Everyone in hockey has known for a long time that this would be the summer and fall filled with pain for pay to play teams. By our count, fifteen teams have either gone under by choice or by league action in Tier 3, or AAA. Thats no small number.
Today with seasons continuing to begin over the past weekend, more information has come to light on which teams are in serious trouble concerning roster numbers.
The NA3HL should be having some very serious concerns about the Maine Nordiques, and the Carolina Rage. Strangely, these teams are both owned by the same owner of the Maine Nordiques NAHL team. Both NA3 teams are showing up to games with twelve or thirteen players. Not exactly what anyone would call confident numbers to finish the season.
Speaking of the Maine Nordiques and their ownership group Shift Sports, they still have not paid their bills in Lewiston and owe approximately $250,000.00 there in unpaid bills and unpaid wages. That same Shift Sports group and its owners are still being sued in South Carolina for more than $650,000.00 Yet for some reason the NAHL and NA3HL thinks its a good idea to keep Shift Sports and the Andersons involved in team ownership. This is akin to saying Bernie Madoff made a few mistakes managing money.
Continuing in the NA3 you have the Pelham Prowlers with a minus 61 goal differential over their first six games. Yes, they are losing on average by ten goals per game. While they may have fifteen players per game, this is an embarassment on ice.
The NA3 Tulsa Oilers while sporting slightly better roster numbers than the others have started the season perfectly, losing all games by an average of six goals per game. The Peoria Mustangs are close behind the Oilers even though they have a nearly full roster but a minus twenty nine goal differential through its first six games.
With the Norwich Sea Captains and Bayou State Rougarou not playing any games yet, but rumors around both teams not sounding good, the NA3HL has a serious quality control problem early in the season. On a positive note though, both teams are rumored to have signed twenty goalies. They are now only looking to for a few forwards and defense to round out the roster, wink wink.
The AEJHL has started its pre season schedule with four of six teams playing. Not a single team has a full lineup, and none of them look to be close to Junior A level. When four of five games have one team scoring double digits on the other teams, you might have a problem. Two teams have not played a pre season game but are slated to start the regular season next week. And this league allows 21 year old players?
The NJ Rockets have folded their USPHL Elite team for this season. When an organization like the Rockets who regularly develop NCAA players decides to not ice a team at any specific level, that tells everyone that the presure on the player pool is extreme.
All eyes are now firmly on the EHL and EHLP who start their seasons this week. The first week of October will also see the NJHL start playing. To say things will be interesting moving forward is the understatement of this season. USA Hockey will be publishing its protected lists in just over a week which will give everyone more information as to which teams may be on life support.
