The Chicago Blackhawks boast a talented roster. Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar, Andre Burakovsky, Teuvo Teravainen, and Kevin Korchinski all have outstanding skill and a significant opportunity to make a name for themselves on an up-and-coming team like the Blackhawks.
Mason West can be put in the same conversation. However, West also has a prominent varsity football career that he is pursuing. The Edina Hornets played their first game of the season last night, with West leading the way.
West plays high school varsity football for the Edina Hornets in Minnesota. On Thursday, August 28th, he played an impressive game as the quarterback for the Hornets.
The Hornets defeated the Hopkins Royals by a score of 49-21. West threw for four touchdowns in the away victory. West and the Hornets have seven games left in their regular season schedule.
Blackhawks 2025 1st-round pick Mason West opened his senior high school FOOTBALL season throwing for 4 TDs 🔥
(via @edinahornets) pic.twitter.com/1xQ60QxKt0
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) August 30, 2025
The 6-foot-6, 215 lb quarterback threw for 2592 yards and 37 touchdowns last year. The previous year, he threw 2625 yards but only 28 touchdowns.
“I think we stayed resilient all game,” West said after the victory. “We were really pumped for the football season and energized for this game, so I think we just brought that intensity. You can see from our first play, we scored right away. We stayed resilient when they scored some touchdowns; we didn’t panic.”
“I think we just made good plays at the right time. I’m really proud of our group.”
The Blackhawks knew what they were getting when they selected West in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft. The 29th overall pick is an impressive two-sport athlete.
The 18-year-old played 31 games for Edina High School. In those hockey games, he recorded 27 goals and 49 points. West also played 10 games for the Fargo Force of the USHL, collecting nine points.
In the middle of the 2025 Entry Draft, Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson made a trade to select West. After selecting Anton Frondell third overall and Vaclav Nestrasil 25th overall, Davidson sent the 34th and 62nd overall picks in 2025 to the Carolina Hurricanes for the 29th overall pick. The Blackhawks also sent a fifth-round pick in the 2027 draft.
“I just really wanted to get back into the first round and take what I thought was a grand-slam hack,” Davidson told Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times.
West doesn’t want to just be great at one thing. He has his sights on winning championships in hockey and football this season.
“I’ll play football in the fall and then head to Fargo. It was really important for me to play football as a senior with my friends,” West told Mike G. Morreale of NHL.com. “I always set goals for the year, and that was to win a state high school hockey championship and also a football championship. I haven’t done it in football, so I kind of want to achieve that and stay loyal to my team because I think they need me.”
GettyMason West was drafted 29th overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2025.
GettyMason West was drafted 29th overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2025.
Davidson understands that you don’t come across a player like West every day.
“It’s just the tools — the raw tools are just something you don’t see that often,” Kyle Davidson said. “That size, that athleticism, that skating ability, that talent, the sky’s the limit.”
Two scouts with FC Hockey have great things to say about the budding hockey forward.
“West looked impressive after joining Fargo coming out of high school,” Jacob Roth of FC Hockey said. “He played an average of 18 minutes in the last 12 USHL games of the season. He didn’t look out of place at all and seemed comfortable in any situation he found himself in.”
“He has soft hands for a big man and can stick-handle through traffic and out of trouble when needed.”
Another FC scout praised his athleticism and his hockey IQ.
“His biggest strengths come in his physical stature paired with solid skating and high-end IQ,” Kyle Pereira said. “It helps that he also has a balanced offensive game, with solid playmaking and shooting abilities.”
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Caleb Kerney Caleb covers the NHL for Heavy.com. He has covered professional hockey since 2022, including bylines at Dobber Prospects, The Hockey Writers, and The Hockey News. More about Caleb Kerney
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