Understanding Minnesota Youth Hockey Levels: AA, A, B1, B2, C and Junior Gold Explained (2025-26)
In Minnesota, the Letter Is the Level (and AAA Is Rare)
Minnesota is the deepest hockey state in the country, and it runs its youth game differently from everywhere else. Ask a Minnesota hockey parent what their kid plays and the answer is a letter: "double-A," "A," "B1," "B2," or "C." Minnesota is organized around its own letter ladder, run by Minnesota Hockey through about a dozen geographic districts. The thing that surprises transplants most: during the winter season there is almost no AAA. The best players play high school hockey, and the travel ladder tops out at AA.
This guide explains the Minnesota ladder, what B1 and B2 actually mean, where Junior Gold fits, and how the girls system works.
The Minnesota Competitive Ladder
Here is how Minnesota's winter travel levels line up, strongest to most local. We grade each against an internal 1 to 8 scale we use to compare programs across leagues and states, calibrated against on-ice rating data rather than the label.
| Level | What it means | Our tier |
|---|---|---|
| AA | The top winter travel tier (Peewee and Bantam). There is no in-season AAA. | Tier 5 |
| A | Top tier at Squirt, second at Peewee and Bantam. Minnesota A is genuinely strong. | Tier 4 |
| B1 | Upper B, the first B team. State and Region eligible. | Tier 3 |
| B2 | Lower B, the second B team. District tournament level. | Tier 2 |
| C | The lowest travel division. | Tier 1 |
The important detail outsiders miss: B1 and B2 are not the same level. B1 is the upper B team and advances to the State and Region tournament; B2 is the second B team and stays in district play. The bright line in Minnesota's ladder falls right between B1 and B2. (On some rating services B1 and B2 are lumped together as a single "B," but Minnesota families and associations treat them as distinct.)
A calibration note: Minnesota A teams rate very high, often in the range you would call AAA in another state. That is partly the talent depth and partly Minnesota's June-1 birthday cutoff, which makes its players a few months older per age band. We grade by the structural level and let the on-ice rating express the rest.
Why There Is No Winter AAA
In most states, the elite kids play AAA travel all winter. Minnesota is different: the top players play high school hockey, which is the marquee winter pathway in the state. By design, Minnesota Hockey does not run in-season Tier I (AAA) travel. AAA exists only in the fall and spring/summer as a separate showcase season (programs like Minnesota Made, the Minnesota Blades and Team Minnesota), and players return to their high school or association team for winter.
The one in-season exception is Shattuck-St. Mary's, a boarding prep school in Faribault that fields national Tier I teams. We treat Shattuck as prep-school hockey, a category of its own.
League and District Are Not the Same as Level
A Minnesota team's label usually reads "MN D6 - Squirt B1" or "MN D10 - Bantam AA." Read it in parts:
- MN D6 / D10 is the district (the geographic region that runs the schedule)
- Squirt / Bantam is the age group
- B1 / AA is the level (the part that matters)
The district is just where you play. The same "B1" means the same level whether you are in District 3 or District 10. Minnesota runs a community-association model: almost every town has its own association, and the districts group them for tournaments.
Junior Gold: High-School-Age Travel
Once players reach high-school age (roughly 15 to 18), the boys' ladder changes. Players who make their high-school team play there. Those who do not have Junior Gold, a community travel track that runs parallel to high school. Junior Gold is tiered:
| Level | Age | Our tier |
|---|---|---|
| Junior Gold A | 18U | Tier 3 |
| Junior Gold B | 18U | Tier 2 |
| Junior Gold 16U | 16U | Tier 2 |
The skill order for the high-school-age group is: high school varsity, then high school JV and Junior Gold A, then Junior Gold B, then Junior Gold 16. Junior Gold is the alternative to high school, not a replacement for a varsity player.
The Age Divisions
Minnesota uses the traditional word names: Mite (8U), Squirt (10U), Peewee (12U), Bantam (14U), then Junior Gold for the high-school-age boys. Competitive rating services generally cover Squirt and up, so Mite (8U) and house levels are not ranked. Note that AA does not exist at Squirt; the youngest AA teams are Peewee.
Girls Hockey in Minnesota
Minnesota girls have a strong, separate system with its own age divisions: 10U, 12U, 15U and 19U (the 15U band covers roughly ages 13 to 15). Girls divisions are tiered A, B1, B2 and C, like the boys, and the girls association ladder continues right through the high-school years (15U and 19U) alongside the high-school teams. Because the girls game runs on its own rating scale, we tier and compare girls programs separately from boys.
Youth vs Junior: What This Guide Skips
This ladder covers youth hockey through 18U. It excludes junior hockey: the USHL, NAHL and NA3HL are a separate system for players roughly 16 to 20. It also excludes MSHSL high-school hockey, which is school hockey rather than association travel, even though it is the dominant winter pathway for Minnesota's best players. Junior Gold, by contrast, is association travel and is included.
What This Costs
Levels and dollars track together. A house or C-level season in Minnesota can run a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars; A and AA travel climbs into the four figures once ice, association fees and tournaments are counted; and the off-season AAA showcase circuit (Minnesota Made, the Blades) adds its own cost on top of the regular winter season. Minnesota's community-association model keeps a lot of the game more affordable than the AAA-heavy markets in other states, which is part of what makes it worth comparing.
We track real reported season costs for Minnesota programs at every level. Look up a specific club on its program page, compare two programs side by side, or share what your season cost to help the next family.