F Ashton Schultz - Minnetonka High School, USHS-MN (2025 Draft)

[Pavel Buchnevich]

From what I'm reading on twitter he's one of the best players in Minnesota high school hockey. Committed to North Dakota.

Sioux Falls has his USHL rights. He's a junior in high school, so there's a chance he'll go back for another year. He plays for a big program that is expected to contend for state titles. Anyway, a good chance he'll play some USHL games before the 2025 draft.

Ashton Schultz at eliteprospects.com

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Ashton Schultz, 2006-10-03 Victoria, MN, USA USA. Most recently in the USHL with Sioux Falls Stampede. Complete player biography and stats.

www.eliteprospects.com

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[Pavel Buchnevich]

This is UND’s recruiting. They aren’t BU, BC, or Minnesota, but they pick up so many good players.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Team is loaded, but he's also a part of that.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

This is UND’s recruiting. They aren’t BU, BC, or Minnesota, but they pick up so many good players.

There are years where UND's recruiting is better than Minnesota's, simply because they actually recruit Canadians. UND has the ability to steal Minnesotans, as they have with Schultz and Simpson, Twin Cities kids predisposed to the Gophers.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Interested to see if Schultz goes back to Minnetonka for a last go round, or to junior in Sioux Falls to get prepped for North Dakota. Wonder when Berry will bring him in.

 

[bigdog16]

Interested to see if Schultz goes back to Minnetonka for a last go round, or to junior in Sioux Falls to get prepped for North Dakota. Wonder when Berry will bring him in.

He should undoubtedly go USHL. Too many times does pride get in the way here. It would be bad for his development beating up on high school hockey players. Not much to gain by staying

 

[57special]

He should undoubtedly go USHL. Too many times does pride get in the way here. It would be bad for his development beating up on high school hockey players. Not much to gain by staying

The difference with Minnetonka v your average HS team is that they play(usually) the best teams in the state twice during the regular season, then again in the post season. There will be the odd beatdown of a weaker team, but they are in duking it out with Edina, Eden Prairie, Wayzata, Duluth, maybe Elk River/ Chanhassen/Grand Rapids, and usually a game or two with the best privates like Hill Murray/Cretin/Benilde. They have no time or space to relax, as was proven last year when they didn't even make it into the State torunament, besides being ranked #1 for much of the year. Often the top local teams will play a game against Shattuck, also.

He can go and play USHL after the close of the HS hockey season, and before. IMO, college, and/or junior hockey can wait, if the HS player is in an excellent HS program(Tonka is), and has access to top quality training facilities and trainers(they do, especially in the Twin Cities).

 

[Hockeyville USA]

The difference with Minnetonka v your average HS team is that they play(usually) the best teams in the state twice during the regular season, then again in the post season. There will be the odd beatdown of a weaker team, but they are in duking it out with Edina, Eden Prairie, Wayzata, Duluth, maybe Elk River/ Chanhassen/Grand Rapids, and usually a game or two with the best privates like Hill Murray/Cretin/Benilde. They have no time or space to relax, as was proven last year when they didn't even make it into the State torunament, besides being ranked #1 for much of the year. Often the top local teams will play a game against Shattuck, also.

He can go and play USHL after the close of the HS hockey season, and before. IMO, college, and/or junior hockey can wait, if the HS player is in an excellent HS program(Tonka is), and has access to top quality training facilities and trainers(they do, especially in the Twin Cities).

If his focus is just being a good NCAA player, then staying in HS is fine for him. If his focus is becoming a top pro player, then he should go to junior to play against better competition, as he has outgrown MN HS competition. Guentzel left Hill Murray to go to Sioux City in 2012-13, and it paid off.

 

[57special]

If his focus is just being a good NCAA player, then staying in HS is fine for him. If his focus is becoming a top pro player, then he should go to junior to play against better competition, as he has outgrown MN HS competition. Guentzel left Hill Murray to go to Sioux City in 2012-13, and it paid off.

That's just one example, and does not prove anything. if he is more comfortable playing in HS, then he can still get in 15-20 games in the USHL, and again, the competition he plays against is quite competitive. He will get better off ice ice training in the Twin Cities than in Waterloo, Sioux Falls, or the like. There are all kinds of ex NHL'ers running rinks and training facilities here, as well great skating and shooting coaches(i.e. Andy Ness). The Twin cities is the best hockey town in the US... he isn't play in some backwater away from expertise. The USHL locations are the hockey backwaters, for the most part.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

That's just one example, and does not prove anything. if he is more comfortable playing in HS, then he can still get in 15-20 games in the USHL, and again, the competition he plays against is quite competitive. He will get better off ice ice training in the Twin Cities than in Waterloo, Sioux Falls, or the like. There are all kinds of ex NHL'ers running rinks and training facilities here, as well great skating and shooting coaches(i.e. Andy Ness). The Twin cities is the best hockey town in the US... he isn't play in some backwater away from expertise. The USHL locations are the hockey backwaters, for the most part.

Schultz has nothing left to prove in HS. He needs to play against high quality competition before going off to North Dakota. It's that simple.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Are there many successful NHL’ers in recent times that played all the way through their high school years?

I’d be curious if anyone has a list of some who played their junior and senior year in high school.

My hypothesis is that players hold themselves back by playing high school. They usually end up playing their U19 season in USHL because they’ve not played any higher than high school or a small number of USHL games. I think if you can make the jump straight to the NCAA and have success (sort of like Stout from Tonka is attempting for next year), it’s not such a detriment, but I think having to spend that extra year in USHL, like we saw this past year from someone like Shaugabay, is probably not helpful. I suspect the number of successful American players who play U19 in the USHL compared to NCAA is lower. It’s almost like the equivalent of the U19 NTDP where the best advance to an exclusive and higher level, and everyone else has to settle for a less prestigious path.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Are there many successful NHL’ers in recent times that played all the way through their high school years?

I’d be curious if anyone has a list of some who played their junior and senior year in high school.

My hypothesis is that players hold themselves back by playing high school. They usually end up playing their U19 season in USHL because they’ve not played any higher than high school or a small number of USHL games. I think if you can make the jump straight to the NCAA and have success (sort of like Stout from Tonka is attempting for next year), it’s not such a detriment, but I think having to spend that extra year in USHL, like we saw this past year from someone like Shaugabay, is probably not helpful. I suspect the number of successful American players who play U19 in the USHL compared to NCAA is lower. It’s almost like the equivalent of the U19 NTDP where the best advance to an exclusive and higher level, and everyone else has to settle for a less prestigious path.

Depends on what you mean by successful. Brock Nelson is definitely a good example, he jumped straight from MN HS to the NCAA and has turned out. Anders Lee didn't start in the USHL until his U20 season, he stayed in HS because he wanted to keep playing football. He turned out. Jake Guentzel played his u19 season in the USHL and turned out.

Ryan McDonagh and Nick Bjugstad went straight from HS to the NCAA, Derek Stepan went from HS Prep (Shattuck) to the NCAA. But it's a rarer trend now and bypassing junior or only playing a small sample of games there before heading to university (as Riley Tufte did) is rarely successful. Casey Mittelstadt only played a small sample, and he's been moderately successful.

A lot of the best high school hockey players (high school athletes in general in the States) are born later in the calendar year since the US school year grouping, while varying district to district, is typically from July 1-June 31, August 1-July 31, September 1-August 31, thus kids born later in the year are older for their grade. This conflicts with the hockey/international/Canadian system, where hockey is played based on the birthyear, thus kids born earlier in the year are oldest, plus Canada's school year grouping is the same: January 1-December 31.

With Schultz, 99% of kids with his birthday (October 3, 2006) in the States are the HS class of 2025, whereas 99% of kids with that birthday in Canada are HS class of 2024. So Schultz is just a junior in HS, and the Minnesota thing historically is playing HS and putting off going to junior; there will be a push for him to return to Minnetonka instead of going off to the USHL for 2024-25.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Depends on what you mean by successful. Brock Nelson is definitely a good example, he jumped straight from MN HS to the NCAA and has turned out. Anders Lee didn't start in the USHL until his U20 season, he stayed in HS because he wanted to keep playing football. He turned out. Jake Guentzel played his u19 season in the USHL and turned out.

Ryan McDonagh and Nick Bjugstad went straight from HS to the NCAA, Derek Stepan went from HS Prep (Shattuck) to the NCAA. But it's a rarer trend now and bypassing junior or only playing a small sample of games there before heading to university (as Riley Tufte did) is rarely successful. Casey Mittelstadt only played a small sample, and he's been moderately successful.

Oshie too, if you want to go back that far.