Naru said:
Is being a nine year old on a AA team good? I've got no idea how things are worked out over there. It would be better if you just had under 12, under 14 and such leages. Then I would be able to tell.
In Pittsburgh, there isn't much in the way of real Tier I/AAA until PeeWee or so. A few teams exist, but relative to outside competition they are pretenders. Thus, the local Tier II league is actually pretty strong compared to most other US cities that are close by (Detroit is a notable exception). As a hockeydad myself, I'd say that the people who put their kids in Tier I around here prior to the second PeeWee year are wasting time and money.
It's not unusual to have a first year Squirt playing AA around here. Lemieux's kid is actually playing on a team that is a hand-picked highly recruited team. There is no rule against that sort of thing, or indeed any player movement year to year, in this league. The other really good team in that division is also a highly recruited team. Both of these teams go out of town to AAA/Tier I tournaments a lot, but don't forget that in the US there is no official Tier I or Tier II until PeeWee (Under 12).
He's a nice player, but if you didn't see the name on his back he wouldn't stand out at this time. He's still obviously young, and not very big yet. I assume this would change as his mother is tallish and obviously Mario himself is big.
It can't be easy to be a kid of one of true superstars. You get adults like us discussing them on bulletin boards, for God's sake!