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My question is this...How is that possible. How can one group have three Elite teams. If I recall their teams had a hard time in most tournaments this summer.

Money grab, for sure. If you have skates and a check book you are in.

It's tough enough to have 1 good team let alone THREE! The cost to play there I heard is also is $2000. Teams are basically open level teams and at that price no thanks!

Yakunin wrote:It's tough enough to have 1 good team let alone THREE! The cost to play there I heard is also is $2000. Teams are basically open level teams and at that price no thanks!

I've heard that there is one invite level team at each age group. I think the organization needs to clarify. But this being their first go at this, lets give them some time to clarify some details which has been somewhat lacking.

Yes they will be having 3 teams at each age level. the Ice Edge black will be an invite team, the Ice Edge blue will be an open / invite, and the Ice Edge orange will be an open team.

hockeydad11 wrote:Money grab, for sure. If you have skates and a check book you are in.

Aren't most programs making money? Lee Smith the EP varsity coach is coaching the 99 Elite team. Makes the team more appealing. Now they just have to land good players.

Irish wrote:

hockeydad11 wrote:Money grab, for sure. If you have skates and a check book you are in.

Aren't most programs making money? Lee Smith the EP varsity coach is coaching the 99 Elite team. Makes the team more appealing. Now they just have to land good players.

Lee is also coaching a 01 team

Pro Ice Edge wrote:Yes they will be having 3 teams at each age level. the Ice Edge black will be an invite team, the Ice Edge blue will be an open / invite, and the Ice Edge orange will be an open team.

So did the blue team turn into the grey? I heard they were going to have black, orange and grey. I also heard that orange and grey were equal in terms of talent/tourney registration and that black was invite.

keepurheadup wrote:

Pro Ice Edge wrote:Yes they will be having 3 teams at each age level. the Ice Edge black will be an invite team, the Ice Edge blue will be an open / invite, and the Ice Edge orange will be an open team.

So did the blue team turn into the grey? I heard they were going to have black, orange and grey. I also heard that orange and grey were equal in terms of talent/tourney registration and that black was invite.

Honestly, I am confused. Is this the same organization that had more than one team called "Ice Edge Elite" this summer at tourneys??? (I believe orange and black [maybe blue {honestly not sure}]) (*honk if you love parenthetical citations*)

So now they will be known as:
Ice Edge Black (invite)
Ice Edge Blue (invite / open)
Ice Edge Orange (open)

right??? So, only difference is that they are correctly dropping the word "Elite" from their brand.

MnMade-4-Life wrote:

keepurheadup wrote:

Pro Ice Edge wrote:Yes they will be having 3 teams at each age level. the Ice Edge black will be an invite team, the Ice Edge blue will be an open / invite, and the Ice Edge orange will be an open team.

So did the blue team turn into the grey? I heard they were going to have black, orange and grey. I also heard that orange and grey were equal in terms of talent/tourney registration and that black was invite.

Honestly, I am confused. Is this the same organization that had more than one team called "Ice Edge Elite" this summer at tourneys??? (I believe orange and black [maybe blue {honestly not sure}]) (*honk if you love parenthetical citations*)

So now they will be known as:
Ice Edge Black (invite)
Ice Edge Blue (invite / open)
Ice Edge Orange (open)

right??? So, only difference is that they are correctly dropping the word "Elite" from their brand.

No they're all still called "Elite" teams. Orange was the invite level last year and blue was the open...

99 Level:
Two years ago Ice Edge offered the Blue team. This year another group from Minnesota made brought in their own team. Ice Edge called this team Ice Edge Orange.
It just happens that the newest Elite team was better than the existing one. So Ice Edge program elected to shut down the Blue and Orange teams to start up one Elite team coached by Lee Smith.

They also plan on offering up two more teams.

First team will play better invite tournaments
Second team will play weaker invite tournements
Third team will play open tournaments

The Orange team was the better of both teams. The core group of Orange players split up this year.

One to Machine Black
Two to Velocity
Two to Reebok Nationals

Irish wrote:99 Level:
Two years ago Ice Edge offered the Blue team. This year another group from Minnesota made brought in their own team. Ice Edge called this team Ice Edge Orange.
It just happens that the newest Elite team was better than the existing one. So Ice Edge program elected to shut down the Blue and Orange teams to start up one Elite team coached by Lee Smith.

They also plan on offering up two more teams.

First team will play better invite tournaments
Second team will play weaker invite tournements
Third team will play open tournaments

The Orange team was the better of both teams. The core group of Orange players split up this year.

One to Machine Black
Two to Velocity
Two to Reebok Nationals

The Blue Team beat the Orange Team 2 times out of 3 while their best player was out with an injury. The Orange team was not better.

The new Black team is 90% from the Blue. I dont think either team was very good at the elite level. This black team really didnt draw an upgrade in talent, its 90% Blue and 1 or 2 Orange with 1 or 2 new kids. A nice program, but an average invite level program at best.

Honestly I think they were about the same. Ice Edge is a great program, but both teams were lacking depth.
With Lee Smith coaching the new Elite team, I thought they were going to land some good talent. I know there was some interest, but players went else where.
Ice Edge have some good people running their program. Not to mention they're located right in the heart of Minnesota Hockey.

Irish wrote:Honestly I think they were about the same. Ice Edge is a great program, but both teams were lacking depth.
With Lee Smith coaching the new Elite team, I thought they were going to land some good talent. I know there was some interest, but players went else where.
Ice Edge have some good people running their program. Not to mention they're located right in the heart of Minnesota Hockey.

I know they picked up a couple of quality players from our middling-to-bad United AAA team. Good luck to 'em, they seem to be putting on a good push at younger levels. Good to see Bloomington kids trying to re-establish their proud tradition.