APX Invite forward Channing Goodwin is coming off a highly successful hockey season in 2025-26.

The skater from Rosemount had an excellent playoff run with his high school team this past spring that saw the Irish win a third-place title at the Class AA state tournament. The 6-foot-2 forward then proceeded to have a big offseason this summer at the USA Boys National 17s Festival in Amherst, New York, where he performed as one of the top scorers on the Minnesota District roster. This resulted in multiple coaches and scouts taking note of his skill set out on the ice. 

After such a great first half of the 2026 calendar year, it’s no surprise that the University of St. Thomas started recruiting the talented athlete. In fact, the Tommies were essentially the first team to reach out to the 17-year-old forward, and they made it clear from the get-go that they wanted him to commit to their Division I men’s hockey program. 

“They really wanted to get things moving and get me out there for a visit, and it just seemed like they really liked me,” said Goodwin about the college recruiting process and how St. Thomas showed a lot of interest early on in their conversations.

It didn’t take long for the Tommies to officially extend an offer to the Minnesota native, and Goodwin had felt confident about his relationship with the coaching staff and with the program thus far, so he decided to announce his verbal commitment to the university located in St. Paul on September 23, 2026. 

“I’m extremely excited and grateful to announce my commitment to play Division I hockey and further my academics at the University of St. Thomas,” posted the Rosemount native to his social media pages. “I want to thank God for giving me this opportunity and guiding me throughout this journey. I’d like to thank my family, friends, coaches, teammates, and everyone who has supported me along the way. Excited for what the future holds! Roll Tommies!”

There were many factors in why he decided to settle on St. Thomas for his future in college hockey, but two of the biggest reasons were the ability to stay close to home and the feeling that he got from the Tommies coaching staff of being truly wanted within their program. Along with that, it was also quite convincing that the private university located in St. Paul just completed a brand new rink in the Lee & Penny Anderson Arena, which Goodwin has already played in during section competition in 2026, and that the school recently moved from the CCHA to the NCHC conference for the 2026-27 season and beyond. 

It helps too that he’ll be plenty familiar with many of the faces on the Tommies roster once he gets out to college in a few years. His current Rosemount teammate Avery Hanowski announced his own commitment to St. Thomas just four days after Goodwin did, and there are plenty of other Minnesotan skaters committed to the program in the future, too. There are lots of APX connections to UST, as well, such as APX instructor Ray Christy, who is the current Director of Hockey Operations for the Tommies, and APX athletes on the roster such as Dylan Godbout, Quinn Rudrud, Aiden Grossklaus, and Carsen Musser, among others. 

“We’ve had ‘Goody’ in the program for a while now, and our staff is plenty used to consistent growth in his game, but it’s such an exciting phase in a player’s career when they begin solidifying their identity on the ice, and we’re starting to really see what kind of player Goody will be in juniors, college, and potentially beyond,” said APX Director of Player Development Wes Jirovec. “He’s always been an elite processor on offense, but now there’s more confidence in his hard skill and pace of play. As he's gotten stronger on his skates, that’s resulted in more confidence as a forechecker and defender, too. We’re anticipating a monster upcoming season for Goody on both sides of the puck.”

The impressive year so far for the Rosemount native didn’t stop with just his college commitment either, as he was recently called up to compete with the Team USA U-18 National Team Development Program (NTDP) in early October, so plenty of scouts and coaches from across the country are taking notice of Goodwin’s skills out on the ice. 

Although he likely could’ve decided to play junior hockey for the 2026-27 season, the forward has chosen to return to Rosemount for his senior year of high school hockey this winter. He is currently competing for Team APX of the Upper Midwest High School Elite Hockey League, where he has 11 points through 12 contests so far this fall. Many people might not know that Goodwin is also an excellent multi-sport athlete who has shown extreme promise not just on the ice but as a top participant in both Cross Country and Track for the Irish as well, so he is currently in the midst of the cross country season at the moment, too. 

Returning for another year of hockey at Rosemount just seemed like the right choice for the senior forward after the team has found a lot of success over the past two years that Goodwin has been on the roster. In his sophomore season, the 6-foot-2 skater worked his way up the line chart and eventually netted 19 points through 27 games for the Irish in 2024-25. The squad posted a solid 23-4 overall record that winter prior to a section final loss to Cretin-Derham Hall. 

“I wasn’t playing a lot at the start of that year. I started out on the fourth line and didn’t get many shifts, but I kept going, and with about 10 games left, I got moved up and started to play a little bit more,” Goodwin said about how he started out on varsity as most young skaters do, but eventually started to earn more and more playing time as the year went on. 

Prior to his junior season, the young forward competed in Elite League for Team APX, recording almost a point-per-game average. He then went on to register an impressive 42 points through 31 games for Rosemount in 2025-26, which was the fourth-most total points scored on the entire roster and the second-most assists scored (28). Goodwin said that his mindset was just a lot more confident in his second year of varsity competition, which made a big difference in his gameplay. 

In 2025-26, the Irish only had four losses prior to section playoffs (three of which came from one-goal games) and were looking like a dangerous team. Rosemount, a bit controversially, received the No. 1 seed in Section 3AA over St. Thomas Academy, which upped the postseason drama and the stakes of the playoff games that winter, which made things even more exciting for high school hockey fans.

“We were really happy to get the No. 1 seed; that was big, and we were feeling really good going into the first two section games,” said Goodwin. “We knew that St. Thomas was going to be a hard one, though (St. Thomas Academy was the No. 2 seed, and the opponent that Rosemount would eventually face in the section championship match).” 

The Irish posted a 5-0 shutout victory over Apple Valley/Burnsville in the Section 3AA quarterfinals before a 4-0 win over Eastview in the semifinals. Then came the section championship game versus the Cadets, which was held at the brand-new Lee & Penny Anderson Arena, the rink at the University of St. Thomas. That game was packed with fans and was an extremely loud and rowdy environment for both the Cadets and the Irish. 

The bright lights of the section final didn’t seem to bother Goodwin much as the Irish scored first in the game, on a goal assisted by Goodwin, before St. Thomas tied it up in the second period. In the third frame, Rosemount regained its lead, with Goodwin recording the secondary assist on the play, and he went on to eventually score an empty-net goal to secure the victory and to send the Irish to just its second-ever state tournament appearance, with the first coming back in 1992 - long before all of the players on the ice were even born. 

“I just really wanted to win [the section final game], and I don’t think there was too much pressure because we were the No. 1 seed, but everyone kind of expected St. Thomas to win,” said Goodwin, saying that the team had a little bit of an underdog mentality going into the match even though they were the top-seeded squad. The young forward seemed to thrive in the loud, rambunctious environment of the section final and had a three-point performance that night. Goodwin said that having such great linemates and teammates helped him have a great showing in the big victory. 

The Rosemount High School team then took a trip to the Class AA state tournament, which is a dream come true for any Minnesotan who grew up playing ice hockey. The Irish went on to have a very solid showing at the event as the No. 4 seed. 

“It’s insane, just getting out on the ice, everything seems so big and you look up and it just keeps going and going,” Goodwin said about what it was like to go out on the ice at the Xcel Energy Center (now recently renamed ‘Grand Casino Arena’) for the first time and skate at the state tournament. “It was super cool, and the hockey games were just super loud and packed, which was sweet.” 

Again, Goodwin seemed to thrive under the bright lights. Rosemount downed Grand Rapids in overtime in the state quarterfinals to start the event. The forward scored the Irish’s second goal of the game in a 3-2 victory against the Thunderhawks. He said that watching teammate Cade Sherman (an Augustana commit) score the game-winner in overtime was one of his favorite moments from the state tournament, since that was huge for the team. 

In the second round of the event, Rosemount had a tough match-up against first-seeded Minnetonka, but the Irish played tough and again Goodwin was able to record a goal in regulation prior to an eventual 4-3 overtime loss. 

Despite the loss in the semifinals, the squad then rebounded to defeat Edina for the Class AA Third Place title. Goodwin said that although it would’ve been preferable to win a state title, it was still nice to give the seniors on the team one last win and to take home some hardware for the school and the hockey program. 

As for the upcoming 2026-27 season, the now senior in high school feels like Rosemount will have yet another solid team this winter. 

“We lost a good amount of seniors, but we also have a lot of good returners coming back, so we all have high expectations,” he said. “We think it’s going to be pretty good. We’ll be good.” 

Goodwin will finish up his high school career at Rosemount before then likely heading into junior hockey. He was drafted by the Waterloo Black Hawks of the USHL in 2025, so that is one possible destination for the 17-year-old, but there are many places he could decide to play before he joins the ranks of college hockey at St. Thomas in the years to come.

For any Tommies fans who aren’t going to be able to get out and watch any high school hockey this season, the forward says that his strengths are his strong hockey IQ and his hands. He thinks he sees the ice well and can be a strong playmaker.

Goodwin and the Rosemount squad will open their season on Nov. 27th and 28th at the ‘Tonka Thanksgiving Preview at the Pagel Ice Center against Chanhassen and Minnetonka, respectively.

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