For young hockey players living in or near New England, there is a tournament to play in almost every weekend over the summer months. Some weeks, there are two to three events all going on at the same time across the region.
There’s been plenty of banter about all the hockey being played in the summer. I fall somewhere in between the crowd shouting that summer hockey is bad and the tournament and camp organizers pushing exposure.
I hear all the time about how bad it is for kids to be spending too much time at the rink. That’s absurd. If a kid likes hockey and wants to be on the ice, there’s nothing wrong with that. There should be balance. Kids should be kids, whether it be hanging out with friends away from the rink, hitting the beach or playing other sports. But, there are a lot of worse things kids could be doing than heading down to the rink.
There are can’t-miss events for aspiring hockey players and there are others that can be a fun experience, but won’t do much in the way of exposure or development. Both can be beneficial for different reasons.
