26. #11 Prior Lake-Owen Neuharth: Neuharth led the Lakers to the State Peewee AA title this season.  The title is Prior Lake’s second top peewee state title in four years with Edina winning the other two.  At the state tourney in Woodbury this year, Neuharth scored the winning overtime goal in the Lakers’ semifinal win over St. Cloud (4-3) and assisted on two other goals.  In the championship game, Neuharth scored the winning goal halfway through the third period in the Lakers’ 3-2 win over Minneapolis.  Neuharth is a different type of skater than most peewees and that is key to his offensive success.  He is a strong skater and will drive the net battling with a bigger defenseman, but he has that quick lateral movement that gets him to open ice that makes him seem like he is dancing, not skating, on the ice.  A clever scorer, Neuharth is a Top 50 pick for 2015.    

27. #5 St. Cloud-Luke Johnson: Johnson skated wing with Gabbie Rud and St. Cloud center Nate Warner on St. Cloud’s top line that powered the Huskies to the state tourney semifinals this season.  In the three regional games that got St. Cloud to state and in the three state tourney games, the three combined to post 18 goals.  Minneapolis was only team in those six games to slow the line down holding the line to a single goal in the Huskies 2-1 win for the South Regional title.  Johnson joins Rud and Warner as a Top 50 pick this year.  He played a tough wing and almost always was thinking ahead of the play in the offensive zone.  On one St. Cloud rush in the Huskies’ state tourney semifinal game, Johnson was trying to beat to the Prior Lake defense to the net.  Realizing he could not beat the defense, Johnson shifted his body doing a 180 degree turn.  The Prior Lake defender's forward momentum took himself out of the play and Johnson passed to a trailing Rud for the shot.  Then Johnson turned back to attack the net going for a rebound.   

28. #9 Minneapolis-Will Svenddal: One of the best peewee defensemen this season, Svenddal has size and strength.  He is steady playing defense and plays the position well reminding this corner of YHH of the old GM ad, “like a rock”.  He is good sized, a strong stick handler, and a hard shot from the point.  He will rush the puck and often ends up scoring from the crease area.  Defensively, he will control the play in neutral ice if the breakout is to his side often sending the puck deep to force a Storm opponent to re-group their attack.  A strong skater, Svenddal is a Top 50 pick this year.

29. #3 Edina AA-Jake Boltmann: This is Boltmann’s second year as a Top 50 pick.  Last season, Boltmann played defense for the Hornet A's and played it consistently.  This year Boltmann is bigger, plays better at defense, and has developed a strong shot from the point.  He continues to show patience when picking times to attack.  He and teammate Mark Overman spent a lot of time on the ice together this season.  The duo were especially effective in controlling the puck in their opponent’s zone with Boltmann often getting the opportunity to step up from the point to inside the faceoff circle and driving the puck to net for a score.  A strong defenseman Boltman like Overman, will easily transition to Bantams next season.

30. #39 Andover AA-Alex Fuerst: Fuerst was the only goalie on the Andover peewee A team last season and played very well.  The Andover peewee A’s posted a winning record with most of the games decided by a single goal.  At the 2013-2014 Peewee A Edina Invitational, he played an exceptionally and was named a 2014 Top 50 player.  Fuerst is a better goalie this year playing on the Andover AA team.  He has improved on positioning himself in the net, especially on rushes.  His glove and blocker have gotten quicker and he uses his stick in a timely manner.  His strength last year was his ability to keep the puck out of the net on opponent rushes that ended up at the crease.  That has improved as it showed when he again played exceptionally in the 2014-2015 Peewee AA Edina Invitational.  He is a Top 50 pick again.

31. #14 Elk River-Austen Humphrey: Elk River had a bad (for them) regular season.  They finished second in District 10’s regular season losing five games.  The Elks have not lost more than two District 10 games in the past four years and at worst usually finish in a tie for first place.  In the District 10 playoffs, the Elks finished third and drew the #14 seed (of 24 teams) to the regional tourney playing #11 seeded Prior Lake.  The Elks lost to Prior Lake, the eventual state champions, came back to beat Edina 3-2 only to lose to Prior Lake again 3-2 in the game for East’s #2 seed to the state tourney.  Despite all their up and downs, the Elks improved enough over the season, to come within one goal of being potential state champions.  Humphrey was instrumental in the Elks late season closing rush.  He had a good Big Pumpkin Tourney in Moorhead for the Elks leading the team in scoring, but he improved his play over the season and added playmaker to his scoring attributes.  Humphrey is good size, certainly can skate, has bursts of aggressive play, and works hard in the offensive corner.  He added the ability to make passes to set up teammates to his thunderous shot and led his team to strong finish.  

32. #2 Minneapolis-Erik Clow: Playing peewee hockey has a lot to do with kids growing and maturing.  It is a process that can’t be accelerated in time.  Everything has to click for the player physically and mentally.  Clow was a big defenseman from the start of the season for the Storm.  Early on, he played good defense, skated well, has a good shot, and can handle the puck in traffic.  But playing good hockey is not just a matter of size.  Despite his good play, others were playing better.  Halfway through the season, at the Edina tourney, Clow had improved and was doing more things at the defense.  But he still was holding back on the ice.  At the Peewee AA State Tourney, Clow really started to establish himself at defense and on one remarkable third period shift he demonized Prior Lake’s defense.  His skating and play was similar tp Blaine’s varsity player Riley Tufte.  A younger build to Tufte, he used size and determination to go to that next level of play emulating Tufte in an attempt to score the tying goal against Prior Lake.  He didn’t succeed, but he impressed and will be an interesting player to watch in the future.

33. #15 Cloquet-Aaron Moore:  Moore is another good size forward/center for the Lumberjacks and is the fourth Lumberjack forward to make this list in the last two years (joining Landon Langenbrunner and Jon Barker from last year and Jake Huhta from this year).  This corner of YHH attributes that to the coaching the Lumberjack peewees have been getting.  All of these players move well without the puck.  Moore is a strong physical player and looks and skates like Huhta.  But Moore plays the fore check low in the opponent’s zone and is tough in the offensive corners.  He consistently will beat the defense out of the corners to set up teammates for the shot in surprising ways.  One reason Moore can do that is he has “nice edges” to his skating that allow for agile footwork in close quarters.  Add to that a hard quick shot and one has a top fifty player. 

34. #13 Warroad-Daimon Gardner: Gardner starts the game usually centering the second line out after the Grant Slukynsky/Owen Meeker line.  The short bench Warriors had only 10 skaters this season.  Slukynsky and Meeker played peewee A for the Warroad Association last season and formed their top line.  That meant Gardner’s line often ended up being matched against their opponents #1 and #3 lines when playing the better teams, but despite that Gardner excelled.  It showed as a game progressed.  With penalties and power plays, Gardner played everywhere for the Warriors, center, wing, defense.  He may be a backup goalie.  He certainly knows how to play them all.  Gardner is a good sized player.  He is aggressive when the opportunity presents itself, has a good shot, is good passer, but most of all has great skills around the crease. 

35. #26/27 Rosemount-Kyle Heffron-Heffron returns to this list for a second year.  Last season, Heffron was among the biggest players in the state and he played mostly at wing.  This season he is bigger and played mostly at defense.  Last season, he started to develop as a player and become “smooth” in his play.  This past season, he continued to mature in his play at defense.  His hard shot has become even more accurate and his skating though transitions in play easier.  At forward last year Heffron tended to dominate play in the offensive zone but at times hesitated.  That kept him from making the outstanding play.  At defense this year, he put his skills together and when focused on defense simply shut the Irish’s opponents down in neutral ice.  If there was any problem in his play, it occurred when he chose to attack the opponent’s net.  Once with the puck down low around the crease, he just drove the play and created mayhem.  But his teammates had a tendency to not cover his defensive post and that resulted in opponents counterattacking often with success.  Heffron was an outstanding player this season.  When the Irish won the tough Eden Prairie Thanksgiving Tourney this past season, Heffron was the first to congratulate his goalie.  It was a genuine moment of joy that youth hockey can offer.    

36. #11 Edina AA-Will Soderling: Soderling played forward/center for the Hornets A team in the 2013-2014 season and is one of eight peewee A players to play for last season’s peewee AA team.  He played forward/center again this past season and again proved to be a clever puck handler and an opportunist when it came to scoring goals.  He did that in the 2013-2014 season, but has matured and has gotten stronger in his skates this past season.  In an early season game against Chaska/Chanhassen, he beat the defense, deked the goalie right, and went left to score a key goal.  At the Peewee AA Edina Invitational, Soderling showed how he could time his rush to split the Wayzata defense for the score.  In the East Regionals at New Prague, he demonstrated great back checking and rugged play in front of the opponent’s goal to score and set up scores.  Soderling is good size player, skates well, has great puck handling ability in a crowd.  He also has matured well in the past two seasons and is a Top 50 this year.    

37. #14 Eveleth/Mesabi East-Elliot Van Orsdel: Van Orsdel is easy to see on the ice with blond hockey hair trailing out of the helmet.  He played center/wing for the Golden Bears and his play by the end of the season was almost text book perfect.  He knows where to go to anticipate puck movement, but took his play one step further by making the right, correct, play to help teammates.  In the Golden Bear’s opening game at the North Regional against Warroad, on an Eveleth/Mesabi East rush, Van Orsdel saw that his teammate was going to be driven right and would have no opportunity to make the weak side pass.  Instead of going to the weak side, Van Orsdel cut to the right and established position that cut off the Warroad defense freeing his team mate to take the shot.  That is good game awareness.  Van Orsdel has a good shot, skates well and is a Top 50 pick this year.

38. #10 Minneapolis-Joe Miller: Miller was the spark plug for the Minneapolis Storm this past season playing a wing that stretched their opponent’ defense.   Miller would often use his speed and stick handling skills to end up going for the net in traffic and succeeding on making a positive play.  He is a very competitive player and will push himself to make those plays.  On one play against Edina in a D3/D6 league game (won by the Storm) Miller fended off an Edina defensive player and drove to the net on the odd chance that he could reach a rebounding puck.  He crossed in front of the goalie and was knocked to the ice.  Sliding on his side in the crease he caught up with the puck and tried to fire the moving puck into the net with his stick at a tough angle.  He failed, but he never gave up on the play.  A good shooter, a good stick handler, and tough player around the crease; but it is that extra competitiveness that makes him an outstanding peewee this season.