The crazy one would be doing two seasons in Tier III. I'd think if you can't move up you are looking at low level D-III college hockey. Basically it's over, lick your wounds and go to a good school and play club.

Question: How many top D-III and top Tier III games have you actually seen? A combined total will do.

Because you might want to actually have some knowledge as the basis for your opinion before stating it.

The top D-III programs rely heavily on the top Tier III programs for their players. The top Tier I/II kids go D-I.

It's extremely hard for a kid straight out of HS to get top 6 / top pair minutes at a top Tier III programs. Meaning, it generally takes a couple of seasons to land that college deal.

Not my system. Just the way it is.

You are underestimating the level of play of both D-III schools and Tier III programs.

My son is a senior in high school and midget age. He played all last spring and summer against these junior kids. skated circles around most of them. Way better hands and IQ. My son not a D1 candidate.

The only difference between him and most of these 20-year-olds is less maturity and physical strength and I haven’t greased the Junior programs owners pockets yet to have them pimp my kid around.

If you look at Babson, Stonehill and a few other local school options rosters the trend is going younger.

Congrats to your son.

"Junior kids" covers a very wide swath. I'm sure he can skate circles around low level Tier III kids. I sincerely doubt he can skate circles around EHL, NCDC or USPHL Premier kids.

My kid has teammates from T1EHL teams - one of the best Midget leagues in the country - and they are hardly skating circles around anyone. If they even dress.

He also doesn't skate circles around anyone. Nor does anyone in the NAHL or USHL or Junior A training camps he's been invited to skate circles around him. The margin of difference is extremely thin.

Except, apparently, for your kid.

Goodness, your really drinking the USPHL Kool-aid, half of NCDC, and almost all the USPHL Premier kids are brutal.

Thats quite the all encompassing response there. Apparently, you’ve seen each and every one of the NCDC and Premier teams play. That’s a hell of a lot of games to watch.

Glad you think so. Look at the stats. D-III colleges seem to feel differently.

But then, they're all brutal, too, right?

Way beneath your progeny. What round was he drafted in again?

Fact Check: Babson took a kid straight from CM this year....true frosh from HS. 2001.

NCDC a step above EHL. EHL not “high end tier 3“. USPHL Premier? Are you serious? One of my son’s average teammates went there this year and and is dominating as an under aged. There is no high-end tier 3 anymore.

My kid has been skating with NAHL kids for a while. The EHL kids trying to make the jump up are not even close to NAHL talent, and half the NAHL is now watered down.

My point simple. Difference between a 20 year old Pure Hockey worker age out and a decent 16 year old is slim to none, which speaks volumes about the limited development in Tier 3 hockey for the money spent.

Well, regardless of your view of Tier III hickey, if EHL is the best Tier III league then it is, in fact, at the high end of Tier III.

Now, as for your view of Tier III, who gives a rat's ass? If my kid enjoys it, is developing, and it ends up helping him achieve his personal goal of playing D-III hockey, isn't that the definition of success?

BTW, what exactly does "skating with NAHL kids for a while" mean? Doesn't sound like he's actually in the league.

He’s 16 and plays prep, real hockey. Enjoy your 40K investment to play at Framingham state on the fourth line. You ugly mule.

So, based on your string of posts last night, you're a former Daddy coach that did it for your kid's free ride, your kid played on a one of the horrible FS Midget programs, and now he's 16 and playing prep. Meaning, he made Varsity, somewhere. And now you think your kid is capable of skating circles around Tier III kids, regardless of level, because he did Freddy Meyer's Future Stars Prep and Junior program with some NAHL players? Or was it Tim Lovell's Combine?

My kid played Prep, too. He's played in the Elite 8. He was 3rd pair D behind kids with D-I commits. Bad luck for him. But, he accounted for himself just fine in the ISL. Nobody skated circles around him, ever. Would have liked more playing time. It is what it is, he still did great.

Prep isn't all that any more. If this is your kid's second year, you'd know that. If it's his first year, you'll learn that. Or you can continue to delude yourself.

His teammates are playing D-I, USHL, and some have been and will be drafted.

He also did well academically, which is why he went to Prep school. Was accepted in 8 of the 10 New England colleges he applied to. Most have hockey, a mix of D-I and D-III that he selected for academics, not hockey. The coaches we spoke with all said the same thing. Defer for a year, go play NCDC or EHL so we can see you play. If you defer a second year, you'll need to reapply, but don't worry about admissions, it won't be a problem for you. Don't take any college courses, it's actually more likely to hurt you if you do have to reapply, because then those grades start to count.

He's doing well in the EHL. He had NAHL and Junior A opportunities, but he learned his lesson. Better to play at a level where you're going to get playing time than worry about the name of the league or what others think. Looks like you have't outgrown that, so maybe you want to go back to the Kiddie Board where others see the world that way?

But, he isn't skating circles around anyone. Some of his teammates played NAHL last year, they aren't either.

You, sir, have a rude awakening in your future. Learn now, or you're going to ruin your kid's college hockey career.

Just waking up from TDay hangover and unless I’m misreading it last nights drunk poster was basically saying that EHL and USPHL Premier not good hockey....he’s correct. Thanks for the details on your guy though. Hopefully he cracks top 4 at some point. No dog in this fight, just think you are taking his post out of context and maybe a bit too personal.

Not taking it personally at all. I don't think it matters what you think or he thinks or I think of Tier III hockey. The schools my kid applied to take the bulk of their kids from EHL and USPHL Premier, so it only matters what they think. And I expect they know more about hockey than you do.

Since my son's goal is to play hockey at the school he chooses, it's the path that makes the most sense for him. He's happy, I'm happy, and we're all good.

Why you an others feel the need to put any league down is beyond me. Like I told him, go back to the Kiddie Board where you can pointlessly argue EHF vs. E9 in post after post with the other loser dads that don't yet realize how pointless it is.

Your half-right. Babson won't take anyone out of high school, there a quality DIII program. But there is one league that plays "DII", no, it's not better than DIII, but they will take a lot of kids right our of HS and most preps. These schools are Stonehill, St. Anslem, St. Michaels, SNHU, Franklin Pierce, to name a few. I think the league is the NEC-10

FYI the kid from CM and Babson is a 99 double stay back not an 01

Wrong
01(check elite prospects)
Repeated 8th grade (NZ interview)

It's great how the Catholic schools convince these kids to repeat 8th grade. As if it's some sort of step up from a good public school - with removing half of the better students (Girls) from the classroom. :confused:

Ask daddy coach at CM what year his kid was born 1999 fact

Maybe his brother ?

NZ article:

CR loves a challenge, and he loves to compete.

The 2.75-star forward from Milton, Mass. has helped lead the resurgence of Catholic Memorial hockey the last few seasons. Now, he’s ready for the next step in his career and will enroll at Babson this fall, playing Division III college hockey as an 18-year-old freshman.

Don't forget the Rivers '00 Frosh. No juniors

Watched a NA3HL game recently. A good CC HS team would win by 5. Let it go boys. Time to grow up. It ain’t happening for you.

Never seen one. You joking right? Be serious.

There is a wide, wide, wide range in the quality of NA3HL teams. Extremely wide. To get a sense of how wide pull a few games up on Hockey TV and take in a period or two of games from across the league (nationwide). There are some teams that are extremely good, dang near Tier 2 level, and some that are so bad that a HS JV team would have no problem beating them. That is the problem with the NA3HL. They need to fold about 1/3 to 1/2 of the teams and consolidate the talent in the league. It would actually be legitimate Junior hockey if that was done. The way it is now though, ehh, buyer beware and know what you are signing up for.

It's the same in EHLP. Top half dozen teams are separated from the rest. Bottom five teams are horrible.

Problem is, everyone judges the leagues by the bottom teams.

Sad but some of the teams are cashing the checks when many of these kids have no chance even at marginal D-3.

Ladder of Development!!

Sorry, not buying that one. League is very bad. Very, very bad. Riddled with kids who can’t make a HS team or even a U18s so play there.

Exactly. D3 schools ??? Some kids on NA3 teams are not even good players on their local town high school teams.

Remember. No kid aspires to play tier 3 juniors. Just parents.

NE Knights have 02s and 01s that can’t make their public HS varsity team. Enough said.

One team doesn't define the entire level.

It's like saying because a Trabant sucks all cars suck.

The NA3HL has taken heat in the past because of the NAHL policy regarding the requirements of drafting/tendering NA3HL players. It has been called "fake advancement" and a number of other things. I'm not going to debate the pros/cons of such policies. On one hand, I understand trying to promote from within, give a kid a shot and if he sticks, great, if not release him and move on. On the other hand, I can see how it artificially creates this "pathway" that gets marketed that does not really exist.

So it was very interesting to come across this regarding the NCDC and USPHL Premier:

"Plans are in place for the NCDC to take a page out of the NAHL-NA3HL relationship book for the 2020-21 season by requiring NCDC teams to draft and tender USPHL Premier players. Two rounds of the NCDC Entry Draft will be set aside solely for the selection of USPHL Premier Division players, while each NCDC team will be required to tender at least one USPHL Premier player."

I wonder if there will be an article on that one site about this?

So many responses, so little time.

NCDC...bad....Premier...really bad...

NA3HL.....wow...equivalent to u14 hockey with no skill. NE Knights? Funny. Keep writing checks to the Lovell’s you idiots. AWFUL hockey.

They have a few local Public HS cuts playing. TL and JL wrote the book on how to water down a brand and kill a business.

CLOWNS

Last year NA3 Milwaukee Power had a MN goalie on their team that didn’t even play hockey the previous season. He’s a sub 6’ 240 lb bad goalie. He played low level class A MN high school hockey 3 seasons ago and was bad. This is the perfect example of how a parents checkbook is more important the the kids hockey talent to make a NA3 roster.