Summaries by Joshua Boyd / USPHLPremier.com
Selection Process: Voting took part in two phases. In the first phase, the division’s coaches voted for three of their own players and three players from other teams in the division. Once these results were compiled, the division’s coaches voted on the final team.
Forward
Siamion Marschanok, Potomac Patriots
Siamion Marshchanok (‘05/Minsk, Belarus) was certainly part of some great USPHL Premier history this year, when he joined five others in the Top 10 all time in single season points output. He scored 39 goals and 73 assists for 112 points, ranking second overall this year in the Premier and tied for fifth all-time, tied with Joona Juntunen from this year’s champion Connecticut Jr. Rangers. His 73 assists were ranked fourth all-time, as well. Siamion was a faceoff ace, as well, and his team-leading 558 wins gave him a 63 percent success rate. His career total is 133 points in two seasons.
Matsvei Marshchanok, Potomac Patriots
Matsvei, Siamion’s twin brother, stands at second all-time in Potomac scoring, second only to his brother. Matsvei has scored 52 goals in 58 games plus 58 assists for 110 points. This year, his contribution to that total was 93 points, coming off of 43 goals and 55 assists in 42 games. In terms of his two-way play, he finished with a team-leading +76 (one ahead of Siamion’s +75) and his 42 hits were second on the team, as well.
Mauritz Persson, Potomac Patriots
Persson (‘03/Taby, Sweden) is another player who was already making it happen for the Patriots in 2022-23 and got even better in Year 2 under Head Coach Josh Gratton. The Pats’ Captain helped his team make their first USPHL Nationals by putting up 50 points in 42 regular season games, improving slightly from his already-impressive 42 points last season. Persson joined the Patriots after earlier playing with Potomac teammates Gustav Sandberg and Neo Wahlbom in their native country.
Carson Galin, Charlotte Rush
Galin (‘03/Novi, Mich.) came into this season with two years of junior experience, including at the Tier II level, already under his blades. He joined the Rush for 28 games last season, and chipped in with 17 points. This year, he blasted those totals to bits and put up a 20-26-46 line in 37 games. As the Rush pushed into the National semifinals yet again, he put up six goals and nine points in seven games. A Stevenson University (NCAA) commit, Galin was also the Rush’s leading man in the faceoff circle winning 369 of 636 draws for an impressive 58 percent success rate.
Jared Weisert, Charlotte Rush
Weisert (‘03/Westlake, Texas) was already a proven commodity in the USPHL Premier, after a 48-point season with the Ogden Mustangs, who moved on to the NCDC this year. The Norwich University commit’s first season with the Charlotte Rush was a resounding success yet again, as he put up 14 goals, 42 assists and 56 points and also six additional points in seven playoff games, including a second straight trip for him to the USPHL Nationals. He crossed the century mark in scoring this year, with 104 points in 87 career USPHL regular season games.
Easton Stafford, Charlotte Rush
Stafford (‘03/Broomfield, Colo.) had yet another big year, as he moved from a past team to the Rush and remained just as much a force and then some over both seasons. Stafford scored a 19-29-48 line in the 39 games he played this year, after also hitting the 40 mark last year with a 43-point season, giving him 91 points for his two-year Premier career. Stafford is bound for Wilkes University to begin his NCAA career this fall.
Kornel Kaibas, Carolina Jr. Hurricanes
Kaibas (‘04/Székesfehérvár, Hungary) played his second season with the Jr. Canes, and third with the organization. He finished this season with 25 goals and 47 points, that goal total ranking second in a single season in the Jr. Canes’ USPHL Premier history, dating back to 2017-18. He improved his overall points total by 21 this year, as well. His +11 this year was second among Carolina forwards.
Caden Glamkowski, Carolina Jr. Hurricanes
Glamkowski (‘04/St. Charles, Ill.) this year passed the 100 games played mark in the USPHL Premier, having begun his career in the Tier III conference in 2020. In his first season with Carolina, Glamkowski put up 19 goals and added 31 assists for 50 points, marking the second time he’s hit the 50-point mark in his career. He now has 72 goals and 75 assists for 147 points in 127 games. He also led the Jr. Canes forwards in plus-minus with a +14.
Defense
Peter Keese, Charlotte Rush
No player in USPHL Premier history has played more games than Keese (‘03/Minnetonka, Minn.) He has just completed his fifth season in the league, since first suiting up for the Minnesota Blue Ox in 2019-20, coming out of Benilde-St. Margaret’s on the high school side and the Minnesota Blades on the AAA end. After 180 regular season games (already a record, before even adding a record 36 playoff games), Keese advances next to NCAA hockey with Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Conn. Over each of his seasons, he improved his points total from 7 to 12 to 15 to 36 to 47 this year. His 25:14 per game in ice time and +43 both led the Rush, as did his 112 blocked shots. His finesse game also helped put the Rush on the power play a lot – he had 39 total penalties committed against him, while he sat for only 18 minutes all year.
William Olund, Potomac Patriots
Olund (‘03/Pitea, Sweden) made his North American debut and was a huge reason for the Patriots’ National-bound successes this year. The offense was there with his 3-37-40 line in 39 games (plus five points in six playoff games), but he was also a huge “field general” on the ice for the Pats. He skated 22:06 per game for his team, to lead the way there, plus he also led with 64 blocked shots.
Shawn Eliav, Potomac Patriots
Eliav (‘04/Boca Raton, Fla.) has been a loyal soldier for the Patriots going back to 2021-22, playing first an Elite season that year before joining the Premier season last year and this year. He clicked at a point-per-game pace this season with 30 points in 30 games, while also seeing four games up with the NCDC’s Pueblo Bulls during the year. After being named a 2021-22 USPHL Elite Southeast Division All-Star, he returns to that honor this year. For the Patriots, he has scored 86 points in 117 career regular season games at both the USPHL Elite and Premier levels.
Goaltender
Samuel Couture, Potomac Patriots
Couture (‘05/Boucherville, Que.) put up a fantastic 20-win season for the Patriots, in addition to winning a pair of postseason games. He tied for the league lead in wins with Tampa’s Savva Serdiuk. Couture appeared in 20 games, giving him wins in 80 percent of his total appearances as a rookie junior player.
Liam Lane, Hampton Roads Whalers
Lane (‘04/Denver, Colo.) registered a fantastic .925 save percentage to be literally the saving grace very often for the Whalers. He had one of the biggest performances of the season in stopping 76 of 80 shots against Charlotte in February, and stopped 48 of 50 shots against Carolina in November.
Devin Stephens, Charlotte Rush
The Bethel University recruit Stephens (‘03/Trenton, Mich.) leaves the Premier with a .949 career save percentage, the best among any Premier player to have played in at least two seasons. He followed up last year’s .955 – which set the mark for best in a single season – with this year’s .942. In 11 appearances, he went 8-3-0-0. The postseason saw him go 4-1-0-0 with a .949 mark. Also in his career, he’s played in 15 NCDC games.
