When it comes to USA Hockey organizations, there are very few more prestigious than the Shattuck St. Mary’s school in Faribault, MN. The school consists of 70% boarding students and the majority of them come to participate in the “Center of Excellence” programs in hockey, golf, soccer, or ice skating. (There are also programs for engineering, music and bio science).
The boys hockey program has captured 18 USA Hockey National Championships, all at the U-18 level (until last season). (99′, 01′, 03′, 05′, 07′, 08′, 11′, 12′, 14′). The other national titles are from the girl’s hockey program.
Shattuck St. Mary’s has existed since 1858, but it wasn’t until the early 1990’s when the school was facing serious financial problems and decided to start the “Centers of Excellence” program, did they become an athletic power. Since the school already had the only ice rink in the immediate area, they decided to start with hockey.
Noteable Shattuck Hockey Alumni by Year
Ty Conklin – 94′
Joe Corvo – 95′
Ryan Malone – 99′
Zach Parise – 02′
Drew Stafford – 03′
Sidney Crosby – (02′-03′)
Pat Eaves – 03′
Jack Johnson – 05′
Jonathan Toews – 05′
Kyle Okposo – 06′
Derek Stepan – 09′
Erik Haula – 09′
Nathan MacKinnon (09′-11′)
Despite all of that, it wasn’t until April 2014 that Shattuck took home a National Championship at the bantam AAA level. That team was lead by current U-16 teammates and University of Minnesota commits Scott Reedy, Josh Maniscalo and Brannon McManus. This year’s team features two of the “Big Three W’s” – Maine’s Oliver Wahlstrom (the youngest player to ever commit to a D1 program – his home state’s University of Maine) and Massachusetts native Thomas Walsh. (The other big W is Jake Wise, a fellow 00′ and Boston University commit).
Walsh and Wahlstrom are the leading scorers on this year’s team (by a lot). The fact that these two players came to a school in Minnesota despite being from the Northeast, where any organization or prep school would be happy to have them, says a lot about where Shattuck stands in the pecking order of amateur hockey organizations.
Whether or not Shattuck can repeat as National Champions will be determined in April 2015. Expect their biggest competition to come from Honeybaked, the Colorado Thunderbirds and Chicago Mission.
2014-2015 Shattuck St. Mary’s Bantam AAA
Through 20 games, Walsh has 25-23-48 and Wahlstrom has 27-20-47. The team’s next leading scorer is Grisha Gotovets, a freshman from Minsk, Belarus (10-22-32).
There next leading goal scorers are a pair of 01’s – Grant Silianoff (Edina, MN) and Niklas Norman (Maplewood, MN). It’s getting rare to see youth teams letting kids play a year up, so the fact that these two players are good enough to play for the best bantam team in the country a year early really speaks to their talent level. (Bet the fans in hockey-crazy Edina are happy about Shattuck scooping up their next superstar.)
This Shattuck roster only has six players from the state of Minnesota on it. In all, there are 13 states and provinces represented on the roster and 3 nations.
In net, Shattuck has JP Mella (Stamford, CT) and Thomas Lalonde (Montreal, QE).
The defense is Eric Fisher (Houston, TX), Bruno Fludzinski (Brooklyn, NY), Matt Staudacher (Grand Blanc, MI), Connor McCue (Gurnee, IL), Aleko Karamanis (Courtenay, BC) and Jack Lagerstrom (Edina, MN).
Forwards that weren’t already mentioned are Max Zingler (Eagle River, WI), PJ Demitrio (Sewell, NJ), Cole Mackie (Anchorage, AK), Ryan Drkulec (Mansfield, TX), Andy Stoneman (Faribault, MN), Luke Mountain (Maplewood, MN) and Wyatt Palmer (Plymouth, MN).
Carl De Lucia Hockey Blog – 2014
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