Fifty four, 1998 borne, players will tryout out for 16-25 spots available at the USA Hockey National Select 16/17 Camps held each year at various locations across the USA.  The Minnesota players selected will be joined by other players from across the USA.  The Boys 16 camp will run seven days from July 7-13; the Boys 17 camp will run 7 days from June 26 to July 2.  Players will be evaluated and those chosen will be invited back for tryouts to play on USA International teams.  The 54 16-year old players have been divided into three teams, blue, red, and white.  Each team is previewed below.

Good Luck

The HP-16 marks a transition point for hockey players.  Most don't realize that the next two years playing hockey will pass quickly.  Last years' players are wondering about returning to their high schools for their final year.  Hockey friendships start to split.  This years HP-16's are stilling looking forward to playing high school hockey.  At YHH we recommend getting that high school degree no matter what is decided.  We also know there is no magic formula that guarantees success.

We leave to the parents and players to decide on what is success, but we are sad to mark the transition for we have enjoyed writing about the games these kids have played and talking to their parents at the rink.  Now they are emerging as adults and will move on.

As my dad once told me, it is not about winning or losing the game.  It is about playing the game.  Do it well, there will also be another game to play win or lose.  Good luck to all those seniors that we have seen as peewees.  May you be blessed.

Blue Team

Blue Defense

One interesting player on the Blue defense is Tyler Jette/Farmington.  Jette was always the third player on the Farmington peewee teams when it came to defense.  In the 2013-2014 season, Jette moved up to the Farmington varsity joining Erik Holstrom and Devin Bernu as one of the Tiger defensemen.  The three sophomores collectively scored 14 goals and posted 40 assists in helping Farmington win the Missota Conferense Title this past season.  Jette scored seven of the those goals.  The same three led Farmington’s peewee A team to the 2012 state tourney finals played in Bloomington.  The Tigers lost to Edina in the championship game.  The Edina peewee A team featured Kiefer Bellows, now a Blue teammate, in 2012.

The lanky 6’3” defenseman will be joined by Matt Kiersted/Elk River (5’11”), Brendan Bushy/Thief River Falls (6’0”), Brandon Schuldhaus/Shattuck-St. Mary’s (6’2”), Zach Vansant/Minnetonka (5’9”), and Wayzata’s Hank Sorensen (6’0”) at the Blue defense.

Two goalies round out the Blue defense, Ridge Gerads/Blaine and Dayton Rasmussen/Holy Catholic Family.  Gerads had a good festival posting a 1-1 record giving up an average of 2.6 goals a game while stopping 93% of the shots on goal.  Rasmussen, YHH’s top peewee pick for the 2011-2012 season, also had a good festival.  He posted a 2-0 record giving up an average of 1.9 goals a game while stopping 94% of the shots on net.  

Blue Offense

The Blue team ended up with six of the top nine goal scorers in the three game festival; Cole Koepke/Hermantown, Kieffer Bellows/Edina, Chase Gackle/Prior Lake, Samuel Huff/Maple Grove, Jax Murray/Elk River, and Bryceton Butkiewicz/Moose Lake.  Their forwards are rounded out by Kevin Fellows, Casey Mittelstadt, Jake Theis/Chanhassen, and Brady Tatro/Bemidji.  Bellows, Fellows, Murray, Mittelstadt, and Huff were all top 50 picks in April 2012.

The Blue should have a potent offense for their three games.  They will have goal scorers in Kieffer Bellows, Koepke, and Gackle but the Blue also has playmakers in Murray, Kevin Fellows, and Mittelstadt.  The Blue line pairing will be interesting to see; they have so much firepower, but don’t overlook Butkiewicz or Jake Theis.  Both players are strong skaters.  Butkiewicz led the Moose Lake Varsity in scoring last year posting 43 points (25 goals).  The 6’0” 205lb Theis was Chanhassen’s #2 scorer posting 18 points (6 goals).

The sleeper here is Kevin Fellows.  A ninth grader, Fellows led the Prior Lake varsity team in scoring last season (23 points/12 goals in 25 games).  He is a wide ranging center who is a constant scoring threat on the ice. 

Red Team

Red Defense

Jack Kelly/Maple Grove and Sam Huff (Blue Team) led Osseo/Maple Grove to the 2012 Peewee A State Tourney in Alexandria.  The 5’11” Kelly, another Top 50 pick, was a good skater then and as a ninth grader has continued to perform at defense for the Maple Grove varsity last season (25 games/6 points).  Joining Kelly at the Red defense is Sam Rossini/Burnsville (6’2” tall and a former Rosmount peewee A), 6’0” Matt Hellickson/Rogers, 6’0” Brian Hurley/St. Thomas Academy, 5’11” Casey Staum/Hill Murray, and 6’0” John Stampohar/Grand Rapids.

Rossini and Staum had a good run in last year’s select 15 and had good seasons.  Rossini posted 8 points (4 goals) in the 25 games he played for the Blaze Varsity.  Staum posted 9 points (3 goals) for Hill-Murray’s varsity.  Brian Hurley is the player to watch here.  The ninth grader last season posted 14 points (11 assists) for St. Thomas Academy in 25 games.

Ryan Edquist/Shattuck and Kyle Hayden/St. Michael/Albertville are net minders for the Red.  Edquist, from Lakeville, posted a 19-16-2 record for the Sabres giving up an average of 2.5 goals a game.  Hayden, a ninth grader last season, split time and posted an 8-6-1 record for the Knights’ varsity.  He gave up an average of 2.9 goals a game while stopping 90% of the shots on goal.

Red Offense

Another interesting set of forwards have made the Red team.  Ashton Altmann/Duluth East and Lukas Dow/Duluth Marshall were on the same line for Duluth East in the State Bantam AA tourney played in Edina March 2013.  They were the best line at that tourney.  At the festival, they played on the same line again and again proved they could score effectively.  So will they be paired again and if so it would be ironic if they were paired with Edina’s Garrett Wait?  The two lost to Wait’s team in the 2013 State Bantam AA Championship game.  Wait played a solid game (20 points/9 goals) for Edina’s 2014 State Class AA Champs and continues to develop as a player.

The Red Team has depth and strength at the forwards.  Wait could easily be paired with Cade Borchardt/Burnsville and Riley Tufte/Blaine.  Both these players are rugged and strong skaters.  The 6’4” Tufte’s work in the offensive corner can be dominating.  He plays with an edge.  Borchardt has always been a hard worker for the Blaze.

One Red forward to watch is Max Johnson/Lakeville North.  He played in the Panthers’ 8-2 loss to Edina in the Class AA State Championship game scoring both Lakeville North goals.  Johnson was a top scorer for the Panthers’ last season (25 points/9 goals in 24 games) and he was their top scorer in the state tourney.  Another player to watch is Jensen Zerban/Elk River Bantam AA.  Zerban ended up as the leading scorer at the festival (6 points/5 assists) playing on a line behind Dow and Altmann.  He may be doing that again this weekend.

Brendan Skarda/Minnetonka, Luke Ranallo/Hill-Murray, and Zach Risteau/Benilde-St. Margaret’s round out the Red teams’ forwards. Skarda and Risteau played for their varsity teams last season.  Risteau is a former Burnsville peewee A and played with Borchardt in 2010-2011.

White Team

White Defense

The White defense will be strong and will be offensive minded.  Six foot Matt Denman/Prior Lake (12 points/11 assists in 25 varsity games), 5’11” Nick Leitner/Bemidji (11 points/8 assists in 25 varsity games), Ryan Lindgren/Shattuck (15 points/12 assists in 53 games for Shattuck’s prep team), 6’1” Tristan Moss/Wayzata, 5’7” Scott Perunovich/Hibbing, and 5’10” Dalton Weigel/Breck (20 points/15 assists in 24 varsity games) form a defensive corps that will rush the puck and will know how to set the offensive.

Ryan Lindgren, a tenth grader that played on the Shattuck Prep team that won the U18 Tier I national championship this past season, is one player to watch.  Lindgren has committed to the University of Minnesota.  But don’t overlook Denman, Leitner or Weigel.

Goalies Joshua Kenney/Burnsville and Jake Oettinger/Lakeville North will be in the nets for the White team.  Kenney posted a 1-1 record at the festival.  He gave up an average of 1.9 goals a game while stopping 86% of the shots on goal.  Oettinger could already on the way to the National Team Develop Program if rumor is true.  The 6’3” Oettinger (and a three year top 50 pick) had a good festival posting a 1-1 record giving up an average of 1.3 goals a game while stopping 96% of the shots on goal.

White Offense

Mark Mattson/Grand Rapids was third player on the Altmann-Dow line at the festival and ended up on the White team.  Henry Enebak/Lakeville North, another young player from North's Class AA runner-up team, joins Mattson.  Enebak is a rangy center/wing that has grown physically stronger in the past year.  Austen Long, Spring Lake Park’s #2 scorer last season (37 points/13 goals), is on the White bench this weekend along with Ben Meyers/Delano, Josh Lusby/Bemidji, Luke Paterson/Wayzata, Mark Senden/Wayzata, Grant Boege/Blaine, Justin jallen/St. Paul Academy, and Jack Johnson/Bemidji.

Lusby has skated well in these tryouts.  He played 23 games for the Lumberjacks varsity last season posting 7 points.  Senden (19 points/5 goals) and Paterson (14 points/5 goals) both had good seasons with the Wayzata varsity and both have played well in prior hp tryouts.  Jallen scored 20 points/7 goals for SPA last season; Jack Johnson was Bemidji’s #3 scorer with 20 points.  Boege played some varsity for Blaine.   

The White player to watch is Ben Meyers.  The 5’9” ninth grader last season led Delano in scoring posting 42 points/18 goals in 25 games.  He consistently looks for scoring opportunities and sets up his teammates more than himself.  Enebak, Meyers, Paterson, and Senden are all YHH top 50 picks.

Who Wins?

The weekend games are essentially tryouts; which team wins matters little.  Still the players will compete.  It is their nature to do so.  The nod here is Red’s offense trumps the White and Blue and the Red play the White 17 team on Sunday evenly.  They could take all three games this weekend.