Mason West spent his high school years living in two worlds. One day it was football.
The next it was hockey. Sometimes it was both, with his schedule split between the rink and the field in Edina, the Minneapolis suburb where he built his reputation as a three-star quarterback recruit.
That chapter is over now. West is done with football after helping finish it with a Minnesota state championship in November, and the Chicago Blackhawks prospect is finally all-in on the sport that got him drafted 29th overall in 2025.
The change has already shaped his summer. Instead of bouncing between sports, West went from the Blackhawks’ development camp straight to Michigan State, where he’ll arrive as an incoming freshman.
This fall, there won’t be any Friday-night football for him. His weekends will belong to college hockey in East Lansing, Mich., and wherever the Spartans go from there.
West knew the tradeoff when he committed to the plan before the 2025 NHL Draft: one last football season, then hockey full time. He says the payoff is already showing up in his game.
“I love working on hockey because I feel like I’m getting so much better just because it’s all I do now,” said West, who will turn 19 in August. “I work out, skate, and you just keep thinking hockey over and over and over.
I’m just getting way better. It’s cool that now I get to focus on one sport because now I can really (hone) in on things I need to work on and polish up everything for next year.”
The Blackhawks saw that upside when they moved up to grab the 6-foot-6, 216-pound forward. With football no longer splitting his attention, they believe his size and athleticism can start to take over in a much bigger way.
West got his first real taste of that last season after his football schedule ended and he joined the Fargo Force in the USHL. The adjustment wasn’t instant, but he settled in and started producing. Fargo coach Brett Skinner moved him to center, and by the end of the season West was on the top line and making an impact.
In nine playoff games across two series, he posted two goals, four assists, 33 shots on net and a plus-four.
“I would say the biggest adjustment was probably moving him to center,” Skinner said. “You’re not as loose for the offense.
It probably brings your production down a little bit because you’re going to be back low in the D zone. I thought it was great for his development to go to the middle.
I thought that helped out his defensive game a ton. There might be a path for him to play center in the NHL someday.”
Skinner also used West in a net-front role on the power play, believing that spot would suit him down the line at the college and pro levels. And like the Blackhawks, he thinks West is only beginning to tap into what he can become.
“He’s honestly just kind of scratching the surface of what he’s capable of,” Skinner said. “He’s a great athlete, and he’s a good hockey player.
He had a great season for us, but learning how to use his body, learning how to protect pucks. … We had another player on our team that was 6-foot-6, so for doing one-on-one drills, he can go against that guy.
He’s never had that before. He’s never really had to work on protecting pucks because he wasn’t going against guys that could really take it from him anyway.
“So I think as he moves on in college and then into pro, just being challenged physically by other guys that are in that same category as him. What will separate him is not only his size, but then he has the puck skills. He has the brain to go with it.”
Chicago has been pushing that same message. At development camp, the focus was on puck protection and on using his frame more effectively. Mark Eaton, the Blackhawks’ assistant general manager of player development, wants West’s next step to be about turning that size into a real weapon.
Michigan State is on the same page. Coach Adam Nightingale said West is already working with the team in the weight room, where the priority is getting stronger, faster and more mobile before he gets on the ice with the Spartans.
“That’ll be the focus with him when we can get on the ice with him,” Nightingale said. “Right now, he’s just in the weight room with our team, and I think getting stronger, faster, more mobile.
There’s a ton of positives, but he’s a really good athlete, right? So I think his ceiling is really high.
But the biggest thing is really zeroed in what it means to be a power forward.”
West said Michigan State stood out because of the way the program develops players and the vision it laid out for him. He’s not pretending the road is short. He knows there’s work ahead.
“I just think how they look at the game of hockey and how they develop players,” West said of Michigan State. ” If you see some guys like (MSU center) Charlie Stramel and a couple other guys, I mean, really every guy that goes there, you can see the jump they made in their games, and that’s a big thing for me.
I have a lot of development ahead of me. If I put the work in and really tone in on things I need to work on, I can do good.”
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