Minnesota boys high school ice hockey is made up of multiple leagues and programs representing different associations. The two organizations associated with high school are the Minnesota State High School League and Minnesota Hockey. The Minnesota State High School League is a voluntary, nonprofit association of public and private schools with a history of service to Minnesota's high school youth since 1916. Minnesota Hockey, an affiliate of USA Hockey, is the governing body of youth and amateur hockey in Minnesota. Minnesota Hockey is governed by a board of directors and consists of approximately 140 community based associations who are formed into 12 districts.

Minnesota State High School League

Minnesota Class AA and A High School Hockey

Minnesota Class AA and A High School Hockey programs are members of the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL). The league is made up of Varsity programs that are divided into two classes; AA and A. The classification is determined by enrollment, but schools have the option to both opt up or appeal, if they qualify, down in team sports every two years. Each class is further divided into eight sections. There are currently 144 varsity teams (72 AA and 72 A) competing for the state AA and A championships.

Minnesota State High School League History

High school hockey players throughout Minnesota participate in a maximum of 25 contests, excluding the section tournaments and the Minnesota State Boys' High School Hockey Tournament. Teams currently play three 17-minute periods to comprise a game. The lengthened periods were adopted by the Minnesota State High School League in 2003. Boys hockey concludes their season with a four-day tournament in March that features sixteen teams competing for championships in both classes. From 1945 through 1991 the tournament consisted of a single class, eight-team tournament instead of the present-day two-class (AA and A) tournament. Private schools were not allowed to play in the Tournament until the 1974–75 season. In 1992–93, the tournament was composed of Tier I and II teams. This two-year experiment sent the top teams from each of the eight sections to the Tier I portion of the tournament and the remaining teams conducted a playoff to determine who would be included in the Tier II tournament. In 1994, the dual-class system was adopted and teams were placed into a class structure based on school enrollments. Since 1994, the MSHSL's process to determine section assignments for boys' hockey is based on school enrollments and activity classifications. The basic premise is to place the largest 64 schools into Class AA and the remaining high schools in Class A. Both Classes are then divided into 8 sections each. Teams are placed into their section assignments with geographic location as a primary consideration. High schools initially placed in Class A have the option to play at the Class AA level. Beginning with the 2007 state tournament, the top four teams in each class are seeded. Coaches of the participating schools vote to determine the seeded teams the Saturday before the state tournament. The four teams are then bracketed so that if the seeded teams advance, the top seed plays the fourth seed while the second and third seeds play each other. The quarterfinal opponents of the seeded teams are determined by a blind draw.

Differences Between Minnesota High School Hockey and USA Hockey-Affiliated High School Hockey

Unlike most US high school hockey programs, Minnesota high school hockey is not affiliated with USA Hockey. Minnesota offers various development programs and camps that further refine players' skills and expose them to a high level of coaching expertise.

Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament

Based on tournament attendance, hockey is the most popular high school sport in the state. Attendance has been strong throughout the years, with 38 tournaments eclipsing the 100,000+ barrier. In 2017 Prep45.com partnered with GrandStadium.TV to stream the state tournament to viewers in 37 countries and all 50 states. The Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament is currently the largest state sports tournament in terms of viewing and attendance, beating Florida's State High School Football Tournament and Indiana's State High School Basketball Tournament.

Minnesota Hockey

Minnesota Junior Gold High School League

Several Minnesota high schools field Junior Gold teams in addition to or as an alternative to high school Junior Varsity. There are currently 61 Junior Gold A and B teams throughout Minnesota. The league is governed by Minnesota Hockey and is affiliated with USA Hockey. Minnesota Junior Gold teams are eligible for the Chipotle-USA Hockey National Championships. Many Junior Gold players have made their high school team after playing a season or two of Junior Gold, and some Junior Gold players have gone onto play after high school in junior leagues such as the NAHL.

Independent Prep, USA 18U Tier 1 & USA 18U AAA

Minnesota's independent high school ice hockey teams include Shattuck-St. Mary's (MN) Prep and NorthStar Christian Academy Knights Prep (MN) and the state's AAA teams include Shattuck-St. Mary's (MN) 18U AAA team.

Development Programs

Minnesota has development programs available for high school players looking for an elevated level of competition against top talent from across the state.

Upper Midwest High School Elite League Hockey

The Upper Midwest High School Elite League Hockey provides players with development and high-level exposure in the months leading up to the high school season. The league consists of seven Minnesota elite teams, including Minnesota Elite (TDS) 18U AAA, Minnesota Elite (Sanford) 18U AAA, Minnesota Elite (MapSouth) 18U AAA, Minnesota Elite (TCOrtho) 18U AAA, Minnesota Elite (SIT) 18U AAA, Minnesota Elite (Kowalskis) 18U AAA, Minnesota Elite (Magazine) 18U AAA, Shattuck-St. Mary's (MN) Prep, Team Wisconsin 18U AAA, and Team North Dakota 18U AAA. These teams participate in a highly competitive schedule, facing off against each other in showcase tournaments and regular-season games. The league provides an excellent platform for players to sharpen their skills, compete against top talent, and gain exposure to college and professional scouts.

2023 - 24 National High School Hockey Rankings

According to MYHockey Rankings, Minnetonka High School is the number one ranked high school hockey team in the United States. The site ranked 2,125 high school teams for the 2023-24 season and 17 of the top 20 high school hockey teams are from Minnesota. Nine of the top 10 high school hockey teams are located in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area MyHockey Rankings also ranked Shattuck-St. Mary's (MN) Prep team as the top Prep / Independent team in the United States. Northstar Christian Academy (MN) was ranked #4. MaxPreps also releases high school ice hockey rankings. However, MaxPreps rankings are very inaccurate and unreliable. This has led to many within the sports community to question the company's algorithm and overall legitimacy. Information for several hundred ice hockey teams is either incomplete, inaccurate, or missing. A number of teams have had incorrect game results and schedules listed, which has led to the algorithm not being able to properly track a team's strength of schedule and quality wins against highly ranked opponents. The fact that the site relies on coaches' participation has only compounded the issue. If coaches from the country's top programs are not correcting or reporting these errors, it leads to further inaccuracies in the rankings. The lack of transparency from MaxPreps regarding their ranking formula has only confirmed the concerns about there being many flaws in their system.

Historical timeline

Current high school varsity programs and conferences

Defunct Teams

Championship games

List of state champions

Notable alumni

List of notable alumni: