Northland Players Showcase Their Skills at Minnesota Wilderness Main Camp

Local kids from all around the Northland showed their skills at the 2025 main camp.

DULUTH, Minn.- It has been a busy couple of days at Northwoods Credit Union Arena, as the Minnesota Wilderness began their main camp on Monday.

At the camp, 20 goalies and 175 skaters reported for the 2025 tryouts.

Players were broken up into 10 teams to compete in a series of scrimmages. Shooting for a spot in the Futures or All-Star game.

Local kids from all around the Northland showed their skills at the 2025 main camp.

For head coach Zach Stepan, it’s exciting to see the different play styles kids from Northern Minnesota bring to the table.

“They show why Northern Minnesota hockey is the way it is, right. Minnesota hockey, in general, has been proven to create a lot of good hockey players. There are statistics to show that. But also, I would go as far to say Northern kids play the game differently than cities kids. The way we want to play, with our style of hockey, Northern kids fit our bill,” said Stepan.

Not only are players evaluated on their skills out on the ice.

The Wilderness coaching staff also pays attention to players’ interactions between the benches.

“Different coaches will hit different teams because we like to see how they interact on the bench. Who’s the kid that is jumping on the bus, and who’s the one driving the bus. And so, you can start to see a lot of kids’ character positives and negatives from things like this. Especially in camp mode, you might like the guy you’re playing with, you might not like the guy you’re playing with, and how are you going to handle that situation,” said Stepan.

The final two games of the main camp will be played on Thursday, July 24th.