Making the jump to U15 Full Season or U16 Full Season next year.
Need some advice/thoughts on:
BA U15
Jr Bruins U16
Springfield Pics U16
Any other local programs? Did 1 year of prep and kid dosen't want to go back.

So he is an 03 and has already been to Prep. Was he at a Jr Prep or a Prep? Guessing he played JV? Was it at a factory or a balanced (School- Hockey) program?

How does that address his question, or help you to develop a reply? Sounds more like you're fishing for info to skewer him with.

The easiest way to know what programs are out there is to go to the My Hockey Rankings site. You can filter U15, U16 by state, and you can tell who the full season teams are by the number of games.

Also check out the USPHL pages. Look at the standings for relative strength. U15 is U16 Futures.

Then you need to go to the websites of the different programs and see what they are saying in the tryouts section. Programs are adding at the U15 level each year.

Of the programs you listed, the Junior Bruins U16 is pretty hard to land a spot on. The BA teams, also - maybe not quite as hard.

Good luck, tryouts are starting so you need to act pretty quickly. I think the Junior Bruins free ID skate is this week.

Only asked to gather more information. Also, do you live West, North or South of Boston? Trust me not going to rip on your geography either! Jeesh!

For local u16 next year it’s BA, Jr Bruins, Giants and Cyclones. Seacoast if way north on 95 and Avalanche if north of Nashua.

No spots on BA, owners son’s team. They are very good, best 02’s around. Next is Jr Bruins for next year’s Jr Bruins although they did lose some talent because players didn’t like the coach beacause he played mostly 01’s this year.

Giants becoming a good option and all NH programs good.

USPHL is a joke so go where kid can play Tier1 Elite, NA affiliate league or ECEL.

Stay clear of Kings as they are a joke now and run as fast as you can from the Bandits. Kings and Bandits bad and still losing players. They were a terrible team this year even with some good players, all who aging out to u18.

Islanders used to be good but have taken many steps backwards at the 02/03 age groups.

I

I am still laughing at saying that the BA U16s are the best 02's around. So funny.

03 bounced up and down from JV and Varsity at a very balanced school in CT. Just not for him. For the past year we really haven’t paid attention to any FS stuff. Of course I know to look at the rankings but so much changes year to year I’m just trying to get as much info as possible. Also looking at Pitt Pens and Gentry.. just trying to get some local recommendations also.

If Jr Penguins keeps him living at home and close enough to where you live, would be ideal. Tier 1 league at u15 and u16 is as good as it gets.

If he is going to billet then I would look at the teams down that way first and work your way north. Up here the better USPHL teams (JR Bruins's, IHC, SSK, Pics, NH Monarchs - which also plays Tier 1 league), BA are the obvious ones. NH Avalanche ( Has arrangement with Bishop Brady HS- Keeping total cost down) is actually getting pretty good as his Seacoast College Prep and ( U16U18 ) which offers academics at the rink

Stay clear of PICs, Kings and northern NH if billeting. Giants and BA good options if u16 as they play in good leagues ( Tier 1 Elite, ECEL, NAHL affiliate and e9 Prep Showcase). Those teams consistently beat upon USPHL teams.

Another option would be Elite Hockey in CT.

Pics would only be a 45 minute drive so would not need to billet, but have heard mixed reviews about the program as a whole, everything else seems to be at least an hour away.

^^^^ 95 Giants parent, maybe even RL himself. They DON'T play in T1EHL, and only a 95 Giants parent/coach would think the ECEL and NAHL affiliates (like Elite Hockey) are high end. E9 Prep isn't even full season.

USPHL U16 and U18 is way more than two teams.

^^^^^^^ Fed Lover! NAHL WAY better talent than USPHL. Not even close! Try again...

Not NAHL, NAHL affiliates, which I took to mean NAPHL and NAFP. If he means NA3HL he's got something extra in his vape pen.

ECEL and NAPHL better at u16 and u18 levels...by far

If you look at Head to Head between ECEL, NAPHL, Tier1 and USPHL and independents you will see that outside of the Top 10-20( nationally ranked) teams there is not a big difference among these full season teams.

The idea is to play in a quality program that will gain you visibility with the Tier 1 & 2 Jr teams and college coaches. Yes, Tier 1 and other midwest leagues FS leagues ( incl Naphl) will get you more Jr visibility but USPHL is getting stronger

Child please. USPHL midgets is for players who got cut from their high school teams.

You do realize that Northwood Preps ( 1st team) lost to the Jr Bruins & SSK U18 teams and beat the Bandits U18 4-3. Also beat worst team in USPHL u18 2-1 ( Syracuse Stars that had been outscored 4 to 1 for the season.

Same Northwood team beat Shattuck St Marys, most New England Prep Schools and lost a close one to KUA.

Look at the head to head vs HIgh Performance, NAPHL and Tier 1

Cut from High School huh?

I know USPHL Islanders billet. Their U16 team swept Jr. Bruins this year.

My kid played T1EHL/ECEL and USPHL. T1EHL is clearly better. ECEL is not.

NAPHL better than USPHL. ECEL is an even swap with USPHL.

Not all USPHL teams offer equal value, although the top-5 are usually good every year. Agree that the rest of the league is a toss up with NAPHL and ECEL.
SASKS and York Skipjacks provide a very different development model and may be worth considering. Everyone's very familiar with Selects Academy, but Skipjacks are lesser known. Their track record for moving kids on to next level the last 4 years is hard to argue, if that's what you're shooting for.

Since the OP mentioned PA to begin with, billeting in York may be a reasonable option.

I'm told I'm pretty smart. I can't find any mention of PA in the OP's post, or any other for that matter.

Ya - pretty smart. Post on 3/11 @ 7:28 appears to be OP providing some background on his kid. In that post, he mentioned he's considering other non-NE options like Pens Elite and Gentry. I'm not that smart, but I believe Pens Elite is located in PA.