Dylan Hunt was stunned.
A netfront, after-whistle scrum had broken out, and Hunt (Marlboro, Mass.) was a part of it. He wasn’t the instigator and wasn’t even a main character in it. Come to think of it, he wasn’t even much of a side character in it either.
Months earlier, Hunt decided to leave Milton Academy a year before graduating. Hunt posted 40 points from the blue line as an ‘06 junior. In the summer of 2023, he committed to Yale. In his eyes, there wasn’t much left to do in prep. It was off to the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in the summer of 2024, who drafted him in 2022.
He had traded in his full cage in prep for a visor in junior hockey. And he was about to be reminded of that.
That’s when the fist came right for his nose.
Hunt was in an intra-squad scrimmage during training camp. The fist came from future teammate James Mackey — a 6-foot-6 Harvard commit who played at Hotchkiss from 2021-23.
It was nothing personal. Mackey, just like Hunt, was trying to make the team. Toughness is part of the big defender’s game. To prove it wasn’t personal, when Hunt and Mackey eventually made the team, they were seated next to each other in the dressing room.
“We were buddies,” Hunt said.
Hunt had to get used to this kind of stuff fast. The Marlboro, Mass., native didn’t have to take punches to the face growing up or in prep. Even when he trained during the summer before going to Cedar Rapids, Hunt didn’t wear a visor.
“No cage anymore protecting me,” Hunt said. “Just out there on my own.”
Hunt was certainly out there on his own.
The on-ice adjustments
When Landan Resendes (Marlboro, Mass.) starred at Cushing from 2021-23, the late ‘05 had no problem using his speed to burn a defender, gain separation and score goals. It’s a large reason why, as a junior in 2022-23, he ranked third in the region in both goals (27) and points (54).
It wasn’t a surprise when Resendes opted to forgo his senior year for the RoughRiders in 2023.
The Boston College commit certainly brought his speed to Cedar Rapids. But so did everyone else.
“The speed right away,” Resendes said of his biggest adjustment. “You’re playing with the best kids in your age group.”
Skaters aren’t the only ones to feel the miles per hour jump. Goalies feel it, too.
“The pace of play is much faster,” Rudy Guimond said. “In prep school, you have really good hockey players on the first two lines. But everyone’s good in the USHL. That was a big adjustment for me. You just have to be quicker in certain situations.”
Guimond was Taft’s starter for one year in 2022-23 and was spectacular. The Yale-turned-Harvard commit posted a 2.34 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage that winter, guiding Taft to a Large School championship. That season got him drafted in the sixth round by the Detroit Red Wings.
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Like Hunt and Resendes, he felt there was nothing left to prove in prep. So it was off to Cedar Rapids in 2023.
Goaltending in junior hockey is notoriously competitive. There’s only one net, and there are only so many junior teams across all levels. If struggles arise, coaches have no problem sending netminders packing.
That means the goaltending is a whole lot better in juniors. Brady Kudrick (Norwell, Mass.) found that out quickly.
Kudrick, a late ‘05, left Thayer before his senior year last fall. As a junior in 2023-24, he led Thayer in goals (17) and points (38). He opted to play for the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles.
“Oh,” Kudrick thought to himself at the time. “These kids are a little too good.”
Then came the practices.
“The intensity was super high in practices,” Ethan Gardula (Princeton, Mass.) said. “That was definitely another big change coming from high school.”
At the conclusion of the 2022-23 school year, Gardula accelerated to become a senior and graduate. He was an early ‘05 who was coming off a 50-point season as a junior. He was committed to UConn and felt it was time to give juniors a shot, so he landed with the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers.
Practices at Cushing were less physical and a lot more skating. Junior practices were much different, with a focus on physicality, battling and intensity.
“You’re not missing tape-to-tape passes,” Kudrick said. “They’re making what you would think is an unreal play and they just do it casually. It’s really cool cause I’m sitting there on the bench and they come in after this unreal play. I’m like ‘Oh, wow. That’s unreal.’ And they’re just like, ‘Yeah, another day at the office.’”
Kudrick, for what it’s worth, committed to Boston College shortly after joining Surrey.
For players who weren’t seeing as much ice, like a 15-year-old Gavin Cornforth (Boston, Mass.) with the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints in 2022-23, practices meant much more.
“Every practice I treated as a game,” Cornforth said. “You’re fighting for your lineup spot. I wasn’t used to that.”
The players are bigger and older in junior hockey, too. Cam Caron (Dracut, Mass.), who left New Hampton after a 44-point junior year in 2023-24, got a taste of this with the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles last winter.
The Eagles’ captain, Jackson Anderson, celebrated his 21st birthday in February.
“I was 17, so it’s kind of like ‘holy crap,’” Caron said. “I’m playing with adults.
“You’re not playing against a postgrad that’s 18 or 19 that plays at Dexter Southfield. You’re playing against a 21-year-old guy from Minnesota or somewhere in Alberta that’s just looking to take your head off.”
Off the ice
Caron arrived in Surrey a bit late after initially choosing the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks to start the season. While he was happy to find a spot with Surrey, there was a problem: the Northeastern commit had nowhere to live. The billet families were full.
Head coach Scott Gomez, however, was living in a three-bedroom house, and there was an open bed. The longtime NHL player-turned-coach offered it to Caron.
The Dracut, Mass., native would live with his coaches.
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“It was the best time,” said Caron, who recalled his days at New Hampton listening to hockey podcasts with his dad. “I learned so much. I could write a book.
“I literally lived an episode of Spittin’ Chiclets.”
Billet families are a massive part of the junior hockey experience. They are, essentially, the rent-a-parents for teenage players away from home for the first time.
Hunt got to experience his billet family becoming parents firsthand. He lived with RoughRiders athletic trainer Levi Wade and his wife. They had their first child while Hunt and Daniel Astapovich lived at their house.
“I was upstairs near their room,” Hunt said. “I’m a deep sleeper. But yeah, the baby would cry. Katie, the mom, worked nights. After a couple months, she went back to work, and it would just be us with the baby and the dad, and the baby would be crying all night.”
Despite the crying, Hunt loved living with them.
“They were really nice to me,” he said. “I never felt uncomfortable when I was at their house.”
In Surrey, Kudrick’s first billet home had a doggy daycare at their house. He ended up moving from that house — not because of the dogs, which he loved, but because it was a 30-minute drive from the rink.
“Canadian drivers are extra,” Kudrick said. “They’re up there with the worst.”
Most junior players don’t have a typical school day. Their life revolves around hockey.
“It’s kind of tough only doing hockey,” Sam Scopa (Lexington, Mass.), the former Belmont Hill goalie who left for the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders after his sophomore year in 2022, said. “In prep, you’re at school with your friends, all your buddies, and then you go to hockey practice after school. It’s different in juniors. You’re just there to play hockey.”
That requires a level of time management and organization that most 16, 17 and 18-year-old kids don’t typically have to master.
“Getting into a routine,” Gardula said. “It’s not like you’re waking up and going to class every morning. You’ve got time to kill, so you’ve got to plan your days.”
Some players still have to complete school requirements. Hunt’s typical day would consist of a lift at 9 a.m., meetings and practice from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. After getting lunch post-practice, Hunt turned his focus to school since he still had to finish his senior year.
“I tried to do an easier school,” he said. “But Yale shut that down.”
It’s also easy for the bad thoughts to set in with hockey being the main (and something only) thing players are doing.
Caron learned this the hard way. From Nov. 30 to Feb. 27, he scored two goals.
“That’s basically the whole [prep] season,” Caron said. “I never had that at New Hampton. I haven’t had that probably my whole hockey career. So it’s like holy crap. What do I do?”
He eventually pulled himself out of it. He scored two more times after that and was still racking up assists, finishing the season with 32 points in 41 games.
Scopa struggled at times, too. He notched a 3.29 GAA and an .873 save percentage with Cedar Rapids in 2022-23, his first year in juniors.
“If things aren’t going well, it’s really easy to get into your head about that stuff,” Scopa said. “Because you don’t have many things distracting you from hockey.”
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There’s also a lifestyle change. Players go from being with (or near) their families in metro Boston and New England to being away from home in the Midwest or rural Canada.
“It was a lot different,” Grayson Badger (Hyde Park, Mass.), who left Dexter Southfield after his junior year, said. “It was definitely an adjustment from living with my family every day, seeing them, being able to watch a movie or just go get ice cream or do the simple stuff with your family.
“The stuff you take for granted you can’t do.”
