Spring Team Skates & Changing Rinks Rumor Season!

[Guest]

Parents are already informing their current teams in early January that they will be attending tryouts elsewhere? Makes total sense. No way this isn’t true.

[Guest]

Yes it is true. Once JH announced leaving FY and with the 2011&2012 PHC struggles parents are going crazy to play for PHC. Multiple coaches/rinks heard rumors and held meetings. There is also turmoil on other PHC ages and PHC coaches and TB himself are reaching out to parents at 2011 thru 2016 birth yeats. Believe what you want but it is 100% true. People are just dumb!

[Guest]

Who cares about PHC? The more pressing question is does LF let Sal comeback? Has Sal been a good boy?

[Guest]

I do not understand the hype around phc. Their program has fallen off at older levels. That should tell you all you need to k know about their dedication to development and their loyalty. The same people looking to jump on that boat to “be on a winning team now” is short sighted. It’s the equivalent of buying a stock on the high because it’s trendy, don’t make a bad investment in your kid. Put them on a team regardless of record or amount of A’s or ownership of the program using the coach as your measuring stick. Ask yourself this has the coach made his current team better throughout the season, and is the rate he or she did so better then other teams.

[Guest]

You didn’t talk to 9 coaches. You didn’t talk to anyone. You’re just stirring the pot to achieve whatever your meaningless agenda is.

New information was relayed to me this morning by a FY contact. Some 2013 kids will tryout for PHC but they have not shot to make 2013 team. Onc cut at PHC they are planning on leaving for the Igloo and form a "super" AA team. Going AHF AA is a joke. They should go to a BB AAA rink instead. Mercer, FE, or Rev should be their options. Pricing is not much different once negotiations are completed, they will get way more ice time, better coaching than Igloo and way better competition. If the 2013 FY Orange kids went to any of those teams they would push out the lower level kids. With the 4-5 legit AAA kids on each of those teams combined with the top talent from FY they would be top 5 in NJ or PA. AHF Pure AA is joke. There are maybe 2-4 teams that are good and the rest are really A. By going THF they would play top teams in THF and not the lower teams. They would also get any AAA team to play them because their ranking would be high enough to not screw the other AAA strength of schedule. If parents are serious about their kids playing a higher level 2nd PW is a great time to jump to AAA. I know Mercer, FE and Rev are not the best at 2013, but those FY kids would make them legit AAA.

[Guest]

You didn’t talk to 9 coaches. You didn’t talk to anyone. You’re just stirring the pot to achieve whatever your meaningless agenda is.

Thank for calling me a liar. I have been in youth hockey for over 20 year. My contacts are many. 100% true about PHC tryouts!

[Guest]

FE teams are the worst in the country, per MHR. FE IS the problem because all they do is prey on non hockey families that value letters and have no idea they are being fleeced. There is no talent development when you lose mightly year after year with the same guys running the program. This is a sorry sales pitch for FE to snag those players they think are leaving. Any parent reading this, your kid is better off playing for Karl at FY or Huff at Igloo, not Jay or Carl. Their teams would have a hard time against most AHF AA teams. It's all watered down, folks. Find good coaches and families, and enjoy the ride.

-Not Sal

[Guest]

It's a fact JH picks his team by January

[Guest]

FE teams are the worst in the country, per MHR. FE IS the problem because all they do is prey on non hockey families that value letters and have no idea they are being fleeced. There is no talent development when you lose mightly year after year with the same guys running the program. This is a sorry sales pitch for FE to snag those players they think are leaving. Any parent reading this, your kid is better off playing for Karl at FY or Huff at Igloo, not Jay or Carl. Their teams would have a hard time against most AHF AA teams. It's all watered down, folks. Find good coaches and families, and enjoy the ride.

-Not Sal

Non-FE parent here, but know Jay and Carl well. I like how you say "Find good coaches and families, and enjoy the ride." Jay and Carl are good coaches and have good families. Also Jay and Carl have been at FE for 2 years. Last year which was mixed aged teams with half the kids playing up and this year. So year after year is not correct. I would argue that having mixed teams hurt Jay and Carl more than it helped. Jay runs into issues at 2012 age because that birth year is light on players/talent and he had to take what he could get. His 2012 team has 3 legit AAA kids and the rest are AA/A. Carl ran into trouble because he did not coach last years 2013/2014 team and had to rebuild from scratch after last years coach quit. He was not fired. Carl has maybe 3-4 legit AAA kids and the rest are AA/A. My kid did privates with Jay and he improved so much. Jay doesn't do private with us anymore since we play on AYHL team, but he is one of the best skills and skating coaches around. Carl is a very good coach too. Don't listen to idiots that bash other programs. Do your own homework.

I will offer some advice. Igloo is improving but the AHF league sucks except for all but the top 3-4 teams at each age. The THF top teams are legit AAA but the rest are AA which makes the AHF AA really A. If your kid is serious about playing hockey at the next level look to make the jump to AAA. If your kid just wants to play and have fun, go to Igloo or any other AHF team. Everyone should do what is best for your family

[Guest]

There is plenty of serious hockey at the AA level.  Looked like Jay and Carl had their hands full this weekend with a AA Cranford Team…the problem with Flyers Elite / Pilots is that the rink offers no central leadership. They run the place with a skeleton crew (of nice people) there is no identifiable rink leadership presence.  They have turned the club over to parents, parent coaches, and it’s completely unchecked.  Carl’s practices are skill sessions.  There is no progression or detail work.  Jay has improved a lot of kids skating abilities but he fails to teach his teams how to play the game.  Flyers Elite has truly diluted AAA ranks.  Regarding the leagues, all the leagues are garbage at ever level, AY, THF, AHF, NJYHL are all extremely top heavy and see a small handful of legitimate teams dominate their divisions.  In my opinion playing at FE, Rev, Mercer or wherever just to be at AAA is laughable and the perceived “value” is under the assumption that all ice is good ice.