Post 1: Top 50 Peewee A/AA Players
Johnson/Como-North St. Paul's Peewee A Kyle Gilday (#40) scores for the Polar Devils.
This is the fifth year that YHH has picked the Top 50 peewee A/AA players in Minnesota. This is the first of five posts to be made over the next two weeks. Post 1 covers the first 12 players, the second post will cover 13-25, the third post will list 26-37, the fourth post will list the final 13 players and the fifth post will pick the top peewee A/AA player in the state from the Top 50 players. In our first year in 2012, the top peewee A player picked in the state was Eden Prairie goalie Dayton Rasmussen. Dayton went on to play two seasons for Holy Family Catholic before joining the Colorado Thunderbirds after just missing out on an invite to USA’s National Team Development Program. He has played this past season in the USHL and will join Denver in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Rasmussen is considered one of the top five goalies in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. As a peewee, playing for Eden Prairie Association’s Peewee A team in 2011-2012, Rasmussen was in the nets in the South Regional Tournament played at Burnsville MN and beat Edina to go to state.
Note: The Top 50 players are listed in no particular order other than to edit the composition of each post. A player listed #12 is considered the same as a player listed #37. The posts honor all fifty players equally except for the final post that picks the top player from the Top 50.
Mankato's Layten Liffrig (#22) celebrates scoring in the District 9 Playoff Championship game. The Mavericks beat Faribault for the D9's top seed to the state tourney.
One Dayton Rasmussen scouting report
“A full-framed goalie whose peak performance has scouts salivating, as many believe it hasn't even been touched yet. Tremendous balance and poise in the crease. Prototypical form and technique when it comes to taking elevated shots, and displays a very sharp glove hand. Excellent cross-crease movement and athleticism. Controls rebounds well and could stand to be a little bit more assertive. Tracks the puck very well and always knows where to be positionally” summarizes one scouting report of Rasmussen’s play over the past few years.
For a youth hockey player, learning to play and excel at hockey is like horse race, only instead of three year old horses racing for a spot in the Kentucky Derby, it is a twelve year race with rewards along the way. This is one for all the youth players who participated in Minnesota Hockey for 2015-2016. Though only 50 players are pointed out, this is intended to show the excellence of play achieved by all.
With each hockey season, youth players are grouped in the same age group every year from six to high school and multiple horse races are run. It is fun, but instead of each race lasting two minutes, each race lasts about 12 years. The peewee year is when the kids start to mature and as players start to show their true abilities, but the reality is that as peewees, the race is still on the “backstretch”. As peewees, their race is far from over. For all youth players, their race is far from over. They are halfway through the fun years, before it gets real. For youth hockey players Rasmussen’s age, the coming season (2016-2017) is when it gets real. Young hockey players, more than parents, quickly learn that the sport is fun; they want to play.
The picture left is from Eden Prairie's win over Lakeville South in the 2012 Peewee A state tourney played in Alexandria. The Lakeville South rush was led by Austin Pratt. Pratt is playing this season in the WHL for the Red Deer Rebels and is considered along with Scott Reedy/Prior Lake, Grant Mismash/Edina, and Casey Mittelstadt as top prospects in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. All are ranked in the top 33 forwards in North America. All four were YHH Top 50 picks.
Dayton Rasmussen as an EP peewee celebrates with teammates Casey Mittelstadt (#11) and Nicky Leivermann (#14) their regional win over Edina as Hornets Clayton Phillips (#11) and Grant Mismash (#17) leave the ice. All are top picks in upcoming NHL drafts.
Rasmussen stops this attack by Lakeville South in the 2012 Peewee A state tourney.
2016 Top 50 Peewee A/AA Players
The Top 50 players listed here is far from being anything other than an a acknowledgement to all Minnesota youth hockey players on another great season. Good going to all Minnesota youth hockey players as they move on in their play in the coming seasons and for all, root for Rasmussen to be picked high in the 2017 draft next year. He will be in the company of another talented Minnesota goalie, Jake Oettinger. Oettinger skated three years for the Farmington Association’s peewee A team, was picked as a Top 50 player all three years and along with Rasmussen is considered one of the top five goalies in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.
YHH would like to acknowledge Minnesota Hockey (the organization) for a putting together another great Minnesota hockey season. The organization continues to roll on this spring and summer as their high performance programs get underway. YHH will be there to cover their efforts and the players' stories. The Minnesota Hockey organization includes all the local hockey associations. Without Minnesota Hockey and its associations working with the towns and cities together, the players would not get the opportunity to play competitively. It is often overlooked, but ice at 6:00 pm on a cold December night, just does not happen. It takes effort.
1. #10 Hastings AA-Jonathon Paine: As a peewee, Paine is the closest to being a real deal that a player can be and should have a great future at the higher levels of play. The skills that separate him from other players is the way he focuses on the ice (and even on the bench). He is a "driven" player. His play seems to be always motivated by knowing where the puck will go or where he will go with the puck. That knowledge dominants his on-ice skating. Physically, Paine has nice size and is very athletic. He played defense for the Raiders this past season. There are players who skate like generals and work their time on ice focusing broadly on the play, but Paine is more the commander on the ice, digging the puck out of the Hastings the zone, generating offensive rushes, and getting goals. In the picture right, Paine (#10 blue) beats Apple Valley's Jack Novak (#14 gold) to the rebounding puck before Novak has a chance to one-time it into the net and then immediately turns the puck up ice starting a counter attack for the Raiders.
2. #17 Owatonna AA-Casey Pederson beats the White Bear Lake defense and drives the net in this game in the Cottage Grove Wolfpack Inivitational.
2. #17 Owatonna AA-Casey Pederson: When the Owatonna Youth Hockey Association made the move to AA, they struggled. Now in their third season at the AA level, the Huskies peewee AA team had an outstanding season that culminated with beating rival Rochester Red AA in the South Regional. The 2015-2016 Huskies had talent and depth. Pederson is a younger peewee that had to play the game among the older players. If you watched him early in the season, he did all the right things to offset and to counter the play of line mate Owen Baumgartner. His ability to shift position on ice as Baumgartner rushed the net often drew pressure away from the Huskies’ leading scorer or created openings for his teammates. Later in the season, he played well, but struggled tiring in late January and February. That happens with younger peewees, but Casey showed that he had the skills to play peewee hockey at a top competitive level led by his hockey sense.
3. #40 Johnson A-Kyle Gilday: The first month of the this hockey season, Gilday hit the ice teamed with Blayde Pogreba and Joey Moberg, the “line of 88’s” (their uniform numbers this past season totalled 88). That line dominated play in District 8's peewee A league. The Polar Devil three could put the puck in the net playing AA and A peewee teams. Gilday led through his determined play. He has good size and is strong on the ice. He is one of the hardest skaters, constantly covering ground and moving the puck while physically challenging opponents for puck possession. He has a good shot and can make the good pass. A fun player to watch in the future. In the picture right, Gilday (#40 black to the left) scores beating the defense to the rebounding puck.
3.Gilday goes after the lose puck on this attack against Osseo Maple Grove at the Edina Invitational over the holidays.
4. #1/33 Blaine A- Aaron Sculthorp: In a sense, hockey statistics are relative and are an indication that transfers to higher levels. A player with good statistics will start better at the next level. If so, that means Blaine A’s goalie Aaron Sculthorp’s statistic of goals given up per game of 2.0 would likely transfer to the next higher level as Sculthorp matures. He played well this season to post such an average, but it was his outstanding play against eventual Peewee A State Champions, Mound/Westonka , in the Cottage Grove Tourney caught the eye of hockey people. With Sculthorp in the nets, Blaine A tied the top ranked Whitehawks 1-1 in pool play. Sculthorpe is an agile goalie that plays with discipline often holding a defensive position cutting down angles and controlling rebounds. He has the basics and is a Top 50 pick this year.
Blaine's goalie Aaron Sculthorp punches this shot to the open right shot to avoid a rebound and put back by an on rushing Whitehawk forward.
5. #22 Mankato A-Layten Liffrig: Liffrig is a lanky skater on Mankato Hockey Association’s peewee A team that sweep through District 9 league and playoffs. Most hockey fans, think that having the all highly skilled players on a team makes for a great team. Most hockey coaches know it is a blend of skills that makes a good team and that is what Liffrig offers. He is a great “sneaky” scorer. Liffrig has the basic skills, but it is his ability to find the puck and put it back in the net that makes him a top player as a peewee. In the District 9 playoffs, Liffrig opened the tourney scoring seven goals against host Red Wing in a 14-0 win and closed the tourney with a hat trick in the Mavericks’ 7-1 championship win over Faribault. He will be an interesting player to watch as he develops. He reminds this corner of YHH of combination of Luverne’s Jaxson Nelson and Chaz Smedsrud.
Mankato's Layten Liffrig (#22) was the opportunist on this score positioning himself to the left and behind the goalie to rap the rebound in the net.
6. #17/21 Lakeville South AA-Cade Ahrenholz: Ahrenholz as a peewee has a lot of future potential. He had a great season and developed well from October to March. Part of that is his size and he should continue to develop. Part of that is maturing, but what really made the Cougars a fun team to watch is how they developed as team in the last month of the season. That happens at the peewee level. Ahrenholz tended to draw the attention of South's opponents defense earlier in the season and often skated against their opponents best defensive players, but in the last month of the season, the Cougars matured as a team that improved performance showed in the East Regional played at Anoka. They opened with a win over Blaine AA and then lost a tough semifinal game to Elk River 3-2. They won two games in the single elimination part of the regional only to lose to the Elks again in the game for the East Region’s #2 seed to the state. A strong skater with size and good skills (and a quick shot), Ahrenholz will be a factor for Lakeville South teams in the future.
Arhenholz goes for this shot against Owatonna in this early season game.
7. #14 Osseo/Maple Grove AA-Brock Faber: It is tough to single out players from the Osseo/Maple Grove State AA Champions this year. The Crimson Hawks had a great peewee AA team that could really move the puck as a team. They were an impressive group of peewee players. Brock Faber played forward for the Crimson Hawks. He has good size and has a strong physical presence around an opponent's net. He can make the short pass in traffic, has an accurate shot, and can “post up” (to use a basketball term) on the power play. Once in front of the net, he is difficult to move. But his ability to feather the pass though traffic catches the eye of the fans in the stands. When on the rush on a wing side, Faber can make the pass into the slot or to the weak side in tough conditions. It is a rare talent.
In this game against Eden Prairie, OMG's Brock Faber (#14) has made a nice pass to the left weak side for the goal, but hangs on the right for the rebound.
8. #10 Apple Valley AA-Jared Wright: Wright always had the hockey sense and skill playing for the Eagles. He is sometimes thought of as one-half of Valley’s scoring duo with Jack Novak. Both Wright and Novak were the ironmen of the Eagles this past season spending more than half of each game on the ice. The two skated often on the same line together, but Wright ended the season skating defense/forward for the Eagles. He showed strength at the defensive position. A natural hockey player, Wright could turn the rush and start the breakout. He can play any position well (probably even in goalie pads he would do well), but he excels at center as both a playmaker and a goal scorer. Wright has great hockey sense, is strong in his skates, and has a quick and accurate shot from all angles.
Jared Wright (#10 gold) goes for the goal in the Eagles win over Hastings in the District 8 Playoffs.
9. #7 Edina AA-Evan Pahos: Pathos returns to the Top 50 for the second year. He has gotten stronger and skates with more purpose. A center on a Hornets team that ran second all season to Osseo/Maple Grove AA, Pahos seemed to always be the silent scorer in the sense that he would be hardly noticeable on a shift and then he would explode seizing an opening and leading a charge on the opponent’s net. Pahos has a quick effective shot down low and is dangerous in solo rushes.
10. #10 Minneapolis AA-Joe Miller: After playing on a great Storm team last season, Miller is a returner from last season’s Top 50. He is faster and more skillful in the open ice heading for the opponent’s net and carried more of the Storm offensive load this season. He is stronger in his skates and clever with his close-in ability to maneuver through and among multiple defenders. He will work to set up a quick pass to the weak side or the slot and those on the receiving end better be ready to one-time their shot.
Edina's Evan Pathos beats two Chaska/Chanhassen skaters off the boards for this solo rush during the Edina Invitational tourney over the New Year's holiday this season.
Minnepolis Storm's Joe Miller (#10) turns the puck in this District 3 Peewee AA playoff game.
11. #8 Jordan Nawrocki-Faribault A: Nawrocki played defense for the Faribault Association’s peewee A team this year As a peewee, Nawrocki was the defense man that led on the ice. His skill levels are good but his stability at defense helped the Falcons to a South Regional berth losing to Mankato in the District 9 Championship game. At New Ulm, the Falcons again made the South Regional championship game again only to lose 7-6 to Mankato (in a game this corner of YHH would have liked to have seen). A tired, 10-player team, the Falcons then lost three hours later to Edina to end their season coming up short one game from going to state. Nawrocki is a solid player and should improve over the next few years.
Faribault's Jordan Nawrocki heads for the ice in the Falcons' championship game with Mankato.
12. #51 MaCabe Dvorak-St. Louis Park AA: St. Louis Park’s Association Peewee AA team were first noticed by this corner of YHH when they played three close one goal games against tough competition at a Duluth Tourney in early December. The Orioles were a surprise this season, especially in the District 3 Playoffs when they came back from a 7-0 loss in the opening game, to beat Minneapolis AA 7-3 and Wayzata AA 7-6. The Park team had a great season scoring. At the season ended, they either won with a big score or lost with a big score. St. Louis Park team this year appeared to be a fun team to play on. The Orioles have some good emerging talent led by their big wing/center MaCabe Dvorak. Dvorak has some nice moves had uses his size well to moving inside players to gain position. His shot sort of explodes off his stick and he is not afraid to go for the corners from the top of the crease. But he is will to back check as the picture left shows. Dvorak has come back low to take an Osseo/Maple Grove forward out of the play protecting the goalie's weak side. A good player on a good emerging team, go Orioles.
The Future
This St. Louis Park youth player watched the Orioles Peewee AA team playing in the D3 playoffs. The look on his face says it all, next year it is my turn. The future.
