If you ask me I think this is a awsome idea at that age the players should be working on skills such as puck handling, skating, shooting etc... I belive that hitting should be allowed at a older age as the players are more mature. Are we teaching our kids a game of skill or are we teaching them a game on hard hitting goons? Now I am not saying every player out there is a goon but you diffently see alot of them out in minor hockey.
Now we talk about equipement and that it is there to protect you, other then wearing a full suit of armour there will always be injuries, that is why skills and fundelementals should be taught first before anything else, A skilled player will skate circles around a hard hitting goon any day, but if your taught to hit first then what happens to the skills down the road?
As for the coaching anyone who has ever coached or ref ( I coached minor football for 13 years) knows that finding quaility coaches is probably one of the hardest things, as from my experince there are coaches out there that are not there for the players but for their own ego's and will do whatever it takes to wins. Also finding quaility coaches is a hard thing cause of the *hit and abuse parents give to either coaches or refs, this is the main reason I got out of coaching football, most coaches do not get paied for what they do and they do it for either the love of the game or in my case wanting to impart the knoweldge I have to the younger generation.
All in all this is about the safty of the younger kids and nothing else, to try and say anything else is just stupid.