Minnesota Edge AAA Hockey

Minnesota EDGE Hockey is an independent Tier-1 AAA youth hockey club committed to competing at the highest level. Our goal is to develop young hockey players in a way that is fun for them. We believe hockey is a great way to teach life’s lessons; as such, we strive to teach our players the importance of teamwork, character, commitment & competition.

“Our mission is to teach life’s lessons through the game of hockey in a way that is fun, challenging, memorable and beneficial to our players.”

We are an independent hockey club. As such, we set our own schedule and we always attempt to play at the highest level of competition. We usually practice 2-3 times per week and schedule games with the top teams from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Canada and elsewhere. Additionally, we typically travel to 2-3 AAA tournaments annually at various locations in North America.

Other Activities/Sports are Encouraged: Fundamentally, we believe hockey should be one of many activities and not the only activity our players participate in. We believe playing hockey year-round is counter-productive to long-term development. Neither collegiate nor NHL players play all year. Why then, do so many youth players play year-round? We want each of our players to reach their full potential as hockey players and to grow into well rounded adults. Thus, we believe it is important to encourage activities in addition to hockey. Having said this, we do expect our players to demonstrate a meaningful level of commitment to this program. We would expect a player with overlapping commitments to split them somewhat equally (e.g. you shouldn’t miss 8 hockey practices and 0 baseball practices). Our season is typically structured as follows:

• Practices: 2-3 times per week during the spring and fall seasons
• Spring Season: Mid March - Mid May (or sooner depending upon tournament schedule)
• Off Season: Mid May - Mid August (3 months or so, longer is better)
• Fall Season: Mid August - End of September

From time-to-time (typically once per season) each team will participate in non hockey related events that benefit the community. This is consistent with our mission.

No. We will have plenty of ice time and we require that Minnesota EDGE Hockey be the only off-season hockey commitment. We want the players to become committed to one-another throughout the years and we don’t want to burn them out. Hockey camps and clinics are encouraged within moderation as are association get-togethers but this needs to be the only off-season team that a player commits to.

Winning is important. We teach our players that they should try to win every time they step on the ice. Equally important to winning is teaching our players how to deal with defeat. We WILL BE humble in winning and gracious in defeat. The schedule we play will not allow us to win every game; if it does, it is too “soft” and the players will not be developing to their fullest potential.

Our basic philosophy is that if you pick a player, you play the player. This is consistent with our mission. Striving to win is also consistent with our mission. Thus, there may be situations when some players see more ice time than others. The coaching staff will determine when such situations arise and they will do so keeping the best interest of the entire team in mind.

The cost of Minnesota EDGE Hockey varies by team and is dependant on team size, ice time and the number of tournaments the team participates in. Unlike many AAA hockey teams, this is not a money making venture. Ice time, tournament entry fees, referee fees and operating costs are simply divided equally amongst each player.  Because we don’t want to eliminate this opportunity for families that cannot afford the full amount, financial assistance may be available upon request. Make your request to Tim Poehling or Monty Seper via e-mail at info@mnedge.com. All requests for financial assistance will remain confidential.