Hermantown’s Zam Plante Finalist For National Hockey Award

Hermantown Hockey Junior Forward Zam Plante is having quite the year, with all the awards he is piling up, and there are still more to come.

He is the oldest son of Derek Plante, a former stand-out for Cloquet High School, UMD, and he played with numerous teams in the NHL. Derek also coaches for UMD. Both boys stand out on the team but Zam is really making a name for himself early.

Zam Plante has been named one of the 24 finalists for the 2021-22 All-USA Today HSSA Hockey Player Of The Year. The USA Today published the list and there are many on the list from teams that were in the Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament.

Zam has always been a player to watch but this year, even with an injury he put up serious numbers and made himself a danger to any team. He can score, he can pass, he can play defense. Sometimes he looks like he is toying with the other team. He had 21 goals and 61 points in the 20 games he played.

Zam Plante told Fox 21 that he thinks it's great news for him and for the Hermantown hockey program. The same program has sent players to the NHL like Dylan Samberg (WPG) and Blake Biondi (MTL) . The program has also sent players to UMD like Darian Gotz, Blake Biondi, and Jesse Jacques.

He went on to say that everyone has set a precedent to win and in order to win they have to put in the work, so he says some of the guys will skate and practice for 6 or 7 hours a day.

Zam Plante is currently playing with the USA Hockey U-18 men’s select team at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Plante has been a standout there too. With the numbers he is putting up right now it will be exciting to see how he grows his game and gets better, and what his brother will do behind him.