Developmental ice is GREAT if you need a chance to just work on something over and over... but of course you can't afford the big bucks to rent a whole sheet just so you can finally figure out backwards crossovers.

Usually in the early morning, developmental ice is like open skate, but with hockey gear and no going in circles.
A coach can arrange to meet a few players for some extra one-on-one time. Goalies can come with friends for hours of shelling. YOU can show up to work on ... well, whatever you need, from basics like stopping and turning to carrying the puck around cones or your mighty slapshot.

I just heard from Eden Prairie. Their developmental ice is Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 6 to 9 a.m. Cost: just $7.

Please check your local rink and post any details about developmental ice. This is a great resource for our community, please help us share this useful information!

Not much farther SW from EPCC is Chaska Rec Ctr. It is a few minutes from 41 & 212. Farm country! Staff was stripping the green carpet off of Arena1 last Wednesday. There should be ice now. There are 2 Adult Open Hockey sessions. The one that is more ‘developmental’ is on Thursday morning, 11:30am-1:00pm, $5, because there are only a few players available at that time. Plenty of open ice. The rest of you must be at work or school. Rinks advertise a certain way, but what really happens depends on the time of day. The rinks are very flexible with hockey in this state. The other session is on Friday night, 10:00pm-11:15pm. That session usually has enough players for a scrimmage, above the beginner/novice level.
Working overnight, flex-time is great for me during the fall/winter.
I use to skate at a rink in MO billed ‘Adult Stick and Puck’ (which is what I equate to developmental ice) during Thursday morning and sometimes enough players would show up and we would scrimmage. The rink manager always tried to stop us. We shot pucks at her when she was foolish enough to stand in the open door way. I also love Mondays!

Does anyone know of early morning "developmental ice" in the East metro?

I think Woodbury had been pretty solid in this area in the past. Give them a jingle and see, and then post here so everyone can know.

Also, probably Wakota: two sheets, strong hockey tradition... I'm guessing they do, too.