my son is obsessed

I like your son already. I eat, sleep, and breath hockey but have never played in my life. I worked at the local arena for the OHL team for nearly 10 years before moving to Toronto. I'm not a Leaf fan which bothers many in the city, but I am avid hockey fan so I do still attend and watch the games every night. It's an easy sport to get hooked onto especially if you have a specific team to cheer for. Attending games is the best way to get hooked and playing it certainly forms a new found respect for the things those players do on a nightly basis. I've always been a firm believer that my kids should be involved but they should be involved in what they love to do not something that simply interests me. If your son truly loves hockey than I would go for it but I wouldn't buy anything high end. Some noname used equipment can come much cheaper. Your child is only three and you never know what he may be interested in next year let alone a few years down the road. And as you said, it's an extremely expensive sport to play year in and year out. I wouldn't shell out the real big bucks until you know 100% that is a long term thing that your child is serious about, but it's a good idea to get him into the systems now in the meantime. Especially if your Canada, it's a very popular and sometimes competitive program that is difficult to get into in the later childhood years. So getting a head start now would be a great advantage

lol...my son is 33 years old and totally obsessed with The Boston Bruins. He goes crazy getting tickets and even made me go to a game with him last year. I have to admit I had a good time and would do it again. But he's nuts over hockey. Wait until your son gets older!