Cullen Potter has unique hockey path to World Junior Summer Showcase

Cullen Potter is a college hockey player drafted to the NHL who has suited up for Team USA in the past, same as many of the 18- and 19-year-olds being considered for the next World Junior Championship.

But no one’s journey has been like Potter’s: He didn’t focus on hockey until he was 14, just two years after starting to play organized consistently, and Potter left for college early — choosing upstart Arizona State after de-committing from three-time national champion Michigan State.

Oh, and his mom is one of the most decorated women’s hockey players of all time.

“He jokes that he’s a better hockey player than I was,” said four-time Olympic medalist Jenny Schmidgall-Potter. “We joke around about that all the time.”

Potter, 18, is back in Minnesota for the World Junior Summer Showcase, the World Juniors evaluation camp that continues this week at Ridder Arena.

Although the Minneapolis native already has plenty to be proud of, he’s eyeing a spot on the U.S. team that will compete in the Twin Cities later this year.

“Not to sound greedy or anything,” Potter said, “but you grow up wanting to play in this tournament for a long time. So, just having the opportunity to do that is amazing.”

Walking before six months, Potter was on the ice when he was only a year old. Since skates that small weren’t available, his grandpa Dwayne made some for Potter to wear by riveting blades into boots.

“It was hard to pull him back in because he loved it so much,” Schmidgall-Potter said.

After growing up in Edina, Schmidgall-Potter went on to play for the Gophers before going to Minnesota Duluth, where she led the nation in scoring as a sophomore and won a national championship in 2003.

Earlier, she captured gold with the U.S. in the inaugural Olympics for women’s ice hockey in 1998, and her son was 3 years old when she appeared in her fourth and final Olympics in 2010; the Americans earned silver after she scored a team-high six goals.

Schmidgall-Potter and her husband Rob trained Cullen, playing pickup games outside. That was how Cullen kept up with the sport as a kid, not sticking with a team until he was 12.

Cullen Potter was involved in other activities, taking up lacrosse, football and swimming, but at 14 he prioritized hockey.

He spent his under-16 season in Texas before joining USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program in Plymouth, Mich. Potter thought it’d be best for him to start college a year early, and that’s how he ended up at ASU; he changed his mind on Michigan State with the Spartans not having a spot ready for him.

But Potter was ready for college: The forward racked up 13 goals during ASU’s first season in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, finishing in a tie for second among NCHC rookies.

“Something my dad always taught me and what I’ve always told him [is] just go out there, have fun and put on a show,” said Schmidgall-Potter, who has another 10 medals from the World Championships and was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2020. “That’s what it’s about. Put on a show for everybody. Show them what you got.”

This summer has been a whirlwind for Potter.

“He’s really put his heart and soul into it,” Schmidgall-Potter said. “So, it’s really exciting to see him achieve his goals, and he has a lot more that he has that he wants to achieve. But this is just one step in the right direction for him. I’m super proud of him.”

Not only is Potter the first NHL first-rounder in ASU history, but the selection gave the Sun Devils first-round picks in MLB, NBA, NFL, WNBA and NHL drafts.

“That was really cool,” he said. “I knew it was the first one for ASU, but I didn’t know it was for every sport. That was cool that I got to finish that off.”

Once the summer showcase in Minneapolis is over, Potter will go to Arizona and Schmidgall-Potter will be with him to help her son settle in ahead of his sophomore year.

ASU has a pair of games at Schmidgall-Potter’s alma mater UMD next season, but that might not be the only reason Potter is in Minnesota in December.