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Breck’s Eight Incoming Players Put the Mustangs Back in the Section 2A Conversation

Breck is replacing roughly 70 percent of last season's goals and a 26-game starter in net. Eight incoming players, including goaltender Jacksyn Crary, arrive at exactly the right time.

Breck Boys Hockey reloads for 26-27 season
Breck Boys Hockey reloads for 26-27 season

Eight incoming players in one offseason is unusual anywhere in Minnesota high school hockey. At Breck, the timing is what makes it matter.

The Mustangs are replacing most of their offense, both of their top point-producing defensemen and their entire goaltending tandem. Breck’s hockey social media account published a graphic listing the eight players coming into the program for 2026-27: goaltenders Jacksyn Crary and Nathan Janavitz, defensemen Caleb Fudali and Stephen Rocke, and Lucci Horwath, Miles Murphy, Wyn Stuerman and Zachary Yamamoto.

Handled well, that group does not just fill holes. It changes what Breck can reasonably expect out of Section 2A.

Breck Boys Hockey reloads for 26-27 season

A strong season that ended early

Breck went 18-7-1 last winter and outscored opponents 133 to 72. A plus-61 goal differential over a full season is not an accident. The Mustangs were one of the better teams in Section 2A for four months.

Then came the section quarterfinal against Minneapolis and a 4-3 loss that ended everything. Breck had beaten Minneapolis 3-2 during the regular season. The rematch went the other way, and a team with real section-title ambition was finished before the semifinals.

What walked out the door

The graduating class took a large share of that offense with it.

Garrett Trench put up 32 goals and 46 assists for 78 points in 26 games. Eli Milinkovich added 26 goals and 43 assists for 69 points in 25. From the blue line, Erik Larson contributed 10 goals and 27 assists for 37 points and Cooper Klinck had eight goals and 23 assists for 31. Owen Van Horn finished with 27 points and Nick Downing with 19.

Add the goals from those six together and it comes to 95 of Breck’s 133. Roughly seven of every 10 goals the Mustangs scored last season belonged to a player who is now gone. Our full Breck season preview has the complete graduating class.

The goaltending leaves too, all of it. Mac West was the primary starter, appearing in 26 games and going 16-6-1 with a 2.58 goals-against average, a .9088 save percentage and three shutouts. Danny Paster, the other half of the tandem, graduates with him.

Breck is not replacing a starter. It is replacing the position.

That is the backdrop for the eight arrivals. Breck is not adding depth to a lineup that returns intact. It is rebuilding the spine of a team.

Start with the goaltending

The most important piece of this group could be Jacksyn Crary.

Crary is a 6-foot-1, 170-pound goaltender born in January 2009 who catches left. He played at St. Thomas Academy in 2025-26.

Nathan Janavitz gives Breck a second option and a longer runway. Born in November 2010, 5-foot-10 and 146 pounds, he catches left and played 41 games for West St. Paul Bantam AA last season, posting a 3.08 goals-against average, a .908 save percentage and three shutouts. The year before, at 14U AA, he went 1.36 and .930 across 34 games. He is also listed with Blue Army 16U AAA and PEL Blue Army for 2026-27.

Two goaltenders arriving the same year both of last season’s walk out the door is the cleanest fit in the entire group, and it is hard to look at the timing and call it a coincidence. Whether Janavitz is a varsity option immediately or a year away, Breck now has competition and insurance at the position it could least afford to leave open.

Help on the blue line

Breck lost 68 points of production between Larson and Klinck. Replacing that with incoming players is a tall order, and nothing in this group projects to do it in one season. What the group does offer is experience and a pair of right shots.

Caleb Fudali played 26 varsity games for Buffalo last season, recording a goal, an assist and 12 penalty minutes. He also played 15U AAA with the Minnesota Polars, where he had three goals and three assists in 19 regular-season games. He is 5-foot-9, 165 pounds, shoots right and was born in May 2010. The scoring line is modest, and that is not really the point. He has played a full Minnesota varsity season, and that experience is rarer in this group than eight names might suggest.

Stephen Rocke is the other defenseman. He is 6-foot, 165 pounds, shoots right and was born in September 2010. The Breck graphic lists Eden Prairie as his incoming affiliation, and Elite Prospects lists him with SDP 16U AAA for 2026-27. No reliable published statistics turned up, so what he brings to a varsity lineup is an open question worth watching rather than a settled one.

Two right-shot defensemen entering the same program in the same year is useful on its own. Coaches spend a lot of time trying to balance a blue line.

The other four

Wyn Stuerman is Breck Class of 2029 and was a ninth grader at the school last year. A Minneapolis Bantam tournament in December 2024 showed four goals in four games, which is a four-game youth sample and nothing more.

Lucci Horwath comes in from Roseville according to the graphic, and a public youth tournament roster lists him as a forward. Miles Murphy is also listed with Roseville, and Zachary Yamamoto with Holy Family. For all three, no reliable recent player profile or season statistics were located.

What that means in practice is straightforward. Four of the eight arrive as added bodies in the program and added competition in the room. Some may push for varsity time and some may not. Breck will sort that out in practice, not on a graphic.

Who they are joining

The incoming group is not landing on an empty roster.

Colten Crook is the returning piece that matters most. He put up 18 goals, 16 assists and 34 points as a sophomore, and he is the most established returning scorer on the team. Joseph Abrams had three goals and eight assists as a sophomore defenseman. Harrison Hudson, a freshman defenseman, added two goals and six assists. Will Offenhauser had four assists as a sophomore forward, and Lucas Bogut appeared in six games as an eighth grader.

None of those players are finished products, and it would be premature to pencil any of them in as a 2026-27 standout. What they are is a young returning group with varsity minutes already behind them, which is the kind of core an infusion of eight players can build around.

Where this leaves Breck in Section 2A

Delano is still the team to beat.  Delano went 23-6-2 with a plus-79 goal differential, won the section semifinal over Orono 7-3 and the final over Blake 6-2, then reached the Class A state tournament. Until someone knocks them off, they set the standard in Section 2A.

Blake belongs in the conversation too, at 18-8-2 with a plus-41 differential and a section final appearance. Minneapolis finished 13-13-2 and proved in February that it can beat Breck in a one-game setting. We broke down every team’s best case in our Section 2A predictions for 2026-27.

Breck’s underlying numbers from last season sit between Delano and Blake. The Mustangs’ plus-61 was the second-best mark in the section. The gap between Breck and the top of Section 2A was never enormous. It was a quarterfinal night.

What to watch

The honest read is that Breck has moved into the serious contender conversation without having settled anything.

The Mustangs added the position they most needed in Crary, a second goaltender behind him, a defenseman who has played a full Minnesota varsity season and four more players who will push for time. At the same time, they are asking a young lineup to replace about 70 percent of last season’s goals and both goaltenders.

Both of those things are true. Section 2A finds out which one matters more starting in November.

Have a tip or a correction? Email ftphockey@gmail.com.

Filed under 2A Hockey Minnesota Boys News

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