How players who left prep early adjusted to junior hockey, part 1

Cam Caron had 32 points in 41 games for the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles last season. (Brandon David Images)

Dylan Hunt was stunned.

A netfront, after-whistle scrum had broken out, and Hunt (Marlboro, Mass.) was a part of it. He wasn’t the instigator and wasn’t even a main character in it. Come to think of it, he wasn’t even much of a side character in it either.

Months earlier, Hunt decided to leave Milton Academy a year before graduating. Hunt posted 40 points from the blue line as an ‘06 junior. In the summer of 2023, he committed to Yale. In his eyes, there wasn’t much left to do in prep. It was off to the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in the summer of 2024, who drafted him in 2022.

He had traded in his full cage in prep for a visor in junior hockey. And he was about to be reminded of that.

That’s when the fist came right for his nose.

In part 1 of our series, we explore the on-ice and off-ice adjustments players must making moving to junior hockey.