It’s not common to see Division I college hockey players who list their hometown as anywhere in the state of Utah. In fact, according to the databases on QuantHockey, there were no men’s Division I college hockey players from Utah listed on any rosters for the 2025-26 season, and there was only one the year before that in 2024-25 (Ian Moore, who was born in Salt Lake City but then moved to Massachusetts at a young age). This makes it all the more impressive that Park City native Paul Wiczek has earned a commitment to play college hockey at the United States Military Academy and will be wearing the black and gold for the squad in the next year or two. 

Wiczek was born and raised in Park City, which is located just east of the capital of Salt Lake City, and is known for its ski slopes on the Wasatch Range. Although hockey in Utah has grown considerably over the past decade, especially now with the NHL’s Utah Mammoth in town, Wiczek says that there wasn’t necessarily a very big hockey community there when he was young. 

The 20-year-old didn’t fall in love with the sport of hockey at random, as his father is originally from Little Falls, Minnesota, and grew up as a big fan of the game, and one of Paul’s older sisters also played hockey. Between his sister and their father both loving the sport, and the family also having an outdoor rink in their backyard for many years, it just made sense for Wiczek to eventually give hockey a try. 

He played youth hockey in the area for Park City-based teams and also ended up playing for Salt Lake City-based squads later on in his career. Once he was old enough, he suited up for one season of high school hockey with Park City High, leading the team in scoring with 18 points through 13 games as a freshman in 2020-21. 

There is a little bit of a high school hockey scene in Utah, but it typically consists of just a handful of teams that are competing for titles every season and there isn’t a ton of depth yet at the moment, so Wiczek had a ton of fun that year with a Park City team that had an extremely talented freshman class, but he knew that if he wanted to develop further as a prospect that he would likely have to take his talents out of state. The forward finished up his freshman season and then decided to explore prep hockey options out on the East Coast, as did a couple of his classmates as well.

For Wiczek, exploring the option of prep hockey wasn’t something that was a new or crazy concept to his family, as his older sister played at Kimball Union Academy. With limited options for high-level boys hockey in Utah, there were even fewer options for girls hockey programs at the time, so it wasn’t necessarily that crazy of a decision for athletes to move out of state. He recalls the positive experience that she had out east and the amount of top-level talent that she was surrounded by on-campus, such as now NHL-er Adam Fantilli, so he started the process of applying to a couple of his top options to see if he could take his hockey and academic career to

One of the schools that Wiczek applied to was Avon Old Farms, an all-boys boarding school in Avon, Connecticut. The young skater knew of another guy from Utah who had attended school there and spoke highly of his experience, and Wiczek immediately seemed interested in the campus, the culture, and the community there, and of course, the high-level hockey prospects that are developed there as well. The Park City native applied and was then accepted to the program. 

Wiczek knew that moving up from varsity high school hockey in Utah to prep hockey on the East Coast was going to be a tough adjustment, but he thought that he was well-prepared to face the challenge. 

“I tell people that the first kind of scrimmage that I had there [at Avon Old Farms] was probably the most humbling hockey experience I’d had at that point,” Wiczek told APX reporter Sydney Wolf. “I didn’t really know what I was fully getting into and I knew that the hockey was going to be a big step up and I was excited for that, but then going on the ice and there was a guy who played for the National Development Team (NTDP) and is committed to Notre Dame and a guy committed to Penn State and just some pretty high-end players that have been signing NHL contracts now and I was super excited like wow, I’m sharing the ice with these guys, but I also had my work cut out for me.”

It was quite the learning experience that season in 2021-22 and again the next year in 2022-23 as Wiczek worked hard both on and off the ice, but was still ultimately disappointed that he had been put on the ‘B’ team for the program with its star-studded varsity lineups that are incredibly tough to crack. The Utahn loved everything about his time at Avon Old Farms, except for the fact that he wasn’t getting the results he wanted in his hockey career. He had to think long and hard about what he wanted from his final year or two of high school and if he wanted to stay there or change things up. 

Wiczek ended up deciding to do a repeat of his junior year, which is common in athletes who play prep hockey out east, and enrolled at Northfield Mount Hermon, a college prep school in Northern Massachusetts. It seemed like that would be a good fit, both academically and athletically, as he thought he would be able to get more opportunities on their top-tier team. 

“It was definitely a good experience. I think the coach had a lot of belief in me, and we had a few guys on that team who I’m still super good buddies with. I kind of just got to play in all situations and got to see how dominant I could be,” Wiczek said about his time at Northfield Mount Hermon in 2023-24. He was third on the team in overall scoring that year (24 points in 32 games played), led the team in assists (15), and even got to wear an ‘A’ on his jersey as well. 

One game that he’ll always remember was getting to compete against his old Avon Old Farms team that season. After the match was over, his old coach came up to him and said that it was great to see him doing so well with his new team and that he’d developed into a great player, which was a cool moment for Wiczek and his family. 

After a successful junior season, the forward was unsure of what his hockey career held next for him. He was originally planning on returning to Northfield for his senior season, but he wound up being drafted in the 11th round of the NAHL Entry Draft in 2024 by the Oklahoma Warriors. He went out to their camp that summer and ended up making a good impression on the staff there, and was eventually offered a spot on the team for 2024-25. 

It was a bit of a big decision to join the Warriors for that season, considering that his high school classes weren’t completed yet so Wiczek had to finish his diploma online through a program based in Utah, but he knew that he should take the opportunity in junior hockey since it was a big-time offer that would aide in his development as an athlete and would get him lots of exposure as a prospect as well. 

It ended up being a bit of a culture shock for the Park City native when he first got out to Oklahoma City and traveling to other teams in the NAHL South for the first time, such as El Paso (TX) and Shreveport (LA), but it was a ton of fun for the former prep hockey skater. He didn’t know any of his teammates at first while starting the season, but he met some of them at camp and then became good friends with a few of them from there. Wiczek wound up posting 11 points in 52 games played as a rookie in the NAHL that year and leading the Warriors in penalty minutes as well (152). 

“We definitely had some growing pains that year but I think that helps, having a younger team, because it gave me more of an opportunity to get looks there and I was able to kind of figure out my confidence that second half of the year and I started playing more minutes and figured out what I could do at that level,” he said about his time in Oklahoma. 

After a solid first season in junior hockey, Wiczek actually started the next season in the WHL with the Wenatchee Wild. He only registered five official games there, but he had an incredible experience training with some of the best young hockey players in the world. 

“I hoped to be able to stick around there a little longer but it was still an amazing experience to be treated as a like a pseudo-professional athlete for two months and to have that level of practice every day and playing against super skilled players, it’s kind of a confidence boost even though I didn’t stick there, just knowing that it’s within reach,” he said about his experience playing major-junior hockey in Canada. “I just used that experience as a positive thing and know that going into the future that I can do it.” 

After his time in the WHL, Wiczek went on to play in the BCHL with the Langley Rivermen and registered 12 points in 38 games there, along with 84 penalty minutes. 

After his strong rookie season in the NAHL and getting called up to the WHL for a bit, Wiczek started to hear from more and more college hockey programs.  

“It was kind of on and off [the college recruiting process], I heard from a few teams that they were interested after my first year in the NAHL, a lot of Ivy Leagues, schools like that, and then going into the WHL, my advisor Jack Skille at APX has some pretty good college connections just with his experience so he had some pretty high-end schools coming to watch and just seeing how I would do at that level,” he said. 

“I heard from West Point right after preseason in the WHL, so we were talking then, and once I got released from there the talks slowed down a little bit but then once I got in the second half of the season and I was in Langley, I started to hear back from them and they wanted to get me out for a visit kind of near the end of the year but we just decided with the coaching staff that it’d be best to do after playoffs, so we just nailed down some dates and figured it out from there,” he added. “I had always, especially with being in the NAHL and seeing how many military school guys they get [from that league], that had always been an option for me, and I definitely wasn’t afraid of the military aspect.”

Once he went out on a visit to the United States Military Academy, located in New York, he was impressed with the hyper-competitive attitude that he witnessed there, along with the high level of academics they provide and the way that they set you up for success after you graduate. He officially announced his commitment to the Black Knights in May of 2026. 

“I am extremely honored to announce my commitment to play hockey and further my education at the United States Military Academy. I want to thank my family, teammates, and coaches who have all helped me along the journey to get to this point. #beatairforce,” he posted to his social media pages. 

“I think the biggest thing that stood out to me was just walking around campus and running into a few of the guys on the team, they’re just all such great people and they’re all super respectful, looking you in your eye when you’re talking and just great humans, and the way the coaching staff, the people around them, and the team spoke about the culture that they’ve created,” he said about why he chose Army West Point. “Guys are helping each other out with homework every night and then playing super hard on the ice for games and in practice, and that just seemed to match with my morals and practice habits and stuff.” 

He will also have a familiar face on campus in the future as his teammate in Langley, Connor Jalbert, is set to join the program this fall. The two had a fun time connecting with each other after Wiczek announced his intent to commit to the team. 

Wiczek doesn’t have a ton of familial ties to the military, but his grandfather (his mother’s father) was drafted into Vietnam and served there, and has always been a top role model to the 20-year-old skater. 

With very few college hockey players coming from the state of Utah, Wiczek has had a fun weekend recently hearing from his old coaches and teammates after announcing his intention to play at the Division I level. 

Wiczek has known his APX Senior Advisor Jack Skille for a long time now, as Skille also currently lives in the Park City area. Wiczek and his older sister were one of the first few people to skate with Skille, and Paul has been skating with him every summer for seven or eight years now. During the season, Paul enjoys getting to go through video/film with him and work on his game through that avenue as well. 

Nothing is set in stone for 2026-27 yet for Wiczek, but as of now, he thinks that it’s likely he’ll be back in Langley this fall. The 6-foot-5, 205-pound skater is listed as both a forward and a defenseman on Elite Prospects, but says that aside from a short stint in prep hockey, he has pretty exclusively played as a big, power forward out on the ice. 

“I just try to be a strong, powerful type of player. I think I skate pretty well for a big guy, so I kind of just try to use that as an asset, but I’m super competitive and play a big style of hockey. I have some soft skill in there too and can make plays,” said Wiczek on the strengths in his game. 

For now, you can expect Wiczek to hit the ice with West Point in the fall of 2027. 

For more information on APX’s advising program, click here.

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