I live in Minnesota, so, well, youth hockey is a thing here. Perhaps you've heard!
It's as popular as little league. Not *every* kid plays it from age 6+, but it sure seems like they do. My kids do ($750 a pop as 7 year olds, plus 6 hours of volunteer hours or we get hit with another $200 fee per kid). They took skating lessons at 3 and 4, and played in a league at 5. And they are, at best, middle of the pack. The kids they play with are already playing (well, their parents are at least) with an eye on for spots on the high school team because high school hockey in Minnesota is hyper competitive, akin to football in TX. I used to go to high school hockey games back in MA when I was in high school, and I've done score keeping at middle school tournaments here in MN, and I'd put these middle school teams up against most of those high school hockey teams in MA. It's insane how fast they play at a young age.
But even here, there's developmental teams, travelling teams, etc... that play all year round. And even at 8 years old, it's cutthroat to make those teams and can lead to neighborhood schisms over who-got-picked-over-who. Ex NHL players and ex Gopher stars live in the nice parts of the nice towns and many of them coach, so their kids buddy up with other neighborhood kids, who get on the teams, etc... so it's yet another example of the rich getting richer. So of course anybody who A) isn't well off; and B) doesn't have a connection to a former high-level player with kids their age is at a HUGE disadvantage, through no fault of their own. Not many minorities anywhere, never mind in Minnesota, can count themselves as meeting those criteria.