The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders put on a terrific show at the Ice Arena on a regular basis. It's fun and exciting, a full 2 1/2 hours of sheer enjoyment, but some of the rules in the United States Hockey League are hard to fathom.

Is it really a good idea to trade a 17-year-old kid from one USHL team to another in the middle of the season? That's what happened when Cedar Rapids dealt Jerad Rosburg to Sioux City in December.

Is it really a good idea to ask a team to play three games in three days, including two on the road? Or to play in Sioux Falls on a Friday night, return to Cedar Rapids at 4 a.m. and play again Saturday night?

The RoughRiders faced those scheduling demands this year, as did other teams in comparable situations.

The USHL plays an incredibly long season, starting with training camp in August and a 60-game regular season that stretches from September to April, followed by the playoffs. That's a lot of wear and tear on those young bodies.

Hockey is a rough sport, no doubt about it. This is the system if the players want to eventually succeed in college hockey and perhaps the pros, but sometimes it seems like an awful lot to ask of these people.

Imagine being a 17-year-old kid from Maryland, living with a host family in Cedar Rapids, and one day you report to the Ice Arena and they tell you to pack your bags, you've been traded to Sioux City for the rest of the season.

Imagine playing hockey for 60 grueling minutes in Cedar Rapids on a Friday night, then doing the same thing in Green Bay the next day and in Chicago the day after that. Professional athletes are rarely asked to do anything like that, let alone amateurs.

The USHL schedule resembles the old Negro Baseball Leagues from the 1930s and 1940s in some respects, when athletes played a game in one town, got on a bus and played somewhere else the next day, then did it all over again.

Remember, the RoughRiders are not being paid. They get meal money and a housing allowance, but there are no paychecks. They play for the love of the game while they chase a dream, and they play hard and seemingly without complaint.

It just seems like trading a 17-year-old kid in the middle of the season — or playing three games in three days —  is a little too much.

Cedar Rapids fans might be a little miffed that Ivan Provorov, one of the RoughRiders' top defensemen, left the team this week on the verge of the playoffs and returned home to Russia so he can try out for a Russian junior national team. On the one hand, he let his teammates down. But on the other hand, he's looking out for his own best interests.

If it's OK to trade a 17-year-old kid in the middle of the season, what's wrong with another 17-year-old kid going home to Russia?