Are new ECRL teams truly "ECRL"?

[Guest]

Sounds like Northeast is parallel to New England.

If a club has three teams, they can put A in ECNL, B in ECRL New England and C in ECRL Northeast.

If a club has two teams, its A in ECNL and B in ECNL New England (basically staying unchanged)

If a club is just joining as a new participant, its A team is ECRL Northeast

The ECNL clubs that have teams in the new Northeast ECRL are putting teams from their satellite locations there. Technically it's the A teams from those satellite locations. Whether that means they are above or below the B team from the main location will depend on the talent they attract from their local areas.

[Guest]

I think that might be a mischaracterization in terms of players. If there is a player at one of the satellite clubs who is ECNL or even New England ECRL level, they are on those teams and not hanging around at the satellite clubs. It makes no sense that they would keep players playing on lower levels just because they are part of a satellite club. The whole reason for satellite clubs is to feed the parent club. Consequently, what you will probably see are lower level "A" teams.

Also, the teams will probably play 9 games each, once against each of their division opponents especially at the high school ages given ECNL/RL don't play when HS ball is in session. Maybe the younger teams (u13 and u14) play a few more games since they can play in the fall when HS ball is in session. Add in your showcase games, 3 per showcase, which I believe are usually two, and you get to 15 games. Also, in showcases, they are segregated by ECNL and ECRL. ECRL teams only play ECRL teams and ECNL teams only play ECNL teams. There is no cross-pollination.

[Guest]

I think that might be a mischaracterization in terms of players. If there is a player at one of the satellite clubs who is ECNL or even New England ECRL level, they are on those teams and not hanging around at the satellite clubs. It makes no sense that they would keep players playing on lower levels just because they are part of a satellite club. The whole reason for satellite clubs is to feed the parent club. Consequently, what you will probably see are lower level "A" teams.

Also, the teams will probably play 9 games each, once against each of their division opponents especially at the high school ages given ECNL/RL don't play when HS ball is in session. Maybe the younger teams (u13 and u14) play a few more games since they can play in the fall when HS ball is in session. Add in your showcase games, 3 per showcase, which I believe are usually two, and you get to 15 games. Also, in showcases, they are segregated by ECNL and ECRL. ECRL teams only play ECRL teams and ECNL teams only play ECNL teams. There is no cross-pollination.

I agree with your first statement in principle, but I would say that would only apply to the ECNL-level players. No way someone is traveling to the main campus just to play ECRL. So it's still possible that the satellite A team could be better than the main B team.

The younger pre-high-school teams will probably play 18 league games over the whole year; 9 games in the fall and 9 games in the spring, playing home and away against each team in the division. And then yes, add in the showcase games. This is pretty normal.

[Guest]

I agree with your first statement in principle, but I would say that would only apply to the ECNL-level players. No way someone is traveling to the main campus just to play ECRL. So it's still possible that the satellite A team could be better than the main B team.

The younger pre-high-school teams will probably play 18 league games over the whole year; 9 games in the fall and 9 games in the spring, playing home and away against each team in the division. And then yes, add in the showcase games. This is pretty normal.

We can agree to disagree on the ECRL principle. All these new ECRL teams from satellite clubs are going to be viewed as "C" teams. Also, we're talking about CT and MA, where if you're travelling already to play at a club, what is the extra distance to be on a "B" team as opposed to a "C" team. I'm not saying everyone has to agree with me but these satellite teams will have this stigma until they can prove otherwise.

As to schedule, based on ECNL's past practice (although we can throw some of this out given they just created this conference), they have only had teams in ECRL, in these conferences that are not tied to an ECNL conference, play one game against each team in their division/conference. Who knows what they'll do. For now, I think we can all agree that at a minimum they'll all play at least 9 games within their conference.