Confirmed with Link: Sam Lafferty signs ELC; Reports to WBS

[exHornet]

Pittsburgh amateur hockey is a mess. It was far stronger and better for development back when there was a single AAA program, and a strong PAHL. Once all of the various AAA-lite programs came on board everything just got too diluted out. You can thank meddling parents for most of that. These AAA-lite teams often can't even beat solid AA teams from out of town, but as long as junior has his third A, the parents are happy. The organizations are likewise thrilled to take the big money from these people and laugh all the way to the bank.

It's unfortunate, but until the mess is cleaned up Pittsburgh is likely to never duplicate the Saad/Trocheck/Miller etc era, nor some of the strong years prior to that. The really good players have to play together to develop properly, and for the most part that isn't happening. Even the Elite Pens are way too political these days, not that they weren't a bit in the past. Nowadays, though, friends of the NHL Pens' leaders are often gifted spots on teams that they don't belong on, and that activity begins with one man.

 

[Shady Machine]

Pittsburgh amateur hockey is a mess. It was far stronger and better for development back when there was a single AAA program, and a strong PAHL. Once all of the various AAA-lite programs came on board everything just got too diluted out. You can thank meddling parents for most of that. These AAA-lite teams often can't even beat solid AA teams from out of town, but as long as junior has his third A, the parents are happy. The organizations are likewise thrilled to take the big money from these people and laugh all the way to the bank.

It's unfortunate, but until the mess is cleaned up Pittsburgh is likely to never duplicate the Saad/Trocheck/Miller etc era, nor some of the strong years prior to that. The really good players have to play together to develop properly, and for the most part that isn't happening. Even the Elite Pens are way too political these days, not that they weren't a bit in the past. Nowadays, though, friends of the NHL Pens' leaders are often gifted spots on teams that they don't belong on, and that activity begins with one man.

Ah that makes sense. When I was playing, AA hockey was pretty competitive vs other cities. We were beating AAA teams from other cities at tournaments as well. Most of my youth, it was AAA Hornets and Junior Pens. Then as I was entering Bantams and Midgets, a few of those other AAA teams started (ViperStars, Airport Aviators, Preds AAA, etc) but those were essentially AAA for the sake of wanting to travel more. Local AA was still really competitive. Sounds like times have changed even more.

 

[exHornet]

It really has changed for the worse, unfortunately. Back in the day, and I'm talking mid 90s /late 90s or so, PAHL was very strong. A lot of the best players stayed in PAHL until the second PeeWee, or Bantam years, and then started to migrate over to the Hornets. The older Hornet teams were always very competitive on the national stage, the younger teams less so as those players got bumped out as the better players made their way to the Hornets. Most of the kids who played Squirt level with the Hornets were long gone by the second Bantam year. The Jr. Pens were an afterthought.

The Viper Stars started the whole revolution, for better or worse. In the late 80s/up thru mid 90's they existed as the Steel City Stars, which was a travel organization that played out of a strong AA league up around Buffalo. They finagled a merger with NHAHA and the Viper Stars were born. I could go into sad detail about that whole situation, but I will spare you. The Predators followed around the same time. Safe to say, local amateur hockey has suffered greatly as a result.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Pittsburgh amateur hockey is a mess. It was far stronger and better for development back when there was a single AAA program, and a strong PAHL. Once all of the various AAA-lite programs came on board everything just got too diluted out. You can thank meddling parents for most of that. These AAA-lite teams often can't even beat solid AA teams from out of town, but as long as junior has his third A, the parents are happy. The organizations are likewise thrilled to take the big money from these people and laugh all the way to the bank.

It's unfortunate, but until the mess is cleaned up Pittsburgh is likely to never duplicate the Saad/Trocheck/Miller etc era, nor some of the strong years prior to that. The really good players have to play together to develop properly, and for the most part that isn't happening. Even the Elite Pens are way too political these days, not that they weren't a bit in the past. Nowadays, though, friends of the NHL Pens' leaders are often gifted spots on teams that they don't belong on, and that activity begins with one man.

I certainly don't know much about Pittsburgh amateur hockey, but this seems fairly accurate. I mean, just talking to my co-worker who obsesses over his son's hockey career it really does seem like that extra 'A' is all that mattered for where they wanted to play.