FARIBAULT, MINN. - The gatekeeper behind Minnesota’s most exclusive and expensive hockey program is a man of few words. That is, until he steps foot on Shattuck-St. Mary’s ice.

“Game 7. Ninety seconds left,” Tom Ward says, his voice carrying across one of the school’s two National Hockey League-sized sheets of ice, punctuated by the shrill screech of his whistle. “What are you gonna do?”

But the 22 high school boys on skates aren’t racing against the clock in a playoff game. Instead, it’s a typical Wednesday afternoon practice in early January.

Ward, the director of boys hockey at the nation’s premier private hockey boarding school, is preparing his pupils for what could be a reality for several: the NHL.

For most of the past quarter century, he’s been in charge of handpicking hockey’s next all-stars, some years choosing as few as 10 players from a 1,000-plus applicant pool. Ahead of the 2025-26 season alone, he received 1,400 applications, some from families with players as young as 9 years old, to fill 35 roster slots.

Ward decides who gets to wear the Shattuck crest on their jersey. If the school’s history book-worthy names have anything to say about it, he’s good at his job.

“Taylor Chorney, Patrick Eaves, Erik Haula, Zach Parise, Drew Stafford, Nathan MacKinnon…” Ward reads off the NHL alumni wall, stopping at Sidney Crosby’s portrait. “There’s Sid.”

Ward saw something in each one of them.

‘There’s no pixie dust’

Shattuck-St. Mary’s is straight out of a fairy tale.

The drive to campus, located 50 miles south of the Twin Cities in Faribault, is a blur of bare trees, beige houses and nondescript roads before a large stone arch looms on the horizon. Then, what looks like a castle stretches across a 250-acre campus perched atop river bluffs.

The school’s history and reputation add to its mystical effect.

Shattuck-St. Mary’s has been a lot of things: a seminary at its inception in 1858; a military school and training ground after the Civil War; and now, a sixth-through-12th-grade athletic force accompanied by an eye-watering price tag.

It has also been called a lot of things. ESPN labeled its hockey program the “Hogwarts of Hockey.” Sports Illustrated said, “What Harvard is to law school, Shattuck-St. Mary’s is to high school hockey.” KARE-11 dubbed it “Minnesota’s own hockey factory.”

And a factory it is: 120 NHL draft picks, 50 NHL players and 832 Division I and III athletes. The 2020-21 U14 team stands out in memories, with a roster that included 11 future NHL draft picks, including 2024 No. 1 Macklin Celebrini.

But Ward argues there’s nothing supernatural about it.

“There’s no pixie dust here. There’s no magic formula. We don’t do anything different,” insisted Ward, who grew up skating on the neighborhood rinks of Richfield. “It is ice time.”

Shattuck’s Hockey Signature Program is built for the hockey-obsessed. The program’s seven-month schedule, beginning in September, includes more than 50 games — with roughly half played in Minnesota — and up to seven on-ice days per week. The school’s only secrets are a traditional approach to hockey, the budget to support a 17-person hockey staff and a focus on teaching players the “right” way to play hockey: minimal video review, maximum ice time and roughly 10,000 reps.

It’s ice time, Ward said, that has allowed him to turn average, even downright bad, hockey players into college and pro athletes: “We don’t have to buy ice time. Our rinks and ice time is the thing that separates us from everybody in the state of Minnesota.”

Getting into Shattuck

Shattuck hasn’t always been centered on ultra-exclusive hockey, but it has had some semblance of a team since 1925, even if that looked like two players forming a co-op with Faribault High School. When the school struggled with low enrollment in the 1980s, a consultant recommended that it take advantage of its biggest asset: hockey.

By 1990, top players were recruited from across the nation to form a team led by Craig Norwich, the captain of Edina’s 1974 state championship team. By the team’s second season, the hockey program had grown too big for just one team. By the third, it broke away from the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) and joined the United States Hockey League (USHL).

Now, a roster spot on one of Shattuck’s eight hockey teams — girls under-16, U19 and prep; and boys U14, 15-over, U16, U18 and prep — is a coveted status symbol. To be one of the program’s 160 players, the process is similar to a college admissions cycle.

Families fill out an inquiry form or contact the school anywhere from six to 18 months in advance. Then, Shattuck’s hockey staff vets players through video analysis before they make a trip to campus.

While players are required to meet certain athletic qualifications, Ward couldn’t describe exactly what glimmer of potential he sees, just that he knows a hockey player when he sees one.

“Hockey sense or moxie or whatever term you want to use,” Ward said. “We do hockey, and we do know hockey players. We know what one looks like and what one smells like at our level to be a good player and be competitive.”

He has always looked for the same qualities in players, whether he was coaching Shattuck’s boys team, the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, the Gophers or Richfield High School’s varsity team.

The “intangibles” applicants need, said Shattuck’s hockey general manager Ben Umhoefer, include being a good teammate and an ultra-competitive hard worker and having hockey fever.

The largest tangible qualification? Cash.

Shattuck-St. Mary’s boasts the title of the most expensive private school in Minnesota. A year of tuition costs families $63,500 with up to $4,600 in extras such as uniforms, books and laundry. The school’s hockey fee adds $10,000. The school offers financial aid to 50% of families, according to its website.

“You can’t get past the $65,000, right?” Ward said. “That’s a real thing.”

‘Stepchild of Minnesota hockey’

For a man raised on the community-centric hockey model Minnesota is nationally known for, Ward has leaned into the private model.

Shattuck-St. Mary’s operates in a gray area in Minnesota’s hockey scene.

“We’re proud to be members of Minnesota hockey and proud to be in Minnesota, but at the same time, there’s certain things that we can’t do and certain things they can’t do,” Ward said. “To this day, we’re still the redheaded stepchild of Minnesota hockey.”

Unlike states that reshaped city-funded community hockey into a private business model, Minnesota has been relatively successful in keeping hockey grassroots. Shattuck, to some critics, threatens that carefully preserved sporting structure.

Ward said the school doesn’t have a majority Minnesotan student body and insisted the hockey program doesn’t recruit. Of the hockey program’s 160 U.S. and international players, 45 are from Minnesota, the most of any other state, according to Shattuck’s admissions office.

“People think we recruit kids and that we steal talent from other places, and that’s the furthest thing from the truth,” Ward said. “None of us ever will chase kids around. … We’re not calling the Johnsons and saying, ‘Hey, Pam and Bill. Do you want to go out for a cup of coffee?’ That isn’t how it goes down."

Regarding Minnesota high school hockey and Shattuck, Umhoefer said: “I’ve always just sort of viewed us as two very different things. Because of the inquiry numbers, we’ve never had to go outbound, at least in my time here, and try to find players.”

The hockey program primarily attracts out-of-state and international students from regions where, Ward said, the cost of ice time and travel might be more than Shattuck’s tuition.

But there are a handful of Minnesotans who have chosen the private school over their hometown high school teams, such as Luke Puchner.

The senior at Shattuck joined the Sabres during the 2023-24 season as a sophomore after playing for Waconia High.

“For me, it was kind of a no-brainer,” he said.

Puchner just had to look at the school’s stats, extensive list of hockey greats and resources to make his decision.

Before a day full of class and afternoon practice, Puchner skated from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. with four teammates on the school’s third rink, a practice sheet open 24 hours a day with a “turn off the lights when you’re done” policy. He gets more ice time, personalized training and weight room time at Shattuck than he did at his public high school.

“You just get so much more out of this,” Puchner said. “It’s a very mature game. Everything here is very professional and mature.”

More than hockey

On a Thursday in early December, Ward watched the Utah Mammoth clobber the Anaheim Ducks 7-0 on the small flatscreen TV hanging in a corner of his office, nestled in the locker room corridor.

He mapped out the game as if he were drawing plays on a whiteboard. Mammoth captain Clayton Keller and Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe, two former Shattuck players, skated around each other.

“He came here as a freckle-faced, buck-teethed kid who was shorter than most, but he was a rink rat,” Ward said of LaCombe, huffing a laugh.

He’s good at remembering each hockey student, where they are now — from Olympic gold medalists to heart surgeons to plumbers — and recalls a time when they were far from the good players they are now.

“It’s fun to look back, to have memories. It’s great to have all of that,” Ward said. “That’s kind of what it’s all about for me.”

Ward has left the school periodically to coach a season in the World Juniors or the NHL. He could be coaching either LaCombe or Keller on the pro level, but he keeps coming back to Shattuck to shape the NHL’s next stars with the biggest qualifier top of mind: coaching good people.

“It’s not about hockey. Yeah, we love hockey. We’re all passionate about it, but these guys will be fathers and husbands and wives and moms way longer than they are student athletes or hockey players.” Ward said. “That trumps this thing by 10,000. That’s what this place is about.”

. . .

Hockey Across Minnesota

Minnesotans in the NHL: Anders Lee

The Islanders’ game against the Wild on Jan. 10 was New York’s second on a seven-game road trip.

But after the Islanders outlasted the Wild 4-3 in overtime at Grand Casino Arena, they didn’t immediately pack up and leave the Twin Cities for Winnipeg, where they’d play next. They made a pit stop … at Anders Lee’s home.

The Edina native hosted an outdoor skate on the pond behind his house during a day off for the team.

“Dream scenario for me to be able to have an ice rink in my backyard,” Lee told the Islanders website.

With an assist from his neighbor, who had the rink ready, Lee and the Islanders battled in a game of 17 vs. 17.

“You throw sticks in the middle, and then you just toss them to each side,” said Lee, who’s played the entirety of his NHL career – nearly 900 games – with the Islanders after getting drafted in the sixth round in 2009. “That’s how the teams were made. It was awesome. We had great weather. We had sun. We had a bonfire out on the ice, couple coolers, and just had a really great day.”

Lee, 35, did have one request: That his teammates wear their favorite jersey from childhood.

So, Lee, who was a three-sport standout at Edina High School before playing college hockey at Notre Dame, donned Edina green. Rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer represented the Hamilton Jr. Bulldogs, a nod to his minor-hockey days growing up in Canada, and goaltender David Rittich had another throwback look with the Quebec Nordiques.

“We love getting together as a group,” Lee said. “Depending on the schedule and what we do and where we are, it’s tough to find a good activity sometimes. This was a perfect one to do where we could just be with each other, laugh a bunch all day, watch the [football] games and just spend time with each other in a relaxed setting.”

— Sarah McLellan

College spotlight: Abbey Murphy

To say Abbey Murphy is having an outstanding January would be an understatement. The Gophers senior forward and Olympian has seven goals and eight assists in four games this month, extending her national lead in goals (28), points (50) and points per game (2.27). She’s notched two hat tricks and is scoring on an absurd 21.3% her shots in the month.

All of that would be impressive enough, but then came her signature moment on Saturday, Jan. 10, at Ridder Arena.

With the third-ranked Gophers leading Minnesota State Mankato 1-0 in the first period, Murphy gathered the puck in the Mavericks zone and broke out on a two-on-two rush with teammate Bella Fanale. Upon entering the Minnesota State zone, Murphy slid her stick blade under the puck and popped it in the air, just over waist high. With Mavericks defender Lauren Zawoyski in front of her, Murphy rotated her stick over and slapped the puck to the ice, bouncing it between Zawoyski’s legs. Murphy skated around Zawoyski and beat Mavericks defender Mika Cichosz to the puck before sending a one-handed, backhanded pass to Fanale on the right side. Fanale promptly lifted the puck over sliding goalie Hailey Hansen for a goal to finish the jaw-dropping play.

— Randy Johnson

Minnesota Top 25s

Girls: The top five girls teams hold onto their position this week, and Woodbury jumps to No. 6.

Boys: Moorhead is back in the No. 1 spot after Edina defeated Minnetonka in a 5-4 OT game this week.

This week’s apple

Before you do anything else, watch Abbey Murphy’s standout goal this week.

. . .

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!