Aside from the NE and mid Atlantic divisions the Florida and Southern divisions have some good teams and take it seriously. Be careful since some of the others more west look great on paper then get a reality check at tournaments by eastern teams. But if he wants ice time that may be a good option. Good luck.

Premier is tough, each teams starting 5 are usually good then downhill after that. Programs with an NCDC team are usually stronger because they will move players between the 2 teams at times, but 1 or 2 kids who are bubble NCDC usually light it up in Premier and get a ton of ice. Unfortunately, no matter where you go the reality is that no scouts are watching. Maybe a few local D3 or ACHA once a year but that’s it.
Also, not much of a development model, think flow drills and PP at practices. I would consider EHL, it’s a better development model and closer relationship to D3 schools.

Some comments about the New England and Mid-Atlantic divisions already. Florida and Southeast have some good programs too.

Looking at the rest of the Premier, the Midwest East (Detroit/Chicago) and Midwest West (Minnesota/Wisconsin) are solid and get scouted by the 3 area D3 leagues. A lot of good local talent to draw from with good Minesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin HS hockey in the area. Midwest West might be the most competitive division top to bottom as even the 7,8,9 teams in the division will play teams hard and move a kid or two on to college hockey.

I wouldn't go further west than the Midwest. I think there are some good teams out in the Mountain, Northwest, and Pacific divisions but they're relatively new to the USPHL so I really don't know much about them or if they have any track record of moving players on. There just isn't D3 hockey out west. There are some good ACHA D1 programs though.


The Florida, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest East, Midwest West, New England, and Southeast divisions all have some good programs in their divisions. The league has grown so big, diverse, and is nationwide so it's hard to put a label on the entire Premier. You really do have to look at it by division. Good luck finding a program that is a good fit.

Personally, NA3HL is the direction I would lean. Either with a NAHL or without, there is pros and cons with both scenarios.

Lots of wolves in sheep's clothing out there in the Junior world, please be careful and do your homework

Stay east of the Missouri River.

Short of a MN-based team, get as close to the Atlantic Ocean as possible. The west is just a fund raiser for the NCDC.

Take a look at the scoring leaders..either its the weakest league in Jr hockey or this league has the most "late bloomers" in the history of hockey. Leader with 58 points in 16 games, why is this kid not in NCDC or NAHL? 291 players with 1 PPG or Better.

Ignore the player stats.
Sure some good players but most of the western teams are weaker, and any decent player out west pads their stats playing against them regularly.
Then at tournaments they play eastern teams with much different results.

Do most teams in this league do Film? My son talked to a player he went to prep with last year and his team has not watched 1 second of film. Sound right? They did about 2 hours a week of film last year and now, zero. I would ask the players who are there now before making your decision. Film is just as important to practice for many players. Seeing is believing.

Honestly, if your division doesn't put lineups in Rinknet every game, then your playing hockey just to play. Nobody is following you, Premier is where dreams go to die.

Let us tell you exactly what is wrong with this division. Just today we went to scout a NE Division Premier game, we had our eyes on 2 players from the same team. Before the game, the kid had x goals and x assists. We watched the entire game, both players played well, 1 had a nice assist, lived up to our expectations. After the game, we spoke to the player, congratulated him on a good game and the assist. We literally just looked at the game sheet and he was not credited the point, no big deal, right? Well, not only was he not given the point, but his point total went DOWN from this morning. Like his OWN team took points off his official resume.
I don't even know what to say about this, kid is one of the hardest working players in that entire division, I want to text the kid but feel like its not my place, but that is such a slime move. That's why this league is 90% trash and scouts don't like it because the information is bad. When your OWN team is taking points off of you, its just bad.

Be sure to use instat to make your own clips. Video tells your story much better than a coaches modified stat line. Be in charge of your own recruiting. My son played premier, stat line was 32 GP. 11G. 20 A.. we used instat videos to make a quick 2.75 minute video. He had 15G and 32 A. He brought it up to the coach and he said “we have to share what we got”. Imagine that, at the Jr level, modifying score sheets.

Scouting this league is very frustrating, I cover the Northeast and Mid Atlantic and I cant find correct stats anywhere.
The USPHL player page shows a kid has 10 points in say 8 games, but you look at the G and A ON THE SAME PAGE and it adds up to 12 points. How can the SAME page be wrong. Then on Elite Prospects it shows 9 games (wrong) with 7 points.
This is my first year exploring this league and the stats in this league are ALL bogus. I have seen some really good players in these 2 divisions but I don't understand how coaches can get a clear picture of any player. For what these kids pay to play here you would think it would be a little more professional with stat keeping.

So is the consensus that stats don't matter in Tier III Jr Hockey? Is it basically thought of as every kid is close to the same so who cares what the stats are? Just trying to wrap my head around the idea that stats don't matter and they are knowingly wrong but league coaches really don't care. So if I look at a roster, should I assume that the kid with 20 points in 17 games is the same the kid with 4 points in 17 games? Totally lost.

Well, those are packed arenas to see the USPHL Premier Division games..I haven't seen a scout at many NCDC games, never mind a Premier game. I would put money on Cyclones because 1. those parents are nutty and 2. those coaches pad stats like crazy!

League has 5 D3 Commitments this year, out of 70 Teams! Nobody cares about this group of 1700 or more players.

We are at the Chicago Showcase you guys are really killing the buzz. We flew all the way here with the hope of being seen by scouts, haven’t seen any yet today.

I will never understand the people who come here and have no idea how hockey works today but feel the need to knock kids down. You would never ever do it to the kids face because they are bigger than you now and because you cant really be that much of a jealous dirtbag in real life.
You know the climate of hockey right now, spots are like Gold in top leagues, only so many kids get those spots, so the rest have to play somewhere and that league is either Premier or EHL. So, they go there and do the best they can. The 02's are the most watched with some 03's who have reached out or applied to schools and don't really want to stay another year.
Regardless, The league should recognize errors made in stats (cant be taken seriously if its all bad data), and you parents should enjoy watching your kids play. If your kid is NOT part of the league then don't pay attention to it, you have nothing to do with it, don't read posts like this one, don't look up teams or players in the league, just leave it alone.

Okay tough guy dads... slow down.

First off you sound foolish sticking up for your "grown man" boy on an anonymous d board.

Nobody is berating or even belittling your little duster. The majority of posts about Premier are accurate. The only offended ones are the dads holding on to the belief that if they put up some numbers, they can be the 1%er who makes it to college hockey. I get it. It is tough to let go, people have a lot invested in their kid's hockey lives.

The league moves kids onto ACHA, the same league that coaches are recruiting high school kids from. It is great. I hope kids play as long as they can, but if your kid is an 02 you have been around long enough to know what is going on, Stop thinking you are going to be the outlier.

and lastly... a lot of you parents should welcome a coach or scout or parent that has been through it telling you how bad your kid is instead of people lying to your face to get you to spend money and selling you false hope. If you only knew what the coaches and people involved in the premier division say about your kids... Trust me, it is worse than what is being said on here

Interesting post, my kid is in 8th grade and as he’s talking to Prep Coaches they definitely have asked about points. I would assume if points are important to these coaches then Stats are probably pretty important at the Jr level. Would make sense that people want it right, doesn’t seem like it that’s hard to get it right. Don’t you guys have 3 or 4 refs on the ice? Like someone can be responsible for getting it right.

Going to stop this right here…. Kids always think they get points but then when the coach ask the kids for the video of them getting the assist they randomly can’t find it anymore.

Really bud ?

So the coach should just believe the kid?

I have no issue with the coach making the player go watch the game and show the clip of the point they didn’t get.

If they are asking about your stats it’s because they know you don’t have many points and they are trying to tell you no thanks unless recruiting goes really bad.

Dude, just get the stats right. USPHL is the biggest league in the USA. With the amount of money flowing, get the **** stats right. It shouldn’t be this hard, or just stop giving assists, only the goal scorer gets the point.

As an announcer on HockeyTV and MAHSH.com I try to review the goals as they happen and give the listeners accurate information. I can say that the guy does have a point that at least once and usually more per game the assists are off and on some occasions the goal scorer is wrong on the official game sheet. with some leagues having 3000 games per year, that’s a lot of bad information.

Good coaches take their own stats on the bench, then later correct any errors on the scoresheet. Not that hard.

OK guys, 2 healthy tournaments happening over the next 4 days. What are the chances that:
1. More than 1 Division 3 College is at either tournament
2. Player Stats are even close

Good luck kids!

Cyclones tournament definitely pulled some D3 coaches this year. Tampa had college club coaches. It was like a competition to see which tournament could keep the worse stats. Good Christ, so many kids shafted out of points when it’s right there on video with HockeyTV. Coaches have lots of stats to correct today. Let’s see if the “good” ones do. Pass-Pass-Goal = unassisted..Breakaway Goal by # 12 = Goal by #29 assisted by # 4 and # 31…WTF.

Brah, scoring in premier is like when I accidentally touch my aunts boob given her a hug. It’s cool cuz it’s a boob, but it’s my aunt. When you score in premier it’s cool cuz it’s a goal but you know nobody cares.

Doing a little research for next year and came across the league stats.
Top 20 Point leaders range from 87 in 35 games played to 59 in 33 games played. Are these the most gifted players in the world or something? Also note, NONE are from the New England teams. Only 3 players in the top 100 are from the New England division. What do scouts think of the New England division, is it just that bad?