GRAD SENIOR TIER: FRANKIE SCHMITZ

Bloomington Jefferson defenseman Frankie Schmitz has been on an impressive trajectory in his hockey career for a while now but his strong senior season for the Jaguars truly proved that he has an extremely promising future in the sport. Schmitz wore the ‘C’ for Jefferson in ‘25-26 and was the top-scoring defenseman on the roster with 28 points through 26 games played.

“He just continues to be on a really, really great hot streak in terms of his growth and his impact specifically towards his details and he continues to be a really good cerebral manager of the puck and being better at creating scoring chances,” said APX Director of Player Development Wes Jirovec about the 18-year-old senior. “He’s the guy that we know is going to have a great rest of the offseason and we’re really excited to see that translate into his first year of junior hockey.”

Schmitz has plans to play junior hockey in the 2026-27 season and has signed a NAHL tender with the Springfield Jr. Blues. This is his third season with APX Hockey.

SELECTS TIER: OTTO SCHOENROCK

Waseca forward Otto Schoenrock is in his fourth year with the APX program and is coming off of his second straight 30-goal season for the Bluejays. He has put in plenty of time and effort in his training out on the ice but has also proven himself to be one of the hardest workers in the weight room as well, bringing impressive habits and a great mentality to both his on and off ice training.

“Otto continues to be the poster boy of consistency when it comes to compete level, engagement, habits and mentality, and within a wildly competitive Selects group his impact is really versatile and really, really consistent,” said Jirovec on the 17-year-old forward. “Otto’s got a really exciting blend right now of power forward and versatile offensive threat and he’s very hard to play against and does that shift in and shift out.”

Schoenrock’s recent success has landed him a spot on Northstar Christian’s U18 AAA squad for the upcoming 2026-27 season and the APX staff are all incredibly excited to see what he can do with the Knights next year.

18s TIER: MAXX DELISLE

Cretin-Derham Hall defenseman Maxx DeLisle has had an impressive start to his time within the APX program so far after an extremely promising sophomore season of hockey with the Raiders in 2025-26. DeLisle moved from Florida to Minnesota last year and adapted well in his first season of varsity high school hockey, scoring 13 points in 27 games, and is an exciting prospect that is set up to have a big junior season in 2026-27.

“He’s super determined to get better and that translates in his coach-ability, his communications with the staff, and his excitement for details and nuances of the game,” said Jirovec about the Raiders defenseman. “When any young player treats the work in that way, his absorption rate is incredibly high. He’s getting so much out of skill development and so much out of situational awareness and game reps and workouts.”

16s TIER: KEVIN O’SHEA

Defenseman Kevin O’Shea made a positive impact on a talented Gentry Academy varsity roster in 2025-26 as just a freshman. The Stars had a crazy postseason run to the state tournament and O’Shea wound up playing big minutes as one of the youngest players on the team. This is his first season with the APX program and the staff are excited to see where he’ll be at in his development at the end of the summer.

“He’s a details type of kid. He wants to invest in habits, he’s remarkably competitive, and there’s a lot of adaptability in his game where he’s willing to do different things out on the ice to be able to make plays,” said Jirovec about the skater for the Stars. “And that’s not taking away from a tremendous amount of dynamic in his offense and what he can do in creating plays for himself. He’s an exciting new player for us who is very promising and has lots of talent, athleticism and potential.”

15s TIER: GAVIN THOMAS

Defenseman Gavin Thomas of Eagan has been with the APX program for a while now but has recently shown that he’s taking his game to a new level. Thomas had a strong winter season with the Wildcats Bantam AA team and immediately transferred his skills and intensity over from the youth hockey season to his offseason training.

“Everything from his smaller details to just being more of a dominant presence on the ice has taken him to a different level than what he’s been at before, as well as bringing the kids in his age group to kind of rise to his level as well,” said APX Director of Player Development Kyle Osterberg. “He’s a bigger body, his skating is getting better, and he plays the game the right way, plays hard over the puck and he’s got a really, really good shot.”

GOALTENDING TIER: LIAM MAHANEY

Lakeville South netminder Liam Mahaney, who is in his second year within the APX program, has been on an incredible trajectory over his past two seasons in youth hockey. Mahaney registered strong statistics as a Bantam B1 goaltender in 2024-25 and made the jump up to the Bantam AA level in 2025-26 and played extremely well.

“Jumping up to AA, in the games that I got a chance to see, he really grew over the last year in our program and just overall as an athlete and it carried over into the season,” said APX Director of Goaltending Drew Fielding about the freshman goalie. “I thought he had a great year on a competitive Bantam AA team. He had a really solid year and he’s carried it into his work ethic so far in the training season. He’s had a couple of opportunities to skate up a tier to reward his performance and he’s been one of our highest attending members and I feel like he brings it every day.”

GOALTENDING TIER HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• Ryan Cui, White Bear Lake

• Ryker Landon, Northfield

• Josiah Schmidtke, Waseca

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