D-3 Hockey...How good is it?

[USAHOCKEY4LIFE]

i just wanted some input on D-3 hockey and thoughts about how good it actually is

[hipcheck]

Rather a vague question, but here goes.

D3 is quite good hockey. Some players are very skilled and exciting to watch. Normally goaltending is solid on the top teams. Coaching is geared towards further development and lots of hustle. Any player that wants to keep playing the game, but quite isn't D1 caliber should give it a try. Many of the D3 players have played two years of junior hockey after highschool.

The top D3 teams will normally have a top line that could possibly play at the D1 level.(Not be the stars, but could play)

[hockeyfan95]

a lot of D3 athletes choose that route because they want to go to school to go to school, and they just want to play for the love of the game.

[Hockeyguy_27]

a lot of D3 athletes choose that route because they want to go to school to go to school, and they just want to play for the love of the game.

It is pretty darn good!

I've always thought St. Thomas should be a Division 1 team. They have a first rate coach and seem to have the money to do this.

[cheapshot]

I think that it is good enough that the majority of players playing high school hockey would not be able to step in and play consistently as freshman. Most of these teams now take either blue chip high school players directly from high school, or guys that have played a couple of years of junior.

[hockeyfan95]

[quote="Hockeyguy_27"][quote="hockeyfan95"]a lot of D3 athletes choose that route because they want to go to school to go to school, and they just want to play for the love of the game.[/quote]

It is pretty darn good!

I've always thought St. Thomas should be a Division 1 team. They have a first rate coach and seem to have the money to do this.[/quote]


i wasn't dissing d3 hockey, i'm just saying that the guys who play d3 have different reasons for choosing where they go and whether they play or not. a lot of people don't give d3 athletes enough credit. they don't expect to see good hockey, and yeah, the pace of the game might be a little bit slower than d1, but the players still are really good.

[GAC02]

d3 hockey is fun to watch and many squads have alot of talented players. most of the top line guys have some juniors experiance such as NAHL or even quite a few from the USHL, even schools that have jv teams at the d3 level play good competative games. most of these guys were top line players on their high school team or even might have some lowere level junior time. fun games to watch check it out.

[justletemplay]

Many good observations given here. My opinion - D3 is for education first, (in most of this area schools) religion may have something to do with it and of course a very competitive league to play in. Most teams have a line who could "play" with D1 but would need to prepare for it. Several home arenas have the HS hometown atmosphere which you generally lose in a big arena. Seldom a blow out so competition is very tight. Heck, it's just real good hockey to watch.
Go to any MIAC school website for schedule and go watch a few games, you won't be disappointed.

[Wisco]

Some kids dont want to "use three years of there life" in juniors when they might end up playing D-3 anyways, so some top high school players do go straight to D-3. If you look at top D-3 rosters, almost all of the players last team were in the NAHL. It's still very good hockey and not taking anything away from juniors, but it might be a better route for some kids than going to juniors and hoping for that D-1 scholarship to come.