USPHL Premier 2023-24 Pacific Division All-Stars

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. 

Summaries by Joshua Boyd / USPHLPremier.com 

Forwards

Noak Persson, Fresno Monsters

Persson (‘03/Sollentuna, Sweden) became the USPHL Premier’s all-time leader in points for both a career and for a single season, with the latter marks being 85 goals and 62 assists for 147 points, an improvement by 54 points over his prior season totals. He not only has a league-leading career total of 126 goals and 240 points, but his regular season 3.75 points per game average – over just 64 career games – is also the best ever in the Premier. And who wouldn’t put him out the most among their team’s forwards? He led the way up front with 21:21 per game this year. Persson was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a +90 on the season, good for fifth in the league, a level that tends to happen if you score 85 goals just by yourself. 

Tristan Frizado, San Diego Sabers

Frizado (‘05/Mirabel, Que.) clocked in at 92 points on the season, posting a 34-58-92 line in his first junior season over the course of 38 games. He played an average of 27:40 per game for the Sabers, as well, in the course of setting the single-season record for points by a Sabers player in their four-year USPHL Premier history. 

Adrian Gomez, Bakersfield Roughnecks 

Gomez (‘05/Bakersfield, Calif.) found the 2.00 points per game average mark in his first junior season coming out of the Rocky Mountain Roughriders 18U AAA program. Gomez scored 57 points in 28 games as a rookie junior player, including 27 goals. He even maintained the same points-per-game average during a 22-game point streak, during which he racked up a 21-23-44 line. Gomez, who also led the Roughnecks in plus-minus with a +32, skated in 11 NCDC games with the Utah Outliers, putting up four points at the Tier II level. 

Kaedin Larocque-Wolfe, Ontario Jr. Reign

Larocque-Wolfe (‘03/Maskwacis, Alb.) was a third-year junior player this year, and showed off that leadership when he put up a 50-spot – 51 goals to be exact – to lead the Jr. Reign and place second only to Persson’s 85 goals in the 2023-24 USPHL Premier goal-scoring race. The 51 goals is both the single-season plus all-time record for the Jr. Reign. 

Mario Paganini, San Diego Sabers

Paganini (‘03/Harrison, N.Y.) put together a 31-game, 104-point streak with two different teams. He’d started the season with the Vernal Oilers and was traded six games into his streak and, after putting up 15 points in those six with the Oilers, he added the other 89 points in 25 games. Paganini’s 107 points overall was good for ninth in USPHL Premier history. The Franklin Pierce University (NCAA) commit put in 27:44 of average ice time per game, No. 1 among the Sabers forwards. 

Emil Loov, Fresno Monsters

The ‘03 Swede finished just outside of the top 10 in career points for his career, closing out at 190 in 81 career games, or 2.35 points per game – all for the Monsters. This year, he crested the single season 100-point mark with 103 points, coming across the line at seventh in overall league scoring immediately after Paganini. He finished a +76 and won 666 faceoffs, fourth most in the USPHL Premier this year, giving him a 61 percent success rate. Loov has been a teammate of Noak Persson for five seasons on two continents. 

Noah Morency, Las Vegas Thunderbirds

Morency (‘05/Terrebonne, Que.) put up 35 goals and 39 assists for 74 points in 43 games to lead the Thunderbirds in scoring in their final season under that name – they will play as the Henderson Force, moving to the other side of Las Vegas Blvd. this coming season. Morency’s 74 points was good for fourth in the T-Birds’ four-year USPHL history, and his +31 this year led all T-Bird forwards. The metro Las Vegas area might have seen the last of Morency, as he’s been tendered with the NCDC’s Connecticut Jr. Rangers for 2024-25. 

Rhys Doyle, Ontario Jr. Reign

One area where Doyle definitely Reigned supreme was at the dots – no player in the USPHL this year had more faceoff wins than his 742, and he had a 56 percent success rate with that. Offensively, Doyle (‘04/Grande Prairie, Alb.) finished with 76 points in 46 games, and closed the regular season with an active 18-game point streak, scoring a 7-29-36 line. He posted a 1-4-5 line to help the Jr. Reign defeat Fresno in the playoffs and punch their first-ever USPHL Nationals tickets. 

Aaro Laurila, Lake Tahoe Lakers

Laurila (‘04/Mantsala, Finland) led the Lakers with 26 goals and 21 assists for 47 points in 44 games in his first North American hockey season. He is ranked fifth all-time in the Lakers history, and he ranked first in Lakers ice time at 21:38, and that also included leading all Lakers forwards in power play time and shorthanded time.  

Defense 

Steven Blengino, Fresno Monsters

Blengino (‘03/Martinez, Calif.) improved year over year by 27 points from an already impressive 57 last year, which also earned him All-Star honors, to 84 points this year, good for third in USPHL Premier defenseman scoring this year.. He also finished his career third all-time among USPHL Premier defensemen in scoring 141 points (off a 41-100 line) in 89 games. He skated a gargantuan 29:23 per game on average, and was a +74 to lead the Monsters’ D corps. 

Nick Bonaldi, Las Vegas Thunderbirds

Bonaldi finished second all-time in scoring for the Thunderbirds, as the ‘03 Las Vegas native put up 22 goals and 111 assists for 133 points in 114 career USPHL Premier games. He registered 42 points in 33 games this season, his last of four Premier campaigns before advancing on to Arizona State University’s ACHA team next season. Bonaldi ranked second on the Thunderbirds in ice time (24:09) and was second on the Las Vegas defense with a +27. 

Emile Rodrigue, Bakersfield Roughnecks 

Rodrigue (‘04/Saguenay, Que.) enjoyed a huge season with 20 points of improvement year over year, as he finished with 21 goals and 49 points in 46 games this season. He finished in a three-way tie for the league lead among defensemen in power play goals with 11. Rodrigue closed this season with a career total line of 37-41-78 in 89 games. He led the Roughnecks in average ice time at 23:42 and was first in blocked shots at 73. 

Cooper Kantola, Ontario Jr. Reign 

Kantola (‘03/Mound, Minn.) jumped to the Jr. Reign from the NA3HL and had a fantastic single season in the Premier, registering a 7-36-43 line in 46 games, along with a +52 rating and 41 blocked shots, both ranking second on the Jr. Reign this year. 

Goaltender

Connor Dumesnil, Bakersfield Roughnecks

Dumesnil (‘04/Phoenix, Ariz.) finished in the top 15 across the league in save percentage with his .924 mark, and his 58 games over his two-year Bakersfield career puts him in the top 20 all-time. This year, he also put up a 15-9-0-1 record as the Roughnecks improved from 34 points to 58 this year. 

Josh Henson, Ontario Jr. Reign

Henson (‘04/Port Moody, B.C.) came back for Year 2 with the Jr. Reign and improved greatly from Year 1, coming in with a .910 save percentage during the regular season, along with an impressive 15-5-0-0 record. In the postseason, Henson improved to .914 with a 4-1-0-0 record to help the Jr. Reign make their Nationals debut. He played two games at Nationals and held opponents to within two goals of the Jr. Reign in each outing.