The numbers speak for themselves.
The three-headed snake of the Mount St. Charles’ 15O team — Thomas Boisvert, Zaac Charbonneau and Wilson Boumedienne — are the latest blue-chip prospects to make headlines at the Woonsocket, R.I., school with eye-popping statistics.
Their dreams coincide with their dominance on the ice, and the talented trio are all big names to keep an eye on in the upcoming United States Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League drafts this spring. In fact, one of them has already been tendered.
But behind the highlight-reel goals and dazzling assists are three 15-year-old kids who are navigating the balancing act of what it takes to reach the next level. Language barriers, living away from home and adjusting to life in a world-class academy model can be daunting.
Outsiders often forget that. It is the mission of Mount St. Charles staff to never.
“Sometimes you forget that they’re 15 years old,” said Stephen Buco, who coaches the 15O team with Jimmy Creamer. “They’re still kids. Sometimes you might be looking in from the outside like these kids are big kids. They’re 15 years old. They have problems, they have issues, but the way they attack hockey and the way that they train, you can tell why they’re having success on the ice.”
The way they maneuver around those barriers is what truly talks, louder than any bar-down goal or roar of the crowd ever could. And it’s the reason Boisvert, Charbonneau and Boumedienne are stars in the making.
The decorated Mount St. Charles program has produced a myriad of them. Just take a look at last year’s 15O squad that won a national championship, headlined by Rocco Pelosi, Brayden Willis, Christian Semetsis, Brody Berard (Cumberland, R.I.) and Braiden Scuderi, among others, who are excelling at the next level, either with the NTDP team or in the USHL.
“The three of them are in the mix of all those high-end kids we’ve had,” Creamer said. “At 15, they’re still 15-year-olds and they’re developing, but those three in particular have great skill-sets and they do a lot of great things on the ice. But they’re all good students, they work hard in the classroom, and then they work real hard off the ice.”
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All three players have forged different journeys en route to Mount St. Charles. The importance of Charbonneau’s is that his path belongs to him.
The Quebec native is the nephew of former NHL star Daniel Brière, the current general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers. He has fond memories of watching his uncle shine on the big stage. One of the big reasons Charbonneau chose Mount St. Charles, however, was to forge his own way forward.
“I didn’t want to play hockey and have opportunities because of my uncle,” Charbonneau said. “I really wanted to make my own path.”
It didn’t take long for Charbonneau to do that, recording a staggering 85 goals and 168 points in 58 games on the 14-U team last season before posting 46-39-85 in 40 games this season. He was recently tendered by the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the USHL for next year.
But his 168-point season had a rocky start. He struggled to acclimate to his new lifestyle, and those woes translated to the ice.
“Being away from home was hard,” Charbonneau said. “All the factors of being hard, that was transmitting to the ice. I was getting frustrated on the ice. I wasn’t producing like I was supposed to at the start of the year for myself.”
His experience is commonplace for players in his shoes.
“It’s a big change for the kids at 14 who are moving away from home for the first time,” said Devin Rask, the program director of Mount St. Charles and coach of the 14-U team. “So there’s that piece, and they're coming together with a new team of 20 players with a new coach. The first month, you’re trying to acclimate them to school, the dorm, the hockey life, and you’re really trying to be there emotionally as well for these kids. It’s not just about hockey.”
Charbonneau has settled into a groove this season but has been battling the injury bug. He fractured his foot the weekend before Thanksgiving and returned within the last month.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound power forward is a strong skater with high-end skill. He said he models his game after Flyers first-round draft choice Porter Martone.
“He’s able to do things that some other kids can’t do,” Creamer said. “He’s got a high-level skill-set, and he shoots the puck real hard. He’s a tenacious player. He’s really, really hard to play against.”
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Unlike Charbonneau and Boumedienne, this season marks Boisvert’s first year with Mount St. Charles. While the Quebec native has posted 50-71-121 in his first 52 games this season, the first two months were difficult for the 5-foot-10 forward.
One of Charbonneau's goals for this season was to be a better leader. He’s been the perfect mentor for Boisvert during a familiar adjustment period.
“He was the same as me, first year of English school this year and all that,” Charbonneau said. “I helped him a lot. I didn’t want him to start a season like I did last year because it was pretty hard and it was frustrating.”
Boisvert is an explosive skater and excels at creating separation in open ice. Buco said he will often get three or four breakaways a game. Creamer echoed a similar sentiment.
“He skates extremely, extremely well, so he separates himself at all points in the game,” Creamer said. “And he’s a finisher. He finishes when he gets his chances.”
His cousin, Sacha, was drafted in the first round by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2024 and currently plays at Boston University. Boisvert spends a lot of time on the ice with him in the summer and has learned what it takes to excel at the next level. Sacha played two seasons at Mount St. Charles before advancing to the USHL.
“We’re cousins, but we’re friends at the same time,” Boisvert said. “When we’re on the ice, we’re really competitive together.”
Boumedienne lived in Stockholm, Sweden, for the first 10 years of his life and is the youngest of three brothers. His brother Sascha was the youngest player in Division 1 college hockey last season at Boston University and was nabbed by the Winnipeg Jets in the first round of the 2025 NHL draft. Their father, Josef, played 17 years of professional hockey, including 47 games in the NHL from 2001-04.
Boumedienne trains with Sascha in the offseason and is inspired by his work ethic. And he was awed by the aura of draft day. He had the chance to meet some of the top prospects and had a memorable conversation with New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer.
“It makes me want to train even harder and go even harder,” Boumedienne said. “It just helps, seeing what he goes through. Seeing that if I’m able to be at his level, what to expect and all that type of stuff.”
The fast-skating Boumedienne put up 60-100-160 with the 14-U squad last season and has totaled 46 points between the 15O and 16U teams this season. He broke his elbow over the summer and came back in November after three months of rehab. Creamer and Buco said Boumedienne packs a lot of high-octane skill into his 5-foot-11 frame and is an elite playmaker with an advanced hockey IQ.
He has his eyes set on making the jump to juniors at the conclusion of this season. It is no secret that there is immense pressure that presents itself at this pivotal juncture. Boumedienne focuses on the controllables.
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“I can’t care about what people think about me on the outside,” Boumedienne said. “I’m just trying to focus on me and see what I can bring to the table and what I can do every day to get better.”
They’ve decided to let their actions do the talking.
“They act like pros every day,” Buco said. “It’s the type of kids that know where they want to go. They want to be Division 1 players, and they want to be pro players, but they act like it every day. The way they take care of their bodies, the way they recover, the way they attack practice — they take no days off.”
