Top 10 Squirt A teams

Napalm187 · Post by **Napalm187** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 1:24 pm

After seeing the Bantams and Pee Wee's threads, I thought I'd take a crack at the Squirts.

1. Rosemount
2. Stillwater
3. OMG
4. Andover
5. Edina
6. Jefferson
7. Blaine
8. White Bear Lake
9. C/C
10 EP or other Edina

Up North, I think Brainerd, Greenway and Warroad will be up there with Metro boys.

YouthHockeyHub · Post by **YouthHockeyHub** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 1:48 pm

Napalm - great post. You are obviously a reader of our site (haha).

I like your first four, your order is different than mine, but spot on as far as the teams. Number 5 is anybody's guess: I like Blaine or Rochester

Edina Green or Edina White won't crack our top 10 (it seems odd to type that sentence). Jefferson is not T10, but will push the envelope in the 11-20 range. Warroad has some nice players returning, but their depth is suspect as will be their strength of schedule.

Watch out for Rochester. They sent their check in for our tournament a couple days after the announcement.

Our preseason Top Ten for SQA will publish in November sometime.

You forgot some of the usual suspects like Tonka, Moorhead, Prior Lake and Elk River. Some teams that will surprise: St. Francis, Princeton and Forest Lake.

Bantams comes out this week.

Napalm187 · Post by **Napalm187** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 2:26 pm

Tonka will be a little down. Have some good D and a forward or two, but goaltending and depth is question mark. Edge of top 20. PL doesn't have much firepower. Decent skill and great goaltending, but this group isn't anywhere near their pee wees from last year. Haven't seen too much out of Moorhead. ER will be OK. Best player is not playing there this year, but they'll end up in top 15. Princeton and FL?? Wonder what OG85 thinks about his flakers. St. Francis won't be in top 20. Their great goalie moved down South, and they don't have depth to be in top 20. Rochester? Some of the better players down south are from Mankato and Owatonna...have not heard much about Rochester. Who knows. I think Rosemount is hands down the best team. Andover will be right there. Is CS 01 moving to pee wees or is still a squirt? Jeff has a great goalie and goal-scorer, two big things at squirts along with some other solid players. Depth will hurt, but they could be on edge of top 10. EP will be good, but no where near depth of last year. Blaine has got some great players, but questions at goaltending and D. Should be interesting. Lot of parity I think at squirt level. Should be wide open.

old goalie85 · Post by **old goalie85** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 5:17 pm

Naper-We will find out about our squirts early. Three teams in your top ten[OMG/Andover/Blaine] will be in our thanksgiving tournament. I have a kid on that team so I will hold off on any perdictions untill we play someone. Elkriver is also coming to our place that weekend. Tony It's starting to sound like our winner should get a place in your event. $\:D/$

old goalie85 · Post by **old goalie85** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 6:23 pm

Wait I missed Chaska/Chan. Throw in the Elks. Lookinh good.

mnhockey2019 · Post by **mnhockey2019** » Tue Oct 09, 2012 7:49 pm

Andover is the team to beat. Heavy dose of returning players and one of St. Francis' top players has moved to Andover. Good depth and good talent are tough to beat.

old goalie85 · Post by **old goalie85** » Tue Oct 09, 2012 8:12 pm

Does anyone know where Jefferson/Tonka/EP are playing thanksgiving ?? They would be great additions in FL !!!

YouthHockeyHub · Post by **YouthHockeyHub** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 11:23 am

scary that I know this, but I think all played in Hopkins last year.

Tonka and EP played each other

Jeff PeeWees and Bantams played in Hopkins last year, so I think the squirts did too.

Talking to a buddy at the SQA level yesterday on what tournaments they are in and he said, "you know the same ones we do every year..."

The good Squirt teams are very cautious on their game counts because of our tournament at the end of the year. I have taken several calls from all over the state asking about the game count rules.

All I can say is that 35 doesn't always equal 35. Every District Director interprets the number 35 differently. They also interpret what is a game and what is a "scrimmage" very different.

observer · Post by **observer** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 12:45 pm

A couple of things.

OG, A tourneys are tough. Big associations have 1 A team and 10 B and C teams. Because of that B and C tourneys are much easier to fill. Eden Prairie will register 1 A team and 6 B teams for Thanksgiving tourneys. Plus, as mentioned, a number of teams return to tourneys year after year. Proximity to home is important as no one wants to spend their Thanksgiving weekend driving all over the map. Some of these Thanksgiving tourneys are over 20 years old.

And, there are really very few get togethers that qualify as a scrimmage any more. If there's a clock, a ref, and a score, it's a game. Period. No grey area.

old goalie85 · Post by **old goalie85** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 1:16 pm

I get it, but we are @ nine right now so maybe once Fargo's teams get picked we will pick up a few more. Who knows maybe someday this one will be 30 yrs old!?! Trying to contact Canadian teams right now. Thanks for the imput, Your posts make sense. With the said game counts our 17 min stops should help.

YouthHockeyHub · Post by **YouthHockeyHub** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 10:32 am

observer wrote: And, there are really very few get togethers that qualify as a scrimmage any more. If there's a clock, a ref, and a score, it's a game. Period. No grey area.

Totally agree. That's a game, no two ways about it.

Where it gets gray is when teams get together and practice together for a bit and then scrimmage at the end with no refs, no clock, etc. Some districts count that as a game.

pineline · Post by **pineline** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 11:59 am

Per B'ville site Tonka is registered for that tourney along with Edina White and PL/Savage.

Hockey guy1486 · Post by **Hockey guy1486** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 2:27 pm

These are SQUIRTS! There should be no "Top 10" and no one should be talking about "Top D and Top F" on a team. A good coach would have all kids playing both F and D to better learn the game. WOW

no5hole · Post by **no5hole** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:58 am

Amen, HG1486

Aimforthefivehole · Post by **Aimforthefivehole** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:04 am

I will say this about ranking the squirts, it's a VERY good indicator or where these associations are headed (Pee Wees and Bantams). In that respect it has value. Edina's current Bantam Team, PL's Pee Wee team from last year both did extremely well in squirts (and in Fargo) so as they move up in age they continue to have success and you can see it by the banners they are hanging in their rinks.

old goalie85 · Post by **old goalie85** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 8:42 am

This same deal comes up every year. If you don't like like don't read it. It's your "choice"!!!

Napalm187 · Post by **Napalm187** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:49 am

I can't believe OG85 and I are agreeing...but he is right. Seen this every year, there is no one forcing you to read the thread. No kids names are being used, and I'm pretty sure that no kids read this site. I'd hope parents wouldn't let their kids look at it. Mine don't. I'm sure when kids get to HS, they get on here.

There are a lot of things in our hockey culture that we don't agree with, but their are rankings and stats for many things for kids these ages. Look at the NAHC website, Velocity squirt stats, Caribou Cup stats...for U8 girls! You can debate the right and wrong of it, but its out there on the interwebs. As long as it's not negative or talking about specific kids, I don't see too much harm. Except to some parents egos.

DrGaf · Post by **DrGaf** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 2:35 pm

YHH / TS:

when are you gong to add a fantasy league to your site? I want in.

no5hole · Post by **no5hole** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 6:03 pm

I agreed with not ranking squirts, never said I don't have fun reading over zealous parents rankings and responses

Sunsetcliffs98 · Post by **Sunsetcliffs98** » Thu Nov 15, 2012 10:24 am

I've seen some squirt games the past few years and these kids are GOOD. They understand the game and are fun to watch.

If some people want to throw out a ranking from what they see and are not using kids names, have fun! Somehow they are overzealous? Ranking Peewees who are 11 is somehow acceptable but if they are 10 you are nuts. I don't get it.

old goalie85 · Post by **old goalie85** » Sat Nov 17, 2012 11:11 am

Andover looks damn good to me. Andover 8- Forest Lake 0. It could have been 16-0.

Welcome to the Gongshow · Thu Nov 22, 2012 10:00 pm

The top 4 are

Wild
Saints
North stars
Moose

All at the made

zigima · Post by **zigima** » Fri Nov 23, 2012 8:03 am

Welcome to the Gongshow wrote:The top 4 are

Wild
Saints
North stars
Moose

All at the made

Not even close!

Woodsticks · Post by **Woodsticks** » Fri Nov 23, 2012 5:29 pm

Welcome to the Gongshow wrote:The top 4 are

Wild
Saints
North stars
Moose

All at the made

No doubt those are the top four teams in the "super squirt" league. Must get kind of boring playing the same three teams over and over and over and over again!

That being said I'm sure it is very good squirt hockey based on some of the kids I know who chose to play there.

chumby · Post by **chumby** » Mon Dec 03, 2012 7:07 pm

Been there done that. Choice squirts or whatever its called now is good B level hockey at best.