Edina, Minnesota’s own Mason West, generated national headlines this month when he led the Hornets to the Minnesota Class AAAAAA football State Championship at quarterback. He was drafted 29th overall in the 2025 NHL Draft in June by the Chicago Blackhawks, so the media has become impressed by his two-sports prowess.
Listed at 6-foot-5, West had 49 points on the ice last season for the Hornets with 27 goals and 22 assists. He’s expected to join the Fargo Force in the United States Hockey League (USHL) for the rest of this season before making the jump to the NCAA level next season with Michigan State.
The Gophers hockey program has a long-standing history with recruiting Edina players, but they’ll have to compete against West in the Big Ten conference when he presumably joins the Spartans in 2026-27. He was recently a guest on the biggest hockey podcast, Spittin’ Chiclets, and he talked about his recruitment.
“I never really got recruited from Minnesota. They never reached out or anything. Michigan State was the first team to offer me, and I just love their coaching staff and how they develop players. I like to look at the guys like Charlie Strammel, how he kinda skyrocketed when he went there, and how good they developed him, so I try to compare myself to him a little bit.”
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It’s one thing for a high school athlete to want a change of scenery and to leave their home state, but it’s another to not even show interest. Fans of the University of Minnesota’s athletic programs have seen dozens of top athletes leave the state and star elsewhere. Basketball stars Chet Holmgren and Jalen Suggs went to Gonzaga, and Paige Bueckers attended UConn, to name a few. The largest public university in the state at least offered a scholarship to those athletes, but apparently not to West.
West strongly considered a football career at the next level before ultimately realizing that hockey was his best path to stardom. He received Division I scholarship offers from Kent State, Marshall, Miami (OH), South Dakota and Fordham. He was a legit football prospect, but playing two sports at the college level that overlap like hockey and football is something that has rarely ever been done.
West is not the first nor the last Minnesota high school start to attend college elsewhere, but the fact that the Gophers didn’t even reach out is hard to wrap your head around.