district 6 team and they will win 80% of thier games. Also one more from Dallas that would winthem all.

[High Flyer]

One other thing, the 94 MN Baldes Summer AAA "allstar MN team", (the best MN team at the 94 level) got beat by the 94 Team Harro (AKA same CO kids) last summer. So much for your allstar MN theroy.

In addition, a lot of these other states top players are playing AA or A hockey thier, because they can't afford the AAA costs.

[selloutcrowd99]

high flyer i think its time you need to shut your mouth. no one on this board cares about your tennessee or colorado hockey. Who cares if one of your team beat the 94 blades? They aren't professionals and just because they are the blades does not mean they have the best players. Minnesota has the best hockey around. You could throw in michigan and massachusetts but they don't nearly have as many players as we do. If you wanna brag about your team why don't you go on your Colorado board and do it...oh yeah that's right you don't have one.

[thestateofhockey777]

I'll second that. I came on here quick to see what was goin on and I see this High Flyer guy coming on here and from what I thought looked like a fine post with his own opinion on something quickly turned into a stupid "lets talk up some teams from CO and how they did against the teams from MN" and pretty much a rip on the teams here in MN sorta of thing. Well thats cool that you know this team from there and another team from over there, but it really doesnt have anything to do with the topic of discussion on this thread. The starting post on this thread was "Which AAA team would be your choice?"....hmm sounds like the stuff your saying doesnt have much to do with that at all does it?

[jancze5]

Highflyer....before you spoke your turn here, you should've taken the time to research the final outcome up at Toronto Prospects where the 94 BLADES managed to make it all the way to the finals before falling to the Niagara Vipers. The second tourney in a row my sons teams lost to them..as they also won the Nike Bauer in Niagara/St Catherines a few weeks ago over the New YORK Mission.

My theory on Colorado is exact, as we were there for 3 years not so long ago and my son played with 90% of the 94 Thunderbirds...different animal going on there now with AAA. Bottom line, Minnesota is DEEP with #'s period. The top talent isn't any better at the younger ages in any one area, there's just more of it. The 94 Thunderbirds didn't belong in a local A tournament in Minnesota last christmas, they massively outclassed the local PW A teams. Hense my comparison of a Blades type team or whatever All Star team could be made with the top 17 players from Minnesota at ANY LEVEL would compete at the top of the charts against ANY AAA teams in the country....BUT, there just isn't any comparison to really make based on the theory of hockey the different areas.

Minnesota is high school hockey based and geared...you aren't, so you wouldn't understand what's going on in this neighborhood. And Shattuck isn't exactly this neighborhood, as most of the top Minnesota kids go to Breck/St Thomas/Etc...

[Hockeyguy_27]

CO dosn't have nearly the number of kids playing hockey that MN does and so this not a good comparision. Two years ago this same group from CO came up hear and played the top PW A teams and beat them all. Did you know that 8 of those kids were 94's outplaying 91's????

I also know a team from Nashville, TN (TPH Thunder) that would love to come to MN and play district 6 team and they will win 80% of thier games. Also one more from Dallas that would winthem all.

The 94 Blades are not all or even half of the best 94 players in MN and perhaps the weekest of all the Blades teams in spite of their recent success.

Besides the Littleton or Thunderbirds team draw out of huge areas. Of course they had success playing down in an A tournament.