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Thomas Vanek's ITR 26'ers Teams have added some of the top players in the region. In the very competitive Minnesota world of Hockey Schools and AAA teams. The 26'ers program are looking to sweep the 93', 94' and 95' invite levels of this weekends Ind. Classic held in the metro. At the 93' level they have brought in three top Chicago Mission players off the three time National Championship team. Also have added top AAA National players from TI & Russel Stovers, as well as the top 93' metro kids.
At the 94' level high profile player AJ Michaelson and a few SSM players along with a host of top metro talent carries the 94' team.
And at the 95' level, half the team consist of current Shattuck players, Former Mn. Blades and Wi. Fire's top players. The team also feature's high profile players like the Wizard Taylor Cammarata and twice featured on ESPN the Magazine Nate The Kid Mackinnon from Cole Harbor NS. Canada.
It should be a interesting weekend, it all starts Thursday evening at the Blaine Super Rink.

Bummer for the regular paying team members. Poor decision by management.

I had a feeling this new organization would be good, escpecially with the Thomas Vanick name attached to it. Maybe the family will trek to Blaine to watch some good hockey. Is the schedule posted anywhere?

Night Train wrote:Bummer for the regular paying team members. Poor decision by management.

They are not playing their regular roster? I guess I didn't pick that up from the original post.

Not much if they're adding all these zero payers.

Night Train wrote:Not much if they're adding all these zero payers.

How do you know this? I'm just curious. Lots of AAA teams are put together for the purpose of a single tournament that has nothing to do with the regular player development teams and has nothign to do with their costs. So long as the regular players are getting what they paid for up front i don;t see a problem with creating tournament teams outside of that. It happens everywhere all the time and is usually a totally separate cost and set up. I think it's great when kids from other places get to play with different players and different coaches, who cares what they call it.

The '95 group should be very interesting. I got the Icemen winning it!

This model sounds similar to the Lemieux Academy model run out of Denver. The group offers skills camps including an elite/AAA camp and a few tournament teams used as incentives or to increase visibility to the program. Players probably pay for any tournaments they attend.

mghockey18 wrote:The '95 group should be very interesting. I got the Icemen winning it!

I won't make a prediction until I see the rosters of each team....

thunderwolf wrote:This model sounds similar to the Lemieux Academy model run out of Denver. The group offers skills camps including an elite/AAA camp and a few tournament teams used as incentives or to increase visibility to the program. Players probably pay for any tournaments they attend.

So how exactly does that model work? Come spend a couple grand bringing your kids in for a little ice time and a ton of plyometrics during the week, then on the weekend come watch a bunch of kids from out of state. "You too could skate like that, if only you'd have gone to their development program instead of coming here!" Nice model.

InigoMontoya wrote:

thunderwolf wrote:This model sounds similar to the Lemieux Academy model run out of Denver. The group offers skills camps including an elite/AAA camp and a few tournament teams used as incentives or to increase visibility to the program. Players probably pay for any tournaments they attend.

So how exactly does that model work? Come spend a couple grand bringing your kids in for a little ice time and a ton of plyometrics during the week, then on the weekend come watch a bunch of kids from out of state. "You too could skate like that, if only you'd have gone to their development program instead of coming here!" Nice model.

Is it possible that the rostered 26ers (from the website) are playing in the open tournaments and the team playing this w-end is their invite team? If so, then I don't see any problem.

It's an invite team it just isn't their invite team. Nobody said it's a problem, except for the regular paying members of the club, just a dumb approach.

4-5 years ago someone could start a new AAA organization, 91-95, and find enough "free agent" players to start a decent team. 4-5 years of refinement and they could compete. There were only 5-6 teams per level in 2005. With 20 some AAA teams at a level today it's really hard to start a team and fill it out with players that aren't the 300th best in the metro.

So, ITR is clearly having trouble with talent and results so they'll try something else to get attention for themselves.

I love IM's take. Had me laughing pretty good.

Do we have anyone around here who is a "paying" member of ITR? If so, I'm curious to know what you were told at the outset. Were you guaranteed a certain number of tournaments? If so, were you told which tournaments you would be playing in?

Before we start spouting off about what their model is and is not, it sure would be nice if we could hear from someone who actually knows what they're talking about.

*EDIT* After spending a little time looking over the 26er's website, it appears that they offer different tournament "packages", allowing the parents/players to choose which and how many tournaments they want to play in, and if they want to just play in tournaments, etc. That probably goes a long way to explain why the roster for this tournament may look different than the roster they have on the website.

You did. JC Slammers spouting off about their model.

Night Train wrote:You did. JC Slammers spouting off.

Night Train wrote:You did. JC Slammers spouting off about their model.

Do we know that JC Slammers is a paying parent?

JC Slammers, are you a paying parent?

...and after further review....it appears that this is the ONLY invite tournament the 26ers will be playing in. I doubt that you will see Cammaretta and gang playing in the Border Battle, International Cup Open and St Croix Cup.

I just thought it would be nice to see some different player's from AAA teams in the region. Many of the teams and player's we talk about on the blog's, will be playing here this weekend. I think it would be nice to get out of the (BOX) in Minnesota and compare some other talent. I have know idea who is paying for who or the back scratching going on with Vanek's program. I just want to see some good hockey.

InigoMontoya wrote:

thunderwolf wrote:This model sounds similar to the Lemieux Academy model run out of Denver. The group offers skills camps including an elite/AAA camp and a few tournament teams used as incentives or to increase visibility to the program. Players probably pay for any tournaments they attend.

So how exactly does that model work? Come spend a couple grand bringing your kids in for a little ice time and a ton of plyometrics during the week, then on the weekend come watch a bunch of kids from out of state. "You too could skate like that, if only you'd have gone to their development program instead of coming here!" Nice model.

The Lemieux Academy was run out of Phoenix by Claude Lemieux, but I believe disbanded over a year after Claude's son completed his PeeWee U12 AAA season as part of the team. The camps in the Spring of 2009 in Denver were canceled.

The model for some of these programs is a little different than most. Some programs do not propose to be developmental programs for skills, but rather for mental development. This means like minded players with a strong skill base playing at high level against other highly skilled teams.

The premise is playing the game at higher level than one can possibly experience in a winter season where the talent distribution maybe more diverse. No local players are left behind for tournaments as there are no local players. All players come from out of state. For these progams, skill development is still done at home in a local program. Not sure if this will work long term, but certainly a different approach.

is there a website with a list of teams participating?

brandy38 wrote:is there a website with a list of teams participating?

yes

94 A Pool

Team X
Wisconsin Jr. Jets
Team Dynamics Teal (Phit?)
Minnesota Icemen
Waterloo Jr. Black Hawks

B Pool

ITR 26'ers
Team Dynamics Vegas Gold
KwikRink
Minnesota Jr. Mavericks
Euro American Hockey

Does anyone know something about Team Dynamics at the 95 level?

Top 3 teams are in the A pool at 95 level...

ITR, Icemen and Hockey Central...winner comes out of this pool...