I agree 7 levels? That's crazy. Why not go back to just A and B? B should be current A, bb, and b combined. And A should be the current aaa, aa. After all they are only the 12 year olds. Then nobody has to chase the extra A. 🤣 I don't believe they have all these levels back east. Either your kid is an A or B. Too many levels to choose from. Can anyone really break down what skills are needed for each level?
Skates,
On the east coast they have AAA, AA, A & B. With that said, due to the unnatural compression of teams at AAA, many kids who would otherwise be playing AAA are playing AA here. This is somewhat due to geography, and I suppose the number of players available at each age group. On the east coast, most of the AAA clubs have full birth year teams at every level they serve, although it's not 100%.
The main difference between AAA here and back east, is the reliance and exorbitant cost of travel. Since there are more AAA teams in the local area, and because you can travel by car or bus to play teams in other cities, teams back east tend to play more games with far less cost attached. Depending on the locale, they also have tryouts and start their practice season much earlier than we do here.
Check out for example, this
AAA league: They have 18 member clubs, and divisions will have from 10-16 teams.
Below AAA is run separately by
an entirely different league, and it seems that most of those clubs employ the Titans/Mariners model of having 2 different organizations which may or may not have anything to do with each other, for participation in these leagues. I don't know what is involved in moving kids between the leagues, or how frequently that happens, but as far as I know, in that region which covers 5 different states, there just isn't any attempt at continuity, nor is AAA and AA part of the same league.
In the "tier hockey" there is only AAA. In "club hockey" there is AA, A, B. Nobody is doing BB. And nobody sure as hell is doing anything as absurd as what is being suggested by CAHA for this year in AA.