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OT: MN High School Hockey Thread

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14-Year-Old Maverick McKinnon Leads Forest Lake Hockey Team​




kstp.com

TRIA Prep Salute, Feb. 11: 14-Year-Old Maverick McKinnon Leads Forest Lake Hockey Team

On any given day, Forest Lake’s varsity hockey team looks like a well-oiled machine. What’s not so typical, however, is that their leading scorer is still in middle school. Maverick McKinnon, just 14 years old, is making waves on the ice as an 8th grader playing for the Forest Lake Rangers...
kstp.com kstp.com

Dr Jan Itor said:
I wonder what else was different about the 1950's.
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That's got nothing to do with what's been discussed here
 
Jumping into this conversation late...but one of the largest reasons for these co-ops and hockey withering on the vine inside the 694/494 beltway is that a large number of young families who are well off financially are moving further out to the outer ring suburbs.

As an example, we used to live in the northern ring suburb right along 694. My wife and I bought a home there in about 2002 and when we looked around we realized that just about everyone on my block were old. Many were the original owners when their homes were built in the late 60's. My two sons were literally the only kids on our block. Up until the 1990's there were a lot of kids and young families, and as such, the hockey programs were much deeper and stronger. But when the kids grew up, many moved further out to areas like Andover, Blaine, Forest Lake, etc.

The younger families that have been moving into this area don't seem to have desire or the money to play hockey. As an example, we saw a lot of the newly arrived Hmong families gravitate towards badminton leagues. Basketball and soccer have also gotten stronger, while hockey is starting to whither away on the vine.

While my kids were still young and playing hockey, I served on the Board and we made multiple outreach efforts to try and attract minority kids, but unfortunately, had very little success.
 
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MuckOG said:
Jumping into this conversation late...but one of the largest reasons for these co-ops and hockey withering on the vine inside the 694/494 beltway is that a large number of young families who are well off financially are moving further out to the outer ring suburbs.

As an example, we used to live in the northern ring suburb right along 694. My wife and I bought a home there in about 2002 and when we looked around we realized that just about everyone on my block were old. Many were the original owners when their homes were built in the late 60's. My two sons were literally the only kids on our block. Up until the 1990's there were a lot of kids and young families, and as such, the hockey programs were much deeper and stronger. But when the kids grew up, many moved further out to areas like Andover, Blaine, Forest Lake, etc.

The younger families that have been moving into this area don't seem to have desire or the money to play hockey. As an example, we saw a lot of the newly arrived Hmong families gravitate towards badminton leagues. Basketball and soccer have also gotten stronger, while hockey is starting to whither away on the vine.

While my kids were still young and playing hockey, I served on the Board and we made multiple outreach efforts to try and attract minority kids, but unfortunately, had very little success.
Click to expand...
I grew up in St. Paul. Washington (later Como), Johnson, Harding, Highland Park, and North St. Paul all had decent hockey programs. Now there is big mishmash co-op and Highland Park for St. Paul Hockey.
The St. Paul kids who usually play for the St. Paul Capitals wind up at Cretin or St. Thomas Academy.
East Metro teams Like Woodbury, Cottage Grove, Stillwater, and White Bear Lake have their best bantams leave for the Private Schools. Only WBL and Stillwater have associations with big enough numbers to be competitive.

Changing demographics, these elite leagues where parents get stars in there eyes, are making it harder for community based hockey to be competitive with private schools.

Not to many Cinderella stories on this side of the River.
 
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MuckOG said:
Jumping into this conversation late...but one of the largest reasons for these co-ops and hockey withering on the vine inside the 694/494 beltway is that a large number of young families who are well off financially are moving further out to the outer ring suburbs.

As an example, we used to live in the northern ring suburb right along 694. My wife and I bought a home there in about 2002 and when we looked around we realized that just about everyone on my block were old. Many were the original owners when their homes were built in the late 60's. My two sons were literally the only kids on our block. Up until the 1990's there were a lot of kids and young families, and as such, the hockey programs were much deeper and stronger. But when the kids grew up, many moved further out to areas like Andover, Blaine, Forest Lake, etc.

The younger families that have been moving into this area don't seem to have desire or the money to play hockey. As an example, we saw a lot of the newly arrived Hmong families gravitate towards badminton leagues. Basketball and soccer have also gotten stronger, while hockey is starting to whither away on the vine.

While my kids were still young and playing hockey, I served on the Board and we made multiple outreach efforts to try and attract minority kids, but unfortunately, had very little success.
Click to expand...
I wonder what caused such a radical demographic change in just a generation or two.

GordieGallant said:
I grew up in St. Paul. Washington (later Como), Johnson, Harding, Highland Park, and North St. Paul all had decent hockey programs. Now there is big mishmash co-op and Highland Park for St. Paul Hockey.
The St. Paul kids who usually play for the St. Paul Capitals wind up at Cretin or St. Thomas Academy.
East Metro teams Like Woodbury, Cottage Grove, Stillwater, and White Bear Lake have their best bantams leave for the Private Schools. Only WBL and Stillwater have associations with big enough numbers to be competitive.

Changing demographics, these elite leagues where parents get stars in there eyes, are making it harder for community based hockey to be competitive with private schools.

Not to many Cinderella stories on this side of the River.
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The second leading goal scorer in the state played for St. Paul Johnson this yr 😆

I guess they're a co-op of about 5 HS now. And that kid played for WBL last yr so the Johnson coach likely recruited him 😆

Granted their schedule isn't close to the powerhouses they were playing back in the late 90s, but to put up 42 goals even playing against lesser varsity teams is still pretty decent.
 
NHL1674 said:
I haven't trusted the Wild medical staff for years.
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In truth, I don't fully trust them either, but every team has guys who end up being "injury prone". If we look at the list of Wild players who have been injury prone and compare it to the list that haven't, the latter list will be a lot longer. I'll need better proof than a small list of names.
 
BagHead said:
In truth, I don't fully trust them either, but every team has guys who end up being "injury prone". If we look at the list of Wild players who have been injury prone and compare it to the list that haven't, the latter list will be a lot longer. I'll need better proof than a small list of names.
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I think i posted that comment in the wrong thread. Whoops. My bad. :laugh:
 
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