“We return Declan Young (11G, 15A), our second leading scorer from last year, and Chase Jensen and Aaron Shelstad up front, and we have three returning defensemen in Mason Hoffman, Isaac Ahlgren and Kaden Peterson,” observed Head Coach Mike Donaghue, now in his fourteenth year with the Otters. “We will look to Aaron Shelstad to add some consistency in our scoring and will need to build around our defense. Mason brings two years of experience to the blue line and has played a lot of minutes over those two years. Kaden fought through some injuries as a sophomore, but has matured over the summer and we are looking for him to have a breakout year. Ian Richards should be able to step in and have an immediate impact at defense for us and Isaac Young should be in the mix at forward.” 

The biggest question mark may be in the net as the Otters lost veteran Drew Luhning to graduation. Scott VanVoorhis and Ian Stumbo are candidates for the goaltending job. 

“We will be looking for someone that wants to step up and take control of the goaltending,” said Donaghue. “With the loss of Drew Luhning we do not have anyone with varsity experience, so it will be a great competition every day. We have a great class of ninth and tenth graders moving into the program and it will be fun to watch their progress as the season moves forward. We will need all of the players working on the same page for us to be successful. If we can get the consistency and work ethic from the entire team each day, we will be a competitive hockey team.” 

Trevor Larson and Joey Kalan will serve as assistants to coach Donaghue. 

Donaghue points to St. Cloud Cathedral, Sartell and Alexandria as the teams to beat in Section 6A.