USA Hockey explained

Most Junior Hockey Leagues explained:

There are plenty of Junior Leagues in the United States, but here is some information you need to know:

The Junior hockey system is divided into Tiers. Tier 1 and Tier 2 are the best of the best and are free to play while Tier 3 is pay-to-play. Depending on what team and league, the prices can vary between 3’000$ to 10’000$ a year.

Tier 1 and Tier 2 levels are known for producing incredible players and are highly competitive. Tier 3 can be very underrated sometimes and sometimes has a bad reputation. However, for a young player out of high school or still in high school it can be a very good league to start playing with men of 20-21 years old and start getting looks from the higher junior leagues like the NAHL or the NCDC. It is also a very good way to have a great time while playing competitive hockey and get looks to go play NCAA DIII in the future. A few players were also able to go from Tier 3 to DI!

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NOTE: if you are thinking about making the NAHL or NCDC as an age-out and you want to play college but you think you’re probably going to be a 3rd or 4th line player, consider playing in the league below so that you can be a top-line player, have a really good season and get more NCAA D3 looks doing that than having a below-average season in tier 2. At the end of the day, only the top players from Tier 2 are able to get a spot in DI colleges and the rest go p

College Hockey Leagues explained:

Playing college hockey in America is a dream of a lot of players from all over the world, here’s how it works:

The top college league you can play in is NCAA D1. That doesn’t mean that you will for sure have a full scholarship to study there. The school has a limited amount of athletic scholarships to give and only a handful of the players will receive it or maybe the team will decide to give half scholarships to more players.

The second-best college level to play in is NCAA D3, (note: there is technically a NCAA D2, but it’s composed by a total of eight teams and they play against NCAA D3 schools, so they’re usually considered as D3 schools)

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NCAA D3 schools don’t have permission to give away athletic scholarships to their players. However, they are able to give out academic scholarships, so if they really want you, they will find different ways to bring the tuition lower and help out the players.

Remember if the team wants you, they will find a way to have you so don’t be scared of the initial price tags of those universities because they can get lower and lower!

NCAA D1 schools are usually big State schools like UND (University of North Dakota), U of M (University of Minnesota), U of W (University of Wisconsin) and they can have up to 30’000 students. NCAA D3 schools are usually small, private schools like St. Olaf College, Lawrence University, Finlandia University and they usually have about 2’000 or 3’000 students.

The difference between public and private schools, other than their size, is the fact that a private school will be able to go as low as they want for your tuition, and public schools will not be able to lower the tuition price as state schools.

For example one of the schools I was talking to a public school in Boston. The initial price tag was of 16’000$ for the tuition without room and board (apartment and food), so, initially, I thought it was much better than the other private schools that were 50’000$+ just for the tuition.

Later on, I started talking with the coaches and the administration for the other schools, and because the coaches wanted me and I passed the ACT Test very well they were able to lower the price of the tuition to less than half of what I would’ve had to pay at that public school.

Unfortunately, the public school could not go lower because they were not allowed to. Although the school looked like the best option at first, I would’ve ended up paying at least double the amount going to that public school rather than in my other private school.

A school will always try to get the most money out of you that they can, so It’s important to be very clear on what you want to spend and get yourself in a situation where you can decide where to go and use your different options as leverage so that the schools will do their best to lower the tuition to have you.

PRO TIPS:

when looking for a school try to talk with the players in the team as well, reach out to them on instagram or facebook and ask them how it actually is. You understand a lot just by how they’re gonna respond to you.
Start early!! A lot of college teams will be full by april/may so start reaching out to them in October, November so that they have time to get to know you, come watch your games
Reach out to as many schools as possible, prepare a default email with who you are, why you are interested in the school, and have a video with your highlights to send to as many coaches as you can (you can usually find their email on the roster page on the school website)
Go for as many visits as you can, going for visits requires a lot of time but it’s all worth it, even if you know you’re not going to go there and it’s not too far away try to go anyways you will always learn something new from the people there. Before I visited Lawrence University I was 90% sure I was going to go to another school. That visit completely changed my mind and I fell in love with that school and that turned out to be the best decision of my life.