AAU College Hockey

With AAU Hockey as a whole only having been around for a handful of years, it’s definitely much less known than other collegiate hockey leagues.

The way in which this impacts skill level in AAU today is that most prospective players coming out of travel, prep, juniors, and high school hockey who are hitting college age don’t yet know about it.

Now that the leagues have been around a bit and the org has grown by a few fold, more players/coaches/parents are becoming aware that it may (or may not) be a good option for their player.

So what’s the level of players like?

Since the organization has DI, DII, DIII for men and D1 for women, you get a wide range of players even across the same rosters.

The top teams that compete at Nationals have a good number of players who definitely could play on the ice with many ACHA level clubs and wouldn’t look out of place one bit.

On most rosters, you’ll probably find a couple players with good junior hockey (or equivalent level- prep, travel) experience to their resumes. Maybe they could have played at a higher collegiate level, but maybe they chose the university for academic (a certain major), financial reasons (tuition), or personal (to be closer to home).

Many players in the middle of rosters may have played quite well in say high school or travel hockey locally growing up, but they weren’t at the level to be garnering interest from ACHA or NCAA teams from there.

In the lower divisions, you’ll find a handful of players who were quality players, but they don’t didn’t rip up travel, juniors, or high school…but they still want to continue playing competitively and this level offers them a potential place to add depth to a roster as they continue on their path as a student-athlete.

The way we’d order it broadly in the collegiate ecosystem would be NCAA -> ACHA -> AAU.

How to Make An AAU Hockey Team

There are a couple ways that players can make a team….the main two are by either getting recruited ahead of time or via tryouts.

We’ll cover both of these.

Luckily, if you’re a decent player and you have moderate grades that align with the schools where there’s teams, you have a good chance to make it happen.

Much of this is due to the combination of the number of programs available and because less players are getting recruited prior to that current season (at least compared to higher college tiers).

Let me explain....

In the NCAA even at the Division 3 college hockey level, the majority of the incoming freshman roster each year (besides maybe 1 walk-on spot) is decided well in advance of the school year.

Sure…some of the top AAU clubs actively recruit quality players each season, but this isn’t the case across all of the tiers/conferences. Most AAU DIII club assistant coaches aren’t flying to Ontario for the weekend to scout players coming out of junior A to come to their program in the Southeast.

AAU Hockey Recruitment

The first and most obvious way onto a team is by playing well consistently in the leagues you’re playing in today in order to attract the attention of coaches (aka getting recruited).

This may take place throughout regular season play depending on the level you’re at, in playoffs, and at showcases and tournaments where their might be more exposure.

The goal is to stand out.

Players get recruited at this level, but keep in mind again that resources are limited and the majority of coaches are coaching more on a part-time basis. Unlike higher end collegiate programs (ex: NCAA) where coaches are full-time, this isn’t their only work gig.

A helpful way to garner more interest (alongside playing well) is to create a professional portfolio for yourself as a prospect.

No, not a physical portfolio…

A digital one that can clearly show your core stats, links to high quality video (game highlights or full gear training), and covers additional info that the team would want to know (ex: accomplishments, grades, other attributes you bring to the table, etc).

We’ve helped countless players do this over many years from youth levels up to the pros…regardless of the level, showcasing your experience in the right manner to teams has a massive impact in terms of how teams perceive your ability.

Once you have this in place, it’s then essential to get this in front of coaches early so they know who you are. You need to get on their radar

With less rigorous recruiting capabilities, you doing the above in the right manner helps you to have a leg up in terms of teams knowing who you are…

This takes us to the next main way for players to land on teams.

AAU Tryouts

AAU hockey teams across all divisions (men’s and women’s) hold some variation of tryouts at the beginning of the school year leading up to the hockey season.

These tryouts give players a chance to compete for the set number of spots on a particular roster. This number of course will vary from one club to the next, but as we mentioned above, less recruiting takes place at this level…so there’s usually more potential spots to fill IF you have the skill set the coach(s) are looking for.

We have several partners that are deeply connected with collegiate programs across North America so if you are unsure how to go about getting a team(s) interested in you/your player, send us a message.

We’ve likely seen the situation you’re in before and at minimum can point you in the right direction whether the goal is here or another level.

Experience of Playing AAU College Hockey

Based on conversations with numerous players, we’ve found that the overall experiences were positive.

Day-to-day, players are pumped to be able to keep playing hockey, competing, and being around the team in the locker room day-to-day.

This level provides an additional route for college-aged players to continue playing hockey while importantly getting a college education/degree.

Alongside a full academic schedule, a subset of players may also work part-time in-season depending on their financial setups.

From what players have told us, many of them work more in the summer (ex: coaching hockey, blue collar jobs, etc) to save up money which then allows them to focus on academics + hockey in season since the combo of those two alone is quite busy.

Weekly practices generally take place later in the day Monday-Friday.

Some teams may practice 4-5x per week and others a bit less. Practice times will vary depending on ice availability at the particular rink of the team.

One team might have ice at 2PM on weekdays while another isn’t until the evening.

In-season games are heavily weighted to fall on weekends which helps to minimize academic interference throughout the season (especially for road games). 

Nationals at the end of the season also involve extended travel depending on where a team is based…but this is planned ahead of time and they align it to fall partly over a weekend as well similar to games in-season.

For any player whether you’re playing hockey here, in the ACHA, or up at the NCAA level…you’re going to have a busy schedule between school, hockey, and everything else.

As we’ve harped on several times throughout this guide, many players at the AAU level may not have had an opportunity before the organization's formation to continue playing competitively if not for the league…so the league has made continuing to play more accessible for a wider subset of players.

There are multiple divisions (and many teams within each) so the overall experience from one hockey program here to the next may differ greatly…based on resources, budgets, etc.

For instance, a top AAU club team may have a dedicated rink on campus, private team locker room, a gym/training facility for players, and all the amenities they need that’s similar to your average NCAA program.

On the other hand, you may have a team that has a rink quite a bit off campus and resources around the team are less prominent. Maybe finding ample ice time is hard, maybe they need to do more fundraisers to group funds, or something else entirely.

This is not to say that the team with all the perks/amenities is better per se, but rather that there’s just a lot of different flavors of hockey teams at this level.

Questions To Ask AAU Club Hockey Teams

When you’re evaluating teams here or with the help of an advisor/team, it’s important once a team shows interest (not prior) to ask the team questions like:

• What’s it like being a student-athlete playing for ___ team?
  
• What’s the team's setup like day to day? Ice rink, locker room, gym, etc
• How often does the team practice/train each week schedule wise?
• What’s the game/travel schedule like? For prospective players/parents, is there any other info that would be helpful for us to know looking in?
• For prospective players/parents, is there any other info that would be helpful for us to know looking in?

Asking these types of questions not only helps you gain important insights to better inform your decision making, but it also lets you quickly get a sense for the feel and professionalism of the club.

If a coach or team manager isn’t able to provide you with answers to some of these regarding their program….that says a bit about the program. Luckily, many are able to help answer these types of questions.

For sake of time since coaches here are busy (and as we mentioned it’s not their full-time gig), they may share a link, a common FAQ answers document that they share with all potential incoming players, or if it gets further....maybe some are answered for you via a phone call if a club(s) shows interest.

It just depends on the team and how their coaching staff goes about recruiting players.

Throughout this guide, we’ve talked at length about AAU Hockey overall and that one of the biggest benefits of having a league like this is that it helps give a subset of 18-25 year old players the opportunity to keep playing in a competitive environment alongside academics.

That being said…not all players strive to continue getting a degree in order to keep playing hockey. And that’s okay…if this is you, here’s a few other options.

You can try to make the step up to the minor pro leagues (pro and semi-pro) in North America. As we’ve touched on in previous pieces, this path can prove challenging for players with modest resumes based on supply and demand. There’s only so many teams in the lower pro tiers in the US/Canada. With more high-end junior and college players aiming to keep playing after they finish at those levels, this makes placing on a team that much harder.

A much more viable (and attractive) option is to explore playing across the pond in Europe.

European hockey has way more leagues/tiers across the continent which provides more opportunity. Alongside this, one of the biggest perks is the life experience…there are literally hundreds of teams that are located in beautiful + safe regions all around Europe.

Intrigued to play in a beautiful town in a wintry Scandinavian city? You got options.

Want to play in a cultured city with cobblestone streets to walk around daily after practice? There’s plenty of these.

Does a few day trip to the Swiss Alps or the Mediterranean during the few in-season breaks excite you? We have players that do this every year at many different tiers.

Having helped players from many backgrounds and helping them land in Europe, we know how positive of an experience it can be for players. Especially in terms of a player's journey beyond their playing days.

We hope that in you reading this guide, you were able to take away some insights and it’s got you thinking about what may be the best path for you…

Where you decide to explore playing next comes down to where you believe is right for you (or your player)

Remember…you can always explore various options in parallel which can allow you to best review options and from there, decide what’s the best path to take.

The first step though is getting started…teams need to be made aware of who you are and in order to do that, you first need to have access and reach them in the right manner.

We’ve done this for players since 2012…we’ve helped younger standout players to many players with way lighter stat resumes on paper and lots of players that fall somewhere in between this experience wise. So if you’re motivated to explore the opportunity of European hockey at the next level, reach out to us.