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.
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.
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.
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?
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.