czechcanadian
Registered User
Thank you! This helps so much!I think that ELSD A, B, C, D and E are all the same league, it's just in the early stages the teams play only against teams from their region, probably mainly to reduce travel costs. At a later stage the 25 teams are divided only into two groups. The first fourteen play for play offs, while the rest only play for placement.
I believe this is a model that copies the Swedish u18 league where you also have J18 Elit in the various regions and later the best teams from each region play in J18 Allsvenskan.
There is actually a lower league for the U18 category - The Regional u18 league: Týmy: Regionální liga staršího dorostu | Hokej.cz - web českého hokeje and I would assume that the real drop off in quality comes between the 25 teams in ELSD and the teams in this league.