Yeah who knows what CAHA would do. Wasn't there a PW team or two last year that got dropped? I think at least a Jr. Sharks team.
In the last 2 years at PWAA there were a number of teams that dropped. The Flight system did not change anything. As I recall, last year, both the Jr. Sharks and the Jr. Gulls had teams that dropped down after the Jamboree. Both teams were primarily "Play up" teams with 06/07 rosters.
I'd hate the narrative begin again where CAHA is fighting the good fight against all the teams with parents who are chasing A's for their kids.
2 Years ago we had the legendary SDIA fiasco, where SDIA after playing in the pre-season, went to CAHA and stated that they wanted to drop down to PWA. The entire team then were given releases and resigned contracts to play PWA. CAHA came back to them (due no doubt to the fact they had already created the schedule) and denied SDIA's request to drop. That same season, Jr. Gulls and the Wildcats dropped teams from AA to A. Neither team managed to end up in the top half of PWA that season, so clearly those were teams that had no business playing PWAA.
If SDIA had dropped they would have been a frontrunner in PWA without a doubt as would any of the other bottom 6 PWAA teams. This is a problem that will never be solved, as there is always some fluidity at the top and bottom of the divisions from AAA on down. At the end of the day, in EVERY division, you can see the teams migrate upwards or downwards typically on the basis of goal differential, and in most cases it's about 50/50 above or below the line.