The amateur hockey landscape around New England is constantly evolving.
Whether it's prep school hockey, high school hockey, fall club hockey, summer showcases and more, there's always new ideas, new things to tinker with, different models to consider, etc.
Take the new Cutting Edge Management (CEM) Fall Development League, for example. The goal is to open up a pathway for prep hockey players to play more with their teammates and not have to commit to lengthy off-campus trips to play on split-season fall teams. Participating teams are Frederick Gunn, Salisbury, Deerfield, Taft and Westminster. Frederick Gunn and Salisbury will have two teams. Schools like South Kent and Nichols will have their U18 teams playing, too.
Every school hosts a weekend slate of games. Buses provided by CEM bring players to and from the games — one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Since the schools are within a relatively short driving distance, players will go home right after the games.
On the latest RinkWise podcast, New England Hockey Journal editor Evan Marinofsky and writer Patrick Donnelly sat down to discuss their key takeaways from the formation of the CEM league and what the concept means for the futures of fall and prep hockey, going back and forth on different long-term ideas to consider.
They also run through some key headlines around recent men's and women's college hockey recruiting.
RinkWise podcast: What’s the future of fall hockey?
Will more teams start playing together in fall hockey?
Marinofsky:Â "It is one of the things with these prep schools where parents are spending all this money to go to a Frederick Gunn or a Salisbury or a Choate or wherever, and it's, 'Well, I shouldn't have to spend more money.' I think parents sort of feel that way. ... It should be sort of a one-stop shop. And I know like 'one-stop shop' is the phrase that Danny Donato at Dexter always uses for what they're doing. You can come here, and you're gonna practice during the fall on campus. You're gonna work out in the fall on campus, you're gonna play for the Brookline Whalers and you're gonna play together as a team. You still have players who wanna play for the Junior Eagles and the River Rats and all these teams, which is great. We're also seeing sort of the blend, which we've touched on. ... Teams are saying, 'Hey, we don't have a league yet, but let's put ourselves under a current fall team.' Dexter's the big one doing that, obviously now with the Brookline Whalers. My guess is in the next five to 10 years, we see more of this."
Would the prep hockey season ever extend?
Marinofsky: "Is there a time where the NEPSAC says, 'You know what? You guys are already all playing (together in the fall). There aren't that many boys hockey players playing soccer anymore that we start the season in early October and make the games really matter.' I wonder about that, if that ever gets to that point. I don't think we're that close, but I think the more that this happens, the more schools that you can check next to and say they're playing together in the fall. I do wonder if the NEPSAC ever caves."
The RinkWise podcast can be streamed here and on major platforms, such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
