South Suburban Conference teams will be featured prominently in the 2025 Hockey Day Minnesota, and the Lakeville North girls have been chosen for a repeat appearance.
Hockey Day Minnesota, a joint project between the Minnesota Wild, Bally Sports North, Minnesota Hockey and the local organizing community, has expanded to four days and will feature nine high school games, one college game and one NHL game. The 2025 event will be Jan. 22-25 on an outdoor rink at Valleyfair Amusement Park in Shakopee.
Nine South Suburban Conference boys and girls teams will play. Jan. 22 features a doubleheader with Lakeville North playing Rosemount in a girls game and Eastview and Rosemount facing off in a boys game.
This is the second consecutive year the Lakeville North girls have been invited to Hockey Day Minnesota. The Panthers defeated Warroad 4-3 in the 2024 event in Warroad.
The North-Rosemount girls game at the 2025 HDM matches teams that met three times last season. Lakeville North defeated Rosemount in two regular-season games on its way to the South Suburban Conference championship, but Rosemount beat North 4-3 in overtime in the Section 3AA semifinals and went on to play in the state tournament for the second consecutive year.
Eastview and Rosemount finished second and third behind 2024-25 SSC boys champion Shakopee. Eastview won both of its regular-season games against Rosemount, and both teams advanced to the Section 3AA semifinals.
Three high school girls games are scheduled Jan. 23. Northfield will face Orono, Prior Lake plays Eden Prairie and Shakopee takes on Brainerd.
One of the featured games Jan. 24 is an SSC boys game between Lakeville South and Prior Lake. The Lakers and Cougars finished fourth and fifth in the conference last season and split their two regular-season games.
Orono faces Delano in a boys game Jan. 24 at Valleyfair.
The main HDM celebration Saturday, Jan. 25, includes high school boys games between Eden Prairie and Hibbing, and Shakopee and Maple Grove. Minnesota plays Bemidji State in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association women’s game at Valleyfair. HDM concludes with the Wild playing Calgary at 6 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center.
Times for the high school and college games at Valleyfair will be announced later.
Hockey Day Minnesota started in 2007 and was held on Baudette Bay the first two years. The location typically alternates between metro and outstate sites. The last time it was held in the metro area was 2023, when HDM took place in White Bear Lake.
Darwitz going into another hall of fame
Three-time Olympic medalist Natalie Darwitz will enter the Hockey Hall of Fame on Nov. 11 in Toronto, marking her third hall of fame induction in the sport.
The Eagan native and former University of Minnesota player was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018 and the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in May 2024.
She is one of seven people chosen for Hockey Hall of Fame induction this year. Candidates must receive at least 75 percent of the vote from the selection committee to be inducted. Also in this year’s Hockey Hall of Fame class is Krissy Wendell-Pohl, Darwitz’s teammate at the University of Minnesota and on the U.S. women’s national team.
It’s the first time since 2010 the Hockey Hall of Fame will induct two women in the same year.
After drawing attention as a high-scoring forward for Eagan High School, Darwitz played for the University of Minnesota from 2002-05 and helped lead the Gophers to an NCAA championship in her senior season.
She played for U.S. teams in the 2002, 2006 and 2010 Olympics; those teams won two silver medals and one bronze. Darwitz also played for the U.S. in eight world championships, winning three gold medals and five silver.
After stepping away from her playing career, she had two separate stints as a University of Minnesota assistant coach. Darwitz was head coach of the Lakeville South girls team and Hamline University women’s team. She was general manager of the Minnesota franchise that won the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League championship.
Free agency churns along
Summer is free agency season in pro hockey and basketball, and Lakeville native Brady Skjei cemented what he will be doing for the next seven years of his hockey career.
Skjei, 30 and a former Lakeville North and University of Minnesota defenseman, last week signed a seven-year, $49 million contract with the Nashville Predators. The nine-year NHL veteran moves from Carolina, where he played the last four seasons. In 2023-24, Skjei had a career-high 47 points and tied a career high with 34 assists.
Meanwhile, two former Apple Valley High School players are considered to be among the top remaining free agents in the NBA. Point guard Tyus Jones played for Washington last season and led the NBA in assist-to-turnover ratio for the sixth consecutive year. He is not expected to return to the Wizards, but many of the teams projected to be contenders in 2024-25 already have starting point guards.
Shooting guard Gary Trent Jr. appears ready to move on from the Toronto Raptors, for whom he has played the last three-plus seasons. He averaged 13.7 points a game last season and made 39 percent of his three-pointers. Media reports suggested Trent was seeking a raise over his $18.6 million salary in 2023-24, while the Raptors wanted to bring him back for less money.
Trent has been projected as a fit for the Los Angeles Lakers, who likely would have to move other players off their roster to sign him.
Lakeville North alum and two-time All-Big Ten honorable mention player Tyler Wahl has signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Timberwolves and will play for the Wolves’ entry in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. Minnesota’s first Summer League game is against New Orleans at 4 p.m. Friday and will be televised on ESPN2.
Wahl, a 6-foot-9 forward, played five collegiate seasons at Wisconsin. As a senior, he averaged 10.6 points and 5.4 rebounds and had a career-best .535 shooting percentage. The Badgers played in the Big Ten Conference championship game at the Target Center, losing to Illinois. The top player on that Illinois team, Terrence Shannon Jr., was selected by the Timberwolves in the first round of the NBA Draft and will be Wahl’s teammate in the Summer League.
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