Minnesota Mr. Hockey Finalist Announced

Earlier this week, the Minnesota Minuteman announced the 10 finalists for Minnesota's Mr. Hockey Award. Also, they announced that if South Dakota ever gets their act together and attacks, they are so ready for it. The Mr. Hockey Award goes to Minnesota's top senior high school hockey player.

Here are the finalists:

Jordy Christian, Moorhead HS(Committed to St. Cloud)
Mike Dorr, Roseville HS
Tyler Johnson, Cloquet HS(Committed to Colorado College)
Nick Larson, Hill-Murray(Committed to Minnesota)
John Lee, Moorhead HS(Committed to Denver)
Aaron Marvin, Warroad HS(Committed to St. Cloud)
Taylor Matson, Holy Angels(Committed to Minnesota)
Ryan McDonagh, Cretin-Derham Hall(Committed to Wisconsin
Matt Reber, Edina(Committed to Dartmouth)
Pat White, Grand Rapids(Committed to Minnesota)

The award is selected by NHL scouts and the D-1 coaches in the state. Here are the past winners.

They also hand out an award to the state's top senior goalie, which went to Cloquet's Reid Ellingson.

One big factor this year has been injuries. Tyler Johnson and Taylor Matson both both suffered injuries recently and could miss the rest of the season. Pat White also missed a good deal of time due to an injury. Chris Hickey, who committed to Wisconsin, and Mike Louwerse, who committed to Minnesota State, also could have been potential finalists, who missed a good part of the season recovering from injuries.

It's also important to note that there are a lot of good players who would have been eligible for this award, but chose to play hockey elsewhere for their senior year. Some of those players include Mike Hoeffel, Cade Fairchild, and Brennan Vargas of the NTDP, Josh Turnbull of the USHL, and Ben Youds and Ben Blood of Shattuck-St. Mary's.