If you were to ask elite players who returned to their high school boys hockey teams this winter their reason for the homecoming, you might hear about the crisp Friday night football games, senior pranks and fall sports captaincies that offset memories better left forgotten, like pop quizzes and badly DJ-ed prom nights.

But amid stories of starting quarterback senior seasons and home-cooked meals, you’ll mostly hear about a singular moment under the scrutiny of blinding lights and 20,491 pairs of puck-following eyes.

Inside the formerly named Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul last March, Moorhead boys hockey players clutched each other’s jerseys in an orange puddle of tears, screams and hockey hair after beating Stillwater 7-6 to claim the Class 2A championship.

As the celebrations began, Spuds coach Jon Ammerman anticipated the 2025-26 season without his top three returning players. Tyden Bergeson (Madison Capitols), Brandon Mickelson (Wenatchee Wild) and Zac Zimmerman (Fargo Force) were set to join the 112 Minnesota players who left high school early for Triple-A and junior hockey between 2020 and 2025.

But when the Spuds took center ice for their first practice of the season on Nov. 10, the trio laced up with just days’ notice.

Top high schoolers often are encouraged to leave home early for better development opportunities, but at least 11 Minnesota high schools will welcome players back from junior hockey for the 2025-26 season.

“Everyone is realizing that you’ll never actually get this time back to go play with your buddies again,” said Bergeson, a senior who was headed to play for Madison in the United States Hockey League (USHL). “Seeing everyone else coming back, they’re like, ‘Oh, wait, maybe I should think about doing this, too.’ ”

The three represent a statewide shift, following in the footsteps of former Spuds captain and 2025 Mr. Hockey Mason Kraft, who made the unorthodox choice last season to stay on Moorhead’s roster his senior year.

Now a forward for the Western Hockey League’s (WHL) Wenatchee Wild, Kraft’s advice echoed across Minnesota this fall: “If you ever have the option to stay or leave [before senior year], I think you should always come back and play high school hockey and play one more year with your buddies. You never get this time back. There’s not a better place in the country to play than Minnesota,” Kraft said.

“I don’t think you’ll ever have any regret coming back and playing high school hockey,” Kraft reiterated last month. “I feel like you’ll only regret leaving.”

Hard to beat high school

High school programs’ ability to adapt and create a high-quality hockey product allowed for a mass return this year and last, according to Josh Petrich, the director of consulting for Woodbury’s Hawkeye Hockey Services and a former USHL coach.

“As a former juniors coach, the toughest thing to do was to convince the kid to leave Minnesota high school early compared to other places in the nation,” Petrich said. “It’s because they can provide almost the same thing that most junior places can. … You have quality coaching, you have talent across the board, you get exposure, you can get more playing time.”

Bergeson credits Moorhead’s new stepped-up practice format, a desire to stay home with family and a chance to defend the state title as reasons to forgo the USHL’s eight-month playing schedule.

After Bergeson, Mickelson and Zimmerman finish class for the day, they head to the hockey program’s new skills session. The team’s daily ice time now rips a page out of elite hockey’s scheduling.

“I told [Moorhead’s coaches] how my experience was [in Madison]. They kind of tried to base it off that,” Bergeson said. “So, I can come here, still work on my skills, still get bigger, faster, stronger, and then when I go back in the spring, I’ll just hit the road running again.”

Even teams that can’t offer elite training or multiple sheets of practice ice have seen a return of players. Rosemount welcomed back two USHL players — Cade Sherman (Cedar Rapids Roughriders) and Connor Schubert (Youngstown Phantoms) — without promising a glitzy new program or a title.

A second shot at visiting the state tournament was enough of a sell.

A turbulent year

The trend of Minnesota players returning to high school was at least partially fueled by a new college hockey rule.

When the NCAA ruled that Canadian Hockey League (CHL) players were eligible for U.S. college hockey last November, a once-straightforward path became tangled for Minnesota student-athletes.

“The amateur side of hockey — the CHL, USHL, NCAA — it’s changed more in the last 18 months than it did probably in the 30 years prior,” Petrich said.

High schoolers began to compete with WHL, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League players for Division I and USHL roster spots, St. Cloud Cathedral head coach Robbie Stocker said.

As players assess their options, the rule change has allowed junior hockey to act as a steppingstone between high school and college rather than a replacement for the high school hockey experience, Stocker said.

“[The ruling] has made guys more patient,” said Stocker, who welcomed defenseman Griffin Sturm back from the USHL’s Lincoln Stars. “If I was, before this ruling, a kid that could come in at 19, maybe now I’m a guy that has to wait until I’m 20 to come into the college ranks.”

Moorhead’s Kraft, who graduated in 2025, knew he would need to play at least one year of junior hockey before joining Minnesota State Mankato’s roster for the 2026-27 season, so he didn’t feel a rush to prematurely end his high school hockey career last year.

According to Minnesota Hockey, the state’s youth and amateur governing body, there isn’t an advantage to leaving high school early. Of the Minnesotans with 2020 and 2021 graduation years who left high school before their senior year for Triple A or junior hockey, one-third never reached D-I.

The final decision

Bergeson made up his mind while driving home from the rink in mid-October.

“I called my brother, and I was like, ‘I’m never gonna get this time back to see my family, to live at home, to see my brother’s games, to go to all these little kids’ events. I just want to do it one more time and just be grateful for every opportunity I can get here,’ ” he said.

In the weeks following, Zimmerman and Mickelson had similar conversations, often with Kraft or Bergeson on the other end of the line, just as dozens of other players across the state sat down with coaches, advisers, family members and teammates.

The return goes against the common narrative Petrich has heard across the state.

“I’ve been in this business now for 15 years, coaching and advising, and everyone’s like ‘Wow, this is the year Minnesota high school hockey is gonna see a chink in the armor.’ I’ll believe it when I see it,” Petrich said. “I don’t think there’s ever been a better time to be a player.”

In late November, a 6-3 Turkey Trot Tournament victory over Edina offered a taste of the season ahead for Bergeson, Mickelson and Zimmerman, who racked up five points between them in the win.

If it all goes to plan, Bergeson’s words to his fellow home-comers will ring true: “All right, let’s go win another state championship.”

. . .

Hockey Across Minnesota

Minnesotans in the NHL: Ryan Lindgren is used to stability

Seattle Kraken defenseman Ryan Lindgren attended Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Faribault as a teenager and returned to Minnesota to represent the Gophers after a stint with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program in Michigan.

“I grew up as such a big fan of them,” Lindgren said of the Gophers, who he was with for two seasons from 2016 to 2018. “That was a dream come true for me to play for them and be close to home, obviously, have my parents, my grandpa come to all the games.”

Lindgren was drafted by the Bruins in 2016 and traded to the Rangers in 2018, where he became a mainstay,

suiting up for the Rangers for parts of seven seasons.

But after being traded to the Avalanche last March and becoming a free agent in July, Lindgren is on his third team in less than a year, and the change is just fine with the Seattle newcomer.

“It’s been great,” Lindgren said. “I’ve loved it. It’s been a lot of fun from Day 1.”

Lindgren signed a four-year, $18 million contract with the Kraken after his 387-game run for the Rangers ended last season with a pre-deadline trade to the Avalanche for Colorado’s playoff push.

“It’s a lot of rain, a lot of gray,” Lindgren said of Seattle. “So, you gotta get kind of used to that. But, yeah, I’ve loved it here.”

He chose to join the Kraken because he saw himself fitting in with a Seattle lineup that has a blend of young players and veterans. At 27, Lindgren’s experience is what stands out.

“Growing up in Lakeville, I had two older brothers that played hockey,” said Lindgren, whose brother Charlie is a goalie for Washington. “My dad played hockey. All my friends, everyone plays hockey in Minnesota, whether it’s indoor, outdoor. You’re just always around the game. So, yeah, it was easy for me to fall in love with it from an early age.”

— Sarah McLellan

College spotlight

Minnesota State Mankato women’s hockey has been a surprise this season, with a chance to make its first NCAA tournament appearance in program history. The No. 12 Mavericks (11-8-1) swept the No. 3 Gophers in a home-and-home series Nov. 21-22, showing how far MSU has come under second-year coach Shari Dickerman. Freshman forward Mercury Bischoff leads the Mavericks with 17 points, including a team-high 12 goals. At this time last year, she was playing high school hockey for Grand Rapids-Greenway.

Hailey Hansen, a junior from Blaine, is the Mavericks’ primary goaltender, with a .915 save percentage. Their top defender, with 15 points, is Lauren Zawoyski, a junior from Edina. The Mavericks return from their winter break Jan. 9, when they’ll start another home-and-home with the Gophers. Another key series for MSU comes Feb. 6-7 at St. Cloud State, which sits one spot back in the USCHO.com rankings, at No. 13. Only 11 teams make the women’s hockey NCAA tournament, so the second half will be a battle.

— Joe Christensen

Minnesota Top 25s

Girls: Holy Family snatched Hill-Murray’s No. 1 spot this week with a 3-2 overtime win against the Class 2A reigning champs.

Boys: Moorhead and Minnetonka rank No. 1 and No. 2 in the state this week, but reporter Jim Paulsen highlights Minnesota’s boys hockey underdogs, like Luverne.

This week’s apple

In hockey terms, an apple is an assist. As I venture into the Minnesota hockey scene, I’m in need of some assistance from dedicated readers and hockey-watchers. Send me a message with hockey fun facts, histories and burning questions that you want me to dig into for a chance to be featured here weekly.

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Thank you for reading Hockey Across Minnesota (HAM). Email me at olivia.hicks@startribune.com with story tips or message me on X or Instagram. See you at the rink!