Typo:
Under pluses, it should say "-The coaches could see just how close the jv kids were getting to moving UP" which some did eventually.
The more I think about it I really liked the competition it inspired. We didn't do this every practice, which might have had a different effect. I think it made it more clear over time just why each kid was on the team they were picked for, but also kept the jv kids that were hungry excited about the opportunity to earn their way up.
DM
I would combine them as much as possible. This enables you to do some full ice things as well as half or cross ice activities with the teams by themselves or combined.