Hi! My daughter is not a hockey player, however we are a Canadian family and know a lot of kids who went to prep BS school for hockey. I think talking coaches and having them be very honest with you about their intention for your kid is essential in your decision. Ie. we knew a couple of goalie kids who went to Deerfield and Pomfret. The coaches assured them they were not going to be benched and that they would be starting goalies. So that was the reason they chose to go over other schools. The Deerfield kid played goalie in grade 9 on the JV level bc the Varsity goalie was a senior. However he started playing goalie sophomore year after the senior goalie graduated. This was the coaches plan for the kid from day 1.
Not the same sport, but my son plays basketball. He was not a recruited athlete and when we attended a basketball zoom during the application process the coach was honest and said that it was extremely rare for a non-recruited athlete to ever make varsity. He also said that if you were not playing varsity your freshman year it was extremely unlikely that you ever would. Kinda harsh but at least we knew the landscape.