There isn\'t a high school coach who cares where you pla*** youth hockey or spends their time looking at records, leagues, etc... take it from my own experience. They care about who shows up the day after Thanksgiving at tryouts.
Save the miles and gas money, let him play with who he wants to and for a decent coach. God willing, if he is that talented someone will call you in 7th/8th grade and offer you a free education first, that includes great hockey. If you are being sold/or pushed to pay to play somewhere or to get him \"exposure\" (lol), that is just the business side of youth hockey telling you he isn\'t that good and does not realistically have a chance of playing high level college hockey.
Have to disagree a little bit here. One of the coaches on my kid's varsity team is a part owner of a prominent club here in eastern Massachusetts. Not a single one of his organization's players sits, even one who plays defense and can't do two backwards crossovers in a row without tripping.
Is the highest level competing at that level? Can he be impactful on the team? Will he be a bigger contributor on the next lower level? Could they move up a division? How much of the team is staying?
My opinion, without knowing some of the above; coach and shorter commute.
Find a good coach that has good assistant coaches. Dont worry much about league and level as long as your kid is challenged and can have success meaning score some goals and touch puck alot. Shorter commute is always win.
This time of year is wild - people change teams for little reason and use the worst logic.
Leaving using logic. Current team has too many kids that don’t pay attention in practice and do a lot of punching/tripping instead of paying attention. My kid is not one of those kids and loses reps, has a hard time focusing. The other 3 teams we skates with run practice with much more focus and maturity.
Is the highest level competing at that level? Can he be impactful on the team? Will he be a bigger contributor on the next lower level? Could they move up a division? How much of the team is staying?
My opinion, without knowing some of the above; coach and shorter commute.
Not sure if he can compete at Fed elite the way he wants to. Might be too much of a challenge for next season.