It has been a bit of a wild turn of events for APX Invite skater Keaton Orrey over the past 12 months.

If you had talked to him at this time last year, he would’ve told you that his plan was to play the 2025-26 season in the USHL with the Des Moines Buccaneers before heading off to college in the fall of 2026 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio - but things don’t always go to plan. After a couple of last-minute changes, Orrey decommitted from the RedHawks and was starting to consider another year of junior hockey in Des Moines before a golden, last-minute opportunity presented itself to the Minnesota native.

Merrimack College, a private, Augustinian university located in North Andover, Massachusetts, ended up reaching out to Orrey midway through the summer with a chance to join its roster for the fall of 2026. The team had one of its athletes medically retire due to injury, so they had a last-minute roster spot open up that they needed to fill on defense for the upcoming season.

Within about a week and a half or two week span of conversations, Orrey was sold on joining the Warriors squad, and he officially committed to the Hockey East school on July 18 of 2026.

“I’m proud and honored to announce my commitment to Merrimack College to pursue my education and play Division I hockey,” he posted to his social media pages. “First, I would like to thank God, my family, friends, teammates, and coaches for helping me get to this point. Secondly, I would like to thank Des Moines for giving me the best two years of my life. I can’t say enough good things about the town and the people who made it so special. #GoWarriors”

Everything changed for the 6-foot-1 defenseman in a matter of about two weeks. He went from thinking he was going to Miami, then having a disagreement with the RedHawks coaching staff and reopening his recruitment, to signing a Standard Player Development Agreement that would’ve had him going back to Des Moines for another year of juniors, to now switching gears and preparing to head to Massachusetts for college. Because the conversations between Orrey and Merrimack happened so quickly, he hasn’t even had a chance to officially visit the campus yet, but he is planning on going out to the school a few days early to get a better feel for the area. North Andover is located about an hour's drive north of downtown Boston.

“The staff, for starters, just showed a lot of excitement and a lot of enthusiasm when I was speaking to them, and that just made me feel really wanted,” Orrey said about what stood out the most about the Merrimack coaching staff and why he decided to take a chance on their program. “Obviously, they play in Hockey East too, which is one of the best conferences in college hockey, and Merrimack is the reigning Hockey East champion after winning it last year even when they were the 8th-seed going into the tournament. The school fits the boxes I was looking for in a college, so that helped too, and it just made the decision easy for me when everything seemed to align just right.”

There aren’t historically too many Minnesotan athletes that compete at Merrimack, but there’ll be a few familiar faces on the roster in the future. Forward Nick Pierre of Cottage Grove will be a junior on the squad this upcoming season and defenseman Jimmy Dodig of Minneapolis is committed to play for the Warriors in the future as well.

Orrey would have been eligible to play one more season of junior hockey in 2026-27, but that would have been a lot of games in juniors, considering that he already has three years of junior experience under his belt, so it’ll be a nice change of pace to join the ranks of the NCAA this fall.

The Minnesota native has always lived in the suburbs of the Twin Cities metro area. His family spent a little bit of time in Rosemount before mostly residing in the Eagan/Inver Grove Heights area for most of his childhood. Orrey started skating at age two or three, since family ties to the sport made it just make sense that Keaton would eventually give it a try as well. His older brother played hockey a bit, and both his dad and grandfather have extensive coaching experience, so the Orrey family is very well versed in the sport. Keaton was originally put on the blue line at a pretty young age since he was typically one of the biggest kids out on the ice, so it was a bit of a no-brainer for his coaches to put him at defense, and it has stuck ever since.

Orrey’s sophomore year of high school, he split time between JV and varsity at Eagan High School before he became a regular skater on the varsity squad as a junior. He did lots of summer training in the offseason between his sophomore and junior year, and he also participated in some beneficial triple-A opportunities as well that had him feeling very confident and well-prepared for his first official full year on varsity in 2022-23.

As a junior, Orrey registered twelve points for the Wildcats, who had a 12-13-1 overall record that season. He also had a gritty team-high of 60 penalty minutes.

Eventually, a family friend wound up reaching out to Orrey and recommending him to participate in a NAHL prospect showcase while he was still in high school. He tried it out and had a great showing on the ice, and shortly after, the St. Cloud Norsemen had the Eagan skater signed to a tender agreement. It was a bit of a surprise, since Orrey and his family weren’t all that familiar with the process of junior hockey and what his next steps should be, but it seemed like an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up.

“It was tough leaving [the high school hockey program at Eagan], like obviously it’s tough leaving the friends you grew up with out on the ice, but I think in the long run it was the right choice for me and I ended up having a blast in St. Cloud,” he said about his decision to forgo his senior year of high school hockey eligibility and to instead compete in the NAHL in 2023-24.

It’s extremely tough to play in the NAHL as a young skater, as the league is gritty and physical and often has lots of older guys on its rosters. Orrey rolled with the punches though as one of the youngest skaters on St. Cloud’s roster that season, and he wound up earning quite a bit of playing time. He suited up for 53 games, posting 19 points, for a Norsemen squad that finished in fifth place out of six teams in the NAHL Central Division that season.

“It was a big jump [going from high school to the NAHL], I remember going to the NAHL Showcase in Blaine that year and seeing some of the guys out there, and I just didn’t know what to expect. I played my first game, and I think I took probably one of the hardest hits ever, and I was like ‘okay this is real hockey now - I have to play smart here’,” Orrey joked about his first few games in junior hockey. “It was a big jump, but luckily I adjusted to it pretty quickly and then did well for the most part.”

Playing with St. Cloud was a nice way to ease into the level of junior hockey for the Minnesota native, considering that St. Cloud is located only about an hour and a half drive from his home in the Twin Cities metro area. He lived with a billet family during the season, but it was an easy drive to go visit home on the weekends if the team didn’t have any games to play. He was also still able to take online classes through the Eagan school district, which allowed him to be able to walk with his childhood friends at graduation in 2024, which was something that he always wanted to do.

After a successful first season in the NAHL, Orrey was subsequently drafted by the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL in the third round of the 2024 Entry Draft. He had been talking with a few teams in the USHL that spring, but getting drafted by Des Moines was a positive surprise since he hadn’t had any contact with the team previously.

“I hadn’t talked to anybody on the staff or a GM or anything and then all of a sudden my phone just started blowing up and it was the Des Moines head coach calling me and telling me that they drafted me and I had no idea, it was just a random number that popped up on my phone and I answered it and they told me they drafted me in the third round and I was just kind of shocked, but it was a good day when that happened,” said Orrey about getting drafted by the Buccaneers.

He had an exciting summer that offseason in 2024. Not only was he getting ready to play in the USHL after being selected by Des Moines, but he also received an offer to play Division I hockey at Miami University - which he verbally committed to on June 7th of that summer. He was one of the first recruits under now head coach Anthony Noreen, who had just been hired at Miami after replacing former head coach Chris Bergeron. With a Division I commitment under his belt and a newfound confidence that he could play well at the junior level, he was excited to get out to Des Moines and start his time in the USHL.

“I was pumped to go into my first year in Des Moines. Obviously, the USHL is the best league in America, and I knew a couple of guys on the team too, which helped, and I was just really excited going into it,” he said about switching from the NAHL to the USHL. “It was kind of a big jump from playing in St. Cloud, but for the most part I was just really excited to get that opportunity.”

Joining Des Moines wasn’t easy though, and Orrey had to put in a lot of work just to get ice time that season. It was hard to stay confident as a young skater who was in and out of the lineup, but he did his best to try and keep working hard and earn more and more opportunities out on the ice. In his rookie season with the Buccaneers, he posted six points through 37 games played.

“I was in and out of the lineup a lot, and it definitely wasn’t the easiest year. I lacked confidence at times and that made it difficult to play, but I finished the season really well and left with a good relationship with the coaches, even though unfortunately they all left after that season, so we then had a completely new staff after that season,” he said about the 2024-25 year in Des Moines. “It was kind of exciting to then have a new staff too though because they had new systems and new everything, and my first year in Des Moines wasn’t my best so it was kind of nice getting a fresh start after that first year, but still being familiar with the town and the organization was great. I got to meet the new staff at main camp before the season [in the summer of 2025], and they were awesome, and I couldn’t say enough good things about them.”

Having one year of USHL competition under his belt and knowing what to expect going into Year 2 was extremely helpful for the Eagan native as he became a much more regular skater on the blue line in 2025-26. He wound up posting 22 points through 59 games for Des Moines this past season, along with 101 penalty minutes. His 22 points were the second-most on the roster in overall scoring by a defenseman.

“The coaching staff definitely gave me a lot of confidence to play,” he said about how his game took off in 2025-26. “It took me a little bit to figure out what I needed to do in order to be a really good player, and the staff worked with me a lot, and we did film all the time, and the criticism I got was great. I would say around Christmas or New Year’s, around that time, is when I think I really took off and found my game, and I was playing very consistently and just doing the things I needed to do, but there is a lot of credit to the staff for trusting me and allowing me to get to that position.”

Orrey became one of the defensive guys in Des Moines this past season and really started to show off his skill set as a physical, two-way skater.

"Despite the ups and downs of the year," Des Moines Head Coach and General Manager Matt Curley said in a previous press release from the team, "Keaton has done an incredible job of sticking to it and growing as both a person and a player. He continues to make strides in his game, gaining experience that will only help round out his skills. Well-liked and respected by the guys, it's been awesome to be able to work with ‘Keats’ this year."

Orrey ended up earning Defenseman of the Week honors in the USHL in April of 2026, and he also earned the honor to wear an ‘A’ for the Buccaneers as well in the second half of the season.

After the USHL season concluded, Orrey was planning on heading out to Miami for the fall of 2026, but a disagreement with the staff there led to him reopening his recruitment. He originally thought about returning to Des Moines again for one more season, but then Merrimack reached out, and now he’s headed out to Massachusetts for the 2026-27 season.

“I’m a physical, two-way defenseman,” said Orrey about his style of play. “I like to hit, that’s a big thing for sure, but I like to play in the offensive zone too, and I think I can make plays in the offensive zone that lead to opportunities. I’m also not limited to just that; I think I have a really strong defensive game, shutting down plays quickly and then getting pucks up ice.”

The Minnesota native isn’t quite sure yet what he’ll major in once he gets out to Merrimack; he is just going to see how the first semester of class goes for now.

Learn more about our APX Invite program today, and train with the best of the best each and every offseason. Orrey is a multi-year APX athlete who has trained in the APX Invite program for multiple seasons throughout the years.

MORE FROM APX NEWS: