New THF Tier 1 league

[Guest]

Patrick Maroon started playing organized hockey at age 15. Growing up in St. Louis, Maroon attended Rogers Elementary, Oakville Middle School, and Oakville High School. He played minor ice hockey for the St. Louis Amateur Blues from 2003 until 2005 where he was nicknamed "Fat Pat" due to his size, 6'1 and 260 pounds. Fat Pat has 3 rings and is likely going to add another in a few weeks to his collection.

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[Guest]

USA Hockey recommends for under 16 age no more than 8 months straight for a single sport. This means 4 months per year in another sport or off the ice completely. They recommend playing multiple sports and to not specialize. Also if playing multiple sports, do not play them together in a season. Hours/ week training= age of child. Parents think they are helping their kids by having them on the ice for so long. They are hurting them. Kids need to develop full athletic skills by playing multiple sports. Off ice does not do this for a child. Kids need rest too. Even NHL players stop skating and do other sports/workouts in offseason. When puberty hits that AA or A player that played multiple sports, will be a better athlete than your AAA phenom, will catch up or surpass you phenom on the ice and will not be burnt out. Instead of just letting your kid dictate what they want to do, be the adult/parent and do what is best for them. Get them off the ice and in another sport.

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[Guest]

I was looking at average of teams at each birth year from the respective leagues, and considering all levels from Squirt Major to 15U Pure. Of course, you will find inconsistencies when you bore down to each level and each team. At the 2010 birth year, the THF/USPHL might actually be as strong as, if not stronger than the AYHL. And the numbers I looked at are based on last season's ratings. For example, one of the two strongest 2011 teams from the two leagues were Woodbridge Wolfpack 2011 AAA, but they will struggle next season since they lost several key players (most notably to AYHL teams).

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[Guest]

The only issue with the analysis is that PHC 2011 & 2012 are going to dominate AYHL. They are 2 of the best teams in the county with PHC 2011 every better this year. I do not have a horse in the race either as my kid is AA Squirt. This is not a pissing contest about PHC. It is just respect that those 2 teams are awesome and have kids from all over the region on those teams. As far as the other teams in AYHL at these ages they are top heavy with lower teams pretty bad. Mercer at these 2 ages are terrible & Flyers Elite is not even fielding teams. Again the lower AAA teams at Pee Wee/Squirt are weak. These ages are tough as a lot of families don't play AAA. AA at 2011 age is loaded, 2012 OK, 2013 ok. Mite 2014 not great. Do not know a lot about older ages as my kid a 2nd year Squirt. To me this is all a ridiculous argument because the kids below bantam are so young. A great player may go through a growth spurt and lose some coordination, while other get more coordinated. Teams change too as teams can bring in up to 4 new players per year and the best players change. This happened at 2011 PHC. I think we should just let the season play out and have fun!

Mercer is not a bad team at 2011.  In fact, they were an AYHL playoff team and ranked #26 on MHR last season. 

Also, there is a 2 player transfer rule from Tier 1 to Tier 1 (4 players from Tier 2 to Tier 1).  This is not how PHC was built.  Instead 9-10 players from Flyers Elite left with the coach to go to PHC and refused to sign with Flyers Elite even though they all were offered contracts despite never showing up to tryouts.  A deal was struck between the owners of Flyers Elite (BB) and PHC where 7 players were allowed to make the move over, even though it violated the player transfer rule. 

PHC at 2011 is very good and will continue to be one of the top teams nationally. 

PHC 2011 was one of the primary beneficiaries of the turnover at Woodbridge a couple of months ago.

As for Mercer 2011, their improvement last season from the season before, when they were pretty pedestrian, was remarkable, given that their roster remained virtually unchanged. And they added at least one pretty good player this season. They should be the peewee minor team to beat in the THF/USPHL.

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[Guest]

Mercer 2011 AYHL was good because teams in their division stunk. 7 of the 14 teams were not AAA caliber teams. Mercer beat up on the bottom teams and struggled against the top teams. LI Royals were a shell of themselves by end of season. Going 1-2 in playoffs not great.

PHC got 2 great players from Woodbridge and let 2 players go. Great team to just bring in better players 1.5 hours from your rink!

THF will stink this year. They do not have any of the better teams. PHC 2011 is best. Mercer will be lucky to finish .500 in AYHL this year. No Flyers Elite 2011 to beat up on this year.

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[Guest]

Not true.  Mercer was 2011 was good because they had two big forwards who could score and a fantastic little goalie.  The lost in the playoffs with their coach being on vacation.  They'll be missed in the AY.

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[Guest]

Not true.  Mercer was 2011 was good because they had two big forwards who could score and a fantastic little goalie.  The lost in the playoffs with their coach being on vacation.  They'll be missed in the AY.

Mercer 2011 is not very good. They finished in 8th place in THF parity event. THF is a weak league. No Flyers Elite, Valley Forge or Elite Hockey to beat up on anymore. Mercer 2011 very overrated!

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[Guest]

LOL!  They are not a Top 20 team in the country, but they are still pretty good.  The Parity event wouldn't mean much if the players I referred to weren't there.  If I'm not mistaken, the AHF Parity event was the same weekend as the big 2011 tournament in Nashville.  Surely Mercer was missing some kids. 

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[Guest]

Goalie and D from Mercer played for Northstar Elites in Nashville. They did ok, but again only 2 Mercer kids on the team. Rest from North Jersey, so take it for what it is. Mercer still not great!

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[Guest]

Goalie and D from Mercer played for Northstar Elites in Nashville. They did ok, but again only 2 Mercer kids on the team. Rest from North Jersey, so take it for what it is. Mercer still not great!

Actually, the goalie and D didn't play for Northstar Elite, and Mercer had a total of 6 players invited to participate from 4 different teams.  I hate when people post things that are blatantly incorrect. 

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