Ranking the best Class AA teams of the "modern era"
As you saw on the cover of this week’s issue, we released our preseason top 20 Class AA teams for the 2016-17 season. Not surprisingly, the rankings are led by perennial contender Eden Prairie.
But what Minnesota Class AA boys’ hockey program is truly the best, according to each season’s final rankings? To determine the top teams, we looked at the final top 20, beginning with the 1993-94 season – the year the Minnesota State High School League established Class A and AA – and awarded 20 points for a team finishing No. 1, 19 points for No. 2, and so on. Those points for all seasons were then added together.
The result? Northern Minnesota power Duluth East takes the top spot over top Twin Cities programs Hill-Murray and Edina for first place in our “modern era” rankings.
NOTES: 64 teams have been included in the final rankings since 1994 • 10 teams in the Class AA rankings below are currently in Class A • the top 10 includes eight public schools and two private schools • Duluth East and Moorhead are the only Northern Minnesota teams in the top 10 • Duluth East and Hill-Murray are the only schools to appear in all 23 final rankings • four schools have appeared in the final rankings 20 or more times since 1994 – Duluth East, Hill-Murray, Eden Prairie, Elk River • based on the rankings, Cretin-Derham Hall’s 2006 state title was the largest outlier as the Raiders have appeared in the final rankings only seven times since 1994, with an average ranking of 13 • Edina ranks first in Class AA state titles (4) and average final ranking (5.74)
Top Minnesota Class AA boys’ hockey programs (1994-2016)
| Rank | Team final top 20 | State titles | Avg. final ranking | Points |
| 1 Duluth East | 23 | 2 | 6.09 | 343 |
| 2 Hill-Murray | 23 | 1 | 8.3 | 290 |
| 3 Edina 19 | 19 | 4 | 5.74 | 290 |
| 4 Eden Prairie | 21 | 2 | 8.43 | 223 |
| 5 Elk River | 20 | 1 | 9.85 | 223 |
| 6 Moorhead | 18 | 0 | 8.72 | 221 |
| 7 Bloomington Jefferson | 19 | 1 | 9.42 | 220 |
| 8 Blaine | 17 | 1 | 9.06 | 203 |
| 9 Holy Angels | 12 | 2 | 7.17 | 166 |
| 10 White Bear Lake | 17 | 0 | 11.4 | 163 |
| 11 Minnetonka | 13 | 0 | 9.08 | 155 |
| 12 Wayzata | 14 | 1 | 10.7 | 144 |
| 13 Roseau | 10 | 2 | 8.2 | 128 |
| 14 Apple Valley | 12 | 1 | 10.4 | 127 |
| 15 Grand Rapids | 15 | 0 | 10.7 | 124 |
| 16 Centennial | 12 | 1 | 11.3 | 117 |
| 17 Benilde-St. Margaret’s | 10 | 1 | 9.4 | 116 |
| Burnsville | 15 | 0 | 13.3 | 116 |
| 19 Hastings | 7 | 0 | 8.43 | 88 |
| 20 Cloquet | 12 | 0 | 14 | 84 |
| 21 Roseville | 8 | 0 | 10.9 | 81 |
| 22 Anoka | 8 | 1 | 11.3 | 78 |
| 23 Maple Grove | 8 | 0 | 11.5 | 76 |
| 24 Osseo | 9 | 0 | 14.3 | 60 |
| 25 Rochester Mayo | 7 | 0 | 12.4 | 60 |
| 26 Greenway | 7 | 0 | 12.6 | 59 |
| 27 Cretin-Derham Hall | 7 | 1 | 13 | 56 |
| Lakeville North | 5 | 1 | 9.8 | 56 |
| 29 Eastview | 6 | 0 | 12.3 | 52 |
| 30 Lakeville | 5 | 0 | 12.6 | 42 |
| 31 South St. Paul | 3 | 0 | 8 | 39 |
| 32 St. Thomas Academy | 4 | 0 | 12.3 | 35 |
| 33 Bemidji | 4 | 0 | 12.8 | 33 |
| 34 Woodbury | 4 | 0 | 13.8 | 29 |
| 35 Holy Family Catholic | 4 | 0 | 14.8 | 25 |
| Rochester Century | 2 | 0 | 8.5 | 25 |
| St. Paul Johnson | 2 | 0 | 8 | 5.25 |
| 38 Alexandria | 3 | 0 | 13.7 | 22 |
| Robbinsdale Armstrong | 2 | 0 | 10 | 22 |
| 40 Tartan | 2 | 0 | 10.5 | 21 |
| 41 St. Cloud Apollo | 5 | 0 | 17.2 | 19 |
| Rosemount | 2 | 0 | 11.5 | 19 |
| Stillwater | 2 | 0 | 11.5 | 19 |
| 43 Lakeville South | 2 | 0 | 12 | 18 |
| 44 Andover | 3 | 0 | 16.3 | 14 |
| Prior Lake | 3 | 0 | 16.3 | 14 |
| 46 Brainerd | 4 | 0 | 17.8 | 13 |
| 47 Hopkins | 3 | 0 | 17.3 | 11 |
| Park Center | 2 | 0 | 15.5 | 11 |
| 49 Farmington | 2 | 0 | 16 | 10 |
| Rochester John Marshall | 2 | 0 | 16 | 10 |
| St. Cloud Tech | 1 | 0 | 11 | 10 |
| 52 Coon Rapids | 1 | 0 | 12 | 9 |
| Duluth Denfeld | 1 | 0 | 12 | 9 |
| 54 Albert Lea | 1 | 0 | 13 | 8 |
| Champlin Park 1 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 8 |
| Hibbing | 2 | 0 | 26 | 8 |
| 57 North St. Paul | 1 | 0 | 14 | 7 |
| 58 Buffalo | 1 | 0 | 15 | 6 |
| Henry Sibley | 1 | 0 | 15 | 6 |
| 60 Forest Lake | 2 | 0 | 18.5 | 5 |
| 61 Austin | 1 | 0 | 17 | 4 |
| Bloomington Kennedy | 1 | 0 | 17 | 17.4 |
| 63 Owatonna | 1 | 0 | 18 | 3 |
| 64 Park Cottage Grove | 1 | 0 | 19 | 2 |
