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I love how everyone seems to have a view on this even though it is about one month into the season. Can we all agree that no matter how each association designates itself it will never be perfect.
The truth is until the end of the year no one cares who plays who or what the score was, unless of course your little Johnny was on the wrong end of a lopsided score.
The true problem with all these classifications is they are put in place because parents complain, board members complain and then the powers that be feel they need to do something.
The reality is the larger associations are going to win more often than the rest. Does not mean every year no but more often than not. Look at the high school A vs AA, football with I don't know how many AAAAAA's. All it means is there will be another group of kids playing in state tournaments so who cares. More money being poured into those associations hosting the tournaments.
The problem is parents are poor losers. Not the kids, the parents.. Most kids shake off a big loss by the time they hit the car, parents on the other hand will grumble for days. We were out coached, the refs stole it, if it wasn't for those two players on the other team we would have won, etc etc.
The biggest problem I see is not the designation of a team but rather the development of kids in general. There are some smaller associations that field good teams for a year or two but due to numbers are not able to sustain that, why? The group that did well were probably coached well early and quite frankly probably had a large group of summer hockey players.

Now however too much emphasis is put on winning at SUPER MITES or Squirts and not enough time developing the basic skills. Also, noone has come up with a measure for development. The only measure is still winning and losing.
The new designation issue will take time to sort out but the reality is that as long as we play within districts and boundaries imposed by minnesota hockey there are going to be two or three associations in each district that realistically should be playing across the borders of those districts.
One last ramble, whether you like it or not there are always going to be the have's and have nots and of course the we were so close groups.

Why not start looking from the top down rather than the bottom up. Why do so many kids leave high school early now? Issue with High School hockey??
Why complain about who plays at what level but rather complain to your coach that at squirts we do not need 40 games (and please no game limit comments becasue we all know how to get around them) but rather more focus on basic hockey skills. How many associations have professional skating instructors? or bring any in? Why do so many more europeans play in the NHL than U.S. born players? Their first sport is soccer. Would we be prepared to sacrifice the game times for the practice needed to get better.
How many times have Edina and Wayzata won the State title at high school in the past 20 years? How many private schools have won in the same timeframe? Why?

food for thought.

hockeydad10 wrote:Why do so many more europeans play in the NHL than U.S. born players? Their first sport is soccer.

You might find the answer to this in the dump and chase thread.

Solid first post HD10, it's still A, B1, B2, & C and all levels are dependant on where placement is made by the evaluators. Youth hockey participants can seek refuge within the new team lable designations but level's will represent the same old system of final placement. Your question has merit and judging by the music I'm hearing, "bring in the clown" will be addressing this shortly. Label the team as you may, talent still needs to perform.

Section 8 guy wrote:

hockeydad10 wrote:Why do so many more europeans play in the NHL than U.S. born players? Their first sport is soccer.

You might find the answer to this in the dump and chase thread.

Nice post HD10. Just one correction.

2010-11 NHL Players by Birthplace
Europe 223 22.8%
US 234 23.9%
Canada 521 53.3%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Hockey_League

IHEA wrote:

Section 8 guy wrote:

hockeydad10 wrote:Why do so many more europeans play in the NHL than U.S. born players? Their first sport is soccer.

You might find the answer to this in the dump and chase thread.

Nice post HD10. Just one correction.

2010-11 NHL Players by Birthplace
Europe 223 22.8%
US 234 23.9%
Canada 521 53.3%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Hockey_League

And based on that, if the NHL is the ultimate goal, shouldn't we be looking at what Canada does and try to emulate that, as opposed to what Europe does?

IHEA wrote:

Section 8 guy wrote:

hockeydad10 wrote:Why do so many more europeans play in the NHL than U.S. born players? Their first sport is soccer.

You might find the answer to this in the dump and chase thread.

Nice post HD10. Just one correction.

2010-11 NHL Players by Birthplace
Europe 223 22.8%
US 234 23.9%
Canada 521 53.3%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Hockey_League

Oh, and I'll add in the U.S. our first sport is football, second is baseball, third is basketball, fourth is, like it or not, soccer, fifth is maybe, probably hockey.

I'd say USA hockey is doing quite well considering where it was 30 years ago and the fact most of our top athletes choose to do something else.

jpiehl wrote:And based on that, if the NHL is the ultimate goal, shouldn't we be looking at what Canada does and try to emulate that, as opposed to what Europe does?

Definitely avoid the approach used in Asia, Africa, and South America.

Regarding the european player, the one aspect you forget is that they all have their own leagues and they are dominated by european players or russians. Certainly some U.S and canadiens but predominantly from their home countries.
I am not suggesting that anything is broken, other than parents perceptions. The U.S. is doing great from where it was and I would bet so is Minnesota. Not sure if numbers of Minnesota kids playing is up but it would appear to be the case.
We have already taken a leaf out of the Canadien book also, we now have Juniors which kids can use to help bridge the gap between high school and college. Before kids in the U.S did not want to go to Juniors because if they play in Canadien leagues they lose their college eligibility.
So the question should be, are all the changes in Minnesota Hockey for the better or worse and how many kids who are making it all the way doing so by leaving Minnesota Hockey. If the answer is we are doing a good job and the system is good, then we should start having some faith in the decisions made at the top.
Mom and Dad, whether your son plays A or AA B1 or B2 it really does not matter, whether they check in pee wees or not in the long run it most likely will not matter, from what I understand there are Canadien leagues that don't allow checking at pee wees also and the european game involves a diffent kind of checking. Help your kids by allowing them to have fun at whatever level they play, let them know that Edina and Wayzata are the big bad associations and if one day your son's team can beat them then kudos to them, if not get involved early and help you son, learn to skate and stickhandle better.

If you truly have aspirations of higher level hockey for your son, talk to High school coaches, junior coaches and determine what path is best for your family. Whether your son played on a AA or A team will most likely not have any impact on whether he achieves his dreams, but it might on your dreams.