Sometimes it takes time to understand how good something was and sometimes you know instantly. When talking successful hockey birth years, one can make an argument for any of the adolescent birth years in Minnesota.  The '99 class is strong...the impact the MN boys at Shattuck are having this year is amazing. The '97 class of Minnesotans are picking high level Division 1 offers in spades.  The '00 and '02 MN birth years are doing really well against the best teams in North America in off-season AAA tournaments every Summer.  A group of our '03 Minnesota lads got to the final four of the prominent Brick tournament in Edmonton last Summer. Needless to say, the future is bright for the State of Hockey.

One class that has gone mostly ignored is the 1998 birth year.  There are a few household names with '98 birth years: Joey Anderson, Trey Rooney, and Austen Long. But the impact that this class is having on MN High School Hockey this Winter is amazing. It is commonplace to find this group of ninth and tenth grade talent at or near the top of some very good team's scoring list. 

YHH did a cursory search of top 1998 players that have gone onto high school hockey this year and have more than 10 points for their Varsity team. The list is long and impressive. Not on this list of players is a huge crop of defensemen who do not find the scoresheet as often as their buddies up front, or a handful of Goalies that are seeing regular action or better yet are the starter for their team.

And to top things off, there are several top '98 players that are leading their teams at the Bantam AA level from all over the state. At this moment in time, this is truly a special group.