By Vinny Gillespie
Photos by Dylan Asmundson

Cameron Schmidt (2021-2023)

Cameron Schmidt started his journey with the RINK Hockey Academy U15 Prep team in the 2021-22 season where he put up an astonishing 25 goals and 16 assists for 41 points in 13 games. Cameron Schmidt earned himself a call-up to the U16 Prep team where he had an immediate impact and scored 2 goals in his first and only game at that level. Cameron Schmidt also earned himself another call-up to the U18 Prep team where he had 2 goals in 3 games. After an extremely dominant year in multiple different levels in the CSSHL, the Vancouver Giants were excited to select the goal-scoring machine, Cameron Schmidt with the 7th overall pick in the 2022 WHL Bantam Draft.


It didn’t take Cameron Schmidt very long to decide whether he’d go the WHL or NCAA route since it was announced that he signed his WHL Standard Player Agreement on May 28th, 2022. In the 2022-23 season, Cameron Schmidt made the jump to the U18 Prep team full-time and didn’t look back. In 14 games played, Cameron Schmidt managed to put up 13 goals and 8 assists for 21 points. That season, Cameron Schmidt earned himself a call-up to the WHL where in only 3 games, he managed to score his first career WHL goal and gain some experience and familiarity with his future Vancouver Giants teammates and staff. During the 2023-24 season with the Vancouver Giants, it didn’t take Cameron Schmidt any time to adjust since right away since he had 31 goals and had 27 assists for 58 points in 59 games played.


To put it into perspective of how amazing of a season he truly had, as a 16-year-old, Cameron Schmidt led his team in goals and had a better points-per-game season than Calgary Flames 16th overall pick in the 1st round of the 2023 NHL Draft, Samuel Honzek. On top of that, Cameron Schmidt had two hat-trick performances against last year’s Memorial Cup contenders, Kamloops Blazers. After an extremely dominant season with the Vancouver Giants, team Canada took notice and named him to their U17 White team where he had 5 goals in 8 games and scored the game-winning goal in the Gold Medal. Cameron Schmidt is one of the top prospects for the 2025 NHL Draft and if he continues to improve like he has for the past few seasons, there’s a good chance he will go higher than anyone could ever imagine.

Brooke Disher (2020-2022)

Brooke Disher started her journey with the RINK Hockey Academy in the 2020-21 season where she put up 3 assists in 7 games before the rest of the season got cancelled due to the pandemic. The following season in the 2021-22 season, Brooke Disher managed to put up an incredible 12 goals and 21 assists for 33 points in 23 games as a blueliner! With an impressive season like that, on December 8th, 2021, it was publicly announced that Brooke Disher signed her letter of intent to join the NCAA Division I Boston University Women’s hockey program. On top of that impressive accomplishment, she was also named as Canada’s U18 Women’s World Junior captain and led her team to a Gold Medal. Earlier in the tournament Brooke Disher and the rest of her teammates lost to Finland 2-0 and USA 7-0, but she led her team with lots of resiliency and won it all in the semi-finals and Gold Medal game.


In her freshman year at Boston University in the 2022-23 season, Brooke Disher had an impressive 7 goals and 10 assists for 17 points in 34 games which is very impressive as a forward, but even more impressive as a blueliner like she is!  In the 2023-24 season as a sophomore at Boston University, Brooke Disher had 3 goals and 8 assists for 11 points in 35 games. For the following 2024-25 season, Brooke Disher decided she wanted to enter the transfer portal and that’s where she got connected with Ohio State University where she decided she will take her many talents to play in her junior year of college.


Evan Gardner (2018-2023)

Evan Gardner started his RINK Hockey Academy journey back in the 2018-19 season with the RINK Hockey Academy Kelowna U15 team (formerly known as the Pursuit of Excellence U15 Varsity team) and played 20 games as a 12-year-old at that level. In the 2019-20 season, Evan Gardner suited up in 16 games at the U15 Prep level as a 13-year-old. During the following 2020-21 season that was cut very short due to the pandemic, Evan Gardner suited up in a couple of games for RHA Kelowna’s U15 Prep team where he had a 2.00 GAA and a .852 SV%.


When the WHL Bantam Draft rolled around, the Saskatoon Blades didn’t hesitate to pick up the young prodigy with the 53rd overall pick in the 3rd round of the WHL Bantam Draft. The following 2021-22 season, Evan Gardner cracked the U18 Prep team’s roster and had an absolute breakout year where he put up a 2.98 GAA and a .914 SV%. Evan Gardner had the chance to represent his home province in the WHL Cup for Team British Columbia where he was lights out and put up a 1.00 GAA and a .953 SV% in 2 games played and won the Gold Medal. In the 2022-23 season with RHA Kelowna’s U18 Prep team, Evan Gardner had another very solid year of development and had a 3.16 GAA and a .926 SV% in 16 games. Evan Gardner was very motivated to crack the Saskatoon Blades’ lineup in his draft year and he did exactly that, and much, much more.


In 30 games played in the WHL, Evan Gardner put up an incredible .927 SV% and 1.91 GAA which were both the best in the league for the regular season as a young 17-year-old. In the playoffs, Evan Gardner had a .910 SV% and a 2.33 GAA and played in 15 out of 16 games for the Saskatoon Blades where they made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals where they had a very entertaining 7 game series where 6 out of 7 games were decided by just 1 goal.  With an incredible season like that, Evan Gardner found himself on NHL Central Scouting’s rankings where he was put as the 7th best North American Goalie in the 2024 NHL Draft.


Sara Swinderski (2020-2022)

Sara Swinderski started off her journey with the RINK Hockey Academy in the 2020-21 season which unfortunately got cancelled for the rest of the season, but for the season that was played, she suited up in 7 games and managed to put up 3 assists. In her first normal season with the RINK, Sara Swinderski improved her offensive numbers a ton and put up an impressive 12 goals and 22 assists for 34 points in 26 games at the U18 CSSHL Female level which is incredible considering she’s a blueliner.

After a season like that, on December 8th, 2021, it was publicly announced that Sara Swinderski signed her letter of intent to join NCAA Division I Clarkson University’s Female hockey program. Sara Swinderski had the honour of representing her country at the 2021-22 U18 Women’s World Junior Championship and put up 2 assists in 6 games and even got the secondary assist on the game-winning goal in the Gold Medal game. On April 29th, 2022, Sara Swinderski was voted by the coaches as the CSSHL’s Female U18 Prep Division MVP Award winner.


In her freshman year at Clarkson University, Sara Swinderski had 2 goals and 7 assists for 9 points in 40 games in the 2022-23 season. In her sophomore year where she played 38 games for Clarkson University, Sara Swinderski improved her stats a bit and put up 2 goals and 8 assists in 10 games in the 2023-24 season. For the following 2024-25 season, Sara Swinderski will take her talents over to Ohio State University where she will continue making a name for herself in the hockey world.


Landon Cowper (2019-2023)

Landon Cowper made his RINK Hockey Academy debut in the 2019-20 season with the (formerly known as Pursuit of Excellence) U15 Prep team where he put up 2 goals and 21 assists for 23 points in 30 games before the rest of the CSSHL season got cancelled due to the pandemic. The following shortened season with RHA’s U15 Prep team, Landon Cowper kept up his offensive numbers and put up 6 assists in 4 games. After an impressive season like that, the Prince Albert Raiders selected Landon Cowper with the 69th overall pick in the 4th round of the 2021 WHL Bantam Draft. For the following 2021-22 season, Landon Cowper cracked RHA Kelowna’s U18 Prep team where he put up 1 goal and 12 assists for 13 points in 34 games.


In the 2022-23 season, Landon Cowper returned to the RHA U18 Prep team where he had a breakout season and managed to put up 2 goals and 20 assists for 22 points in 29 games in the CSSHL. On November 11th, 2022, Landon Cowper made his BCHL debut with the Penticton Vees where he suited up in 1 game. On January 10th, 2023, the Kelowna Rockets traded a conditional 2025 5th round pick for Landon Cowper’s WHL signing rights. On February 10th, 2023, Landon Cowper signed his WHL Standard Player Agreement, and earned himself a call-up to the Kelowna Rockets and put up 1 assist in 7 games. For the 2023-24 season, Landon Cowper was a full-time WHLer with the Kelowna Rockets and had 1 goal and 6 assists for 7 points in 41 games. Landon Cowper scored his first WHL goal against the Edmonton Oil Kings on January 5th, 2024.