Brock Cheslock has been well-traveled throughout the Midwest over the past four weeks.

The senior forward from Minnesota finished up his high school hockey season with Rogers High School in late-February of 2026 and immediately packed up his things to join the Omaha Lancers of the USHL just a few days later. He drove down to Nebraska to join the team, about a six-hour journey, and was in the lineup for a game against Muskegon exactly one week after his senior season at Rogers had ended.

That’s plenty of activity for one week but things didn’t stop there as Cheslock then traveled north to Fargo with the Omaha team for a pair of games in early March. Brock’s father made the three-hour drive up to North Dakota and picked him up late at night after the Saturday night contest against the Fargo Force and the pair arrived back home in Rogers around midnight since Cheslock had to be up early the next morning to attend the Mr. Hockey banquet in St. Paul since he was a finalist for annual award that is given out to the top senior boys hockey player in the state of Minnesota.

On top of all of that travel and having to compete in all of those games, Cheslock also still had to be keeping up with his schoolwork at the same time. The 18-year-old forward attended the Mr. Hockey banquet on Sunday, then attended the banquet for his high school team, and then flew back down to Omaha on Monday - the day before his 18th birthday. It’s safe to say that the high school senior might appreciate settling into his new role on the Lancers squad and having a bit of a more calm and routine schedule ahead now in mid to late March of 2026.

Cheslock is a born and raised Minnesota native who has always lived in the Otsego/Rogers area, located to the northwest of the Twin Cities metro area. His older brother, Chase, had a big influence on him and why he originally wanted to try hockey since he would always watch Chase and his friends growing up playing knee hockey in their basement or watching them at their own games.

Chase is about three-and-a-half years older than Brock and is currently playing Division I hockey at the University of St. Thomas as a junior defenseman and he’s also a draft pick of the New Jersey Devils. Brock originally started out at defense too but one year in summer hockey he decided that it would be fun to give forward a try when his team needed some guys to fill in at that position - and he ended up loving it and making an easy transition into the more offensive side of things.

After finishing up a promising youth hockey career within the Royals youth organization, Cheslock was brought up to the ranks of varsity hockey as a sophomore. Rogers posted an 18-7-2 overall record that season in 2023-24 and Cheslock registered 15 points through 27 games played.

“It was tough because obviously we’ve had such good teams in the past and going into it I didn’t really know what to expect. I just took every day and worked as hard as I could to try and get better, like in that summer leading up to sophomore year, and then I earned a locker stall right away and I was super happy with myself but obviously as a sophomore you play a different type of role than you do in the future,” Cheslock said about his first year up on the high school roster. “Just being that role guy I felt like I did the best in that situation that I could have and I was just learning from the other guys, like the older leaders, in the locker room and it was easy for me to fit in and find that role. Obviously, you’re not touching the puck as much but you still feel like you’re part of the team and play a big role so it was really nice to get in there and to see what it was all about.”

Both Cheslock and the Royals team overall had an extremely positive season the very next year in 2024-25 as the 5-foot-11 forward had an increased role on the squad and the team itself was very highly ranked in Class AA and wound up making the programs first-ever appearance at the legendary Minnesota high school state tournament.

“It was fun but at the same time it was really like that developmental aspect too with playing against better kids and better competition which was huge for me to see where I stood compared to others and overall it was a growing year but I felt like I had a really good year that year so it was awesome,” said Cheslock about his role as a junior. “I had our first meeting with the coaches [before the season started] and I was expecting to play with Parker [Deschene] and Mason [Jenson] and they told me that I wasn’t, so I was little thrown off by that, but they told me that they wanted me to be a line driver and I kind of didn’t know what to expect and I was like all right, I’ll go with it, and it was pretty nice and I benefited from that, getting the touches and being that guy on the second line and making plays and trying to help the team win.”

The Royals had only lost three games heading into section playoffs in 2025 and had a dangerous roster that included names like Mason Jenson (Ohio State commit), Parker Deschene (Lindenwood commit), Nolen Geerdes (Western Michigan commit) and Jayden Kurtz (Wisconsin commit) - among others. The team defeated Champlin Park, 4-3, in the Section 5AA championship match to make a historic state tournament berth - with none other than Brock Cheslock himself scoring the eventual game-winning goal that night.

The Royals went to the state tournament for the first time ever in 2025 and although the experience didn’t necessarily end with the results that the team had hoped for, it was still an incredible opportunity for all of the athletes on the team and for the entire community of Rogers to show what they had built within their boys hockey program over the past few years.

“Yeah it was crazy, that’s for sure. We were such a good, tight-knit group and we had so much fun at the rink every day … Being a young kid and going to Rogers high school games, we would be losing to Buffalo or something [in the past] and now it seems like we’ve turned the tables a little bit and to have us be more of like a powerhouse team than what we were [in the past] was super fun to see all the kids and the community come together for that,” said Cheslock about the opportunity to represent the Rogers community at the state tournament.

The Royals lost a heartbreaker of a state quarterfinal game against Edina, 2-1 in overtime, before falling to Lakeville South in the consolation semifinals, 7-4, in 2025.

“The thing that I always go back to was that the game before ours went long [in the quarterfinal round] so we were already in the locker room and the crowd was huge, so I remember standing in the tunnel before we went out for warm-ups and I’m looking out there and it’s packed already,” said the Rogers native about the experience of playing at the Xcel Energy Center, recently renamed 'Grand Casino Arena’. for the state tournament. “It was super eye-opening for me and it was like, this is what a kid from Minnesota dreams about, so it was definitely worth all the hype that you can say but it was definitely a cool experience sitting on the bench and looking around at everything too right at the start of the game.”

After his junior season had ended, Cheslock joined Omaha of the USHL for five games so that he could get his feet wet a little bit in junior hockey. He was originally drafted by the Lancers in the 2024 USHL Futures Draft. The Lancers were the same junior team that Brock’s brother, Chase, had also played for, so it was nice to have some familiarity with the organization already and to be able to stay with the same billet family and everything.

The experience of competing in the USHL for the first time was very eye-opening for Cheslock who said that it was a bit of a wake-up call in a way since he was seeing what he would need to improve on in his own game to become a dominant player at the next level. It was like going from being a top dog in Minnesota high school hockey with one of the top teams in the state to being a small fish in a big pond in the USHL. Cheslock says that it was nice though to have some other Minnesotans on the team out in Omaha and that he had guys like Sam Scheetz (Chaska / Minnetonka) and Caden Lee (Chanhassen) who both took him under their wings and were good mentors to have early on.

It was great to have some junior hockey experience with the Lancers after his junior season had ended but Cheslock then had a big decision to make that summer on whether or not to return to Rogers for his senior year of high school hockey. He originally had thought about spending before and after the high school season in Omaha but ended up deciding to stay in Minnesota and to play in the Upper Midwest High School Elite League in the fall and then to join the USHL after the conclusion of his career at Rogers.

“I was planning on coming to Omaha [before the high school season started] but talking to the team and the coaches and GMs, we figured it was best for me and I thought it was best for me to just stay back and play those games and get that exposure that you do here [in Elite League],” he said. “You only get to experience high school one time so it was definitely an easy decision once we decided and I kind of just put my head down and kept working and being able to stay home and train and skate with the people that you do all summer was big too, like I really felt like I took another step there. Elite League didn’t really go the way I anticipated, with performance, but being home and being able to go back to work after a tough weekend was definitely way better than kind of sitting there in Omaha and thinking about maybe what you’re doing wrong or why you aren’t playing.”

That offseason was busy for Cheslock in different ways too as he was also navigating the college hockey recruiting process at the same time. He felt like the whole process was a bit tricky since he became eligible to talk to colleges around the same time that CHL players became eligible to compete in the NCAA, which opened up a whole new pool of players for college coaches to pick from, which was a unique challenge to navigate as a recruit.

The very first day that schools were allowed to talk with Cheslock he remembers talking with St. Thomas, which is where his brother currently plays, but then after a while things were quiet for a little bit before Augustana eventually reached out when he was on his way to Omaha after the conclusion of his junior season. He didn’t know much about the university located in Sioux Falls at the time, especially since they are one of the newest Division I college hockey programs and haven’t been around very long yet, but he was familiar with a few of the guys that were recruited there and/or were playing there already.

“I remember going down on a visit with [Head Coach Garrett Raboin] and [Assistant Coach Brady Ferner] and it was on like a Sunday and it was awesome. It was super quiet [on the campus] and they got to show me around everywhere and I just kind of knew that I wanted to play college hockey there and that it was a great fit for me and then they offered me,” he said about his recruitment to the Vikings.

He waited a little while after their offer just to think about his options but he ended up officially announcing his verbal commitment to the team in September of 2025.

“I am proud and honored to announce my commitment to play Division I hockey and further my education at Augustana University. I would like to thank my family, teammates, coaches, and everyone else who has helped me along the way. #WeHoldThePen ⚔️ #BuildingChampions,” he posted to his social media pages.

“I think with what they’ve got going on with the coaching staff and the facilities and the school is great and I think Rabs [HC Garrett Raboin] is a great guy, he’s been awesome to me, and is just that person that’s reaching out and asking me how I’m doing like ‘how’s Omaha going?,’ said Cheslock.

Augustana competes in the CCHA conference and has a brand new building that they are competing in that was completed in 2024. The Vikings currently have a small chance of making the 2026 NCAA tournament depending on the results of the CCHA Mason Cup championship game this weekend.

Having an older brother like Chase, who also competes at a CCHA school in St. Thomas, was a nice resource to have for Brock throughout the recruiting process.

“He just told me to be where my feet were, and that was a big thing for me because a lot of people, when they go through it [the recruiting process], they’re kind of like ‘well, I want that school, I want that school’ and you’ve got to go where you’re wanted and that was a big thing for me,” Brock said.

He knows a few of his future Viking teammates already too in 2026 Mr. Hockey award winner Tyden Bergeson, since the two were both at the Mr. Hockey banquet together a few weeks ago, and he also knows Holy Angels defender Teddy Lechner. Cheslock actually remembers talking to Lechner when he was getting recruited to the Vikings and trying to get him to buy in to the program and saying that they could go to the school and try to build something great there together in the future. Cheslock committed to Augustana in September of 2025 and Lechner ended up committing to the Vikings in November.

After the conclusion of Elite League, Cheslock started up his senior season of high school hockey with Rogers, wearing an ‘A’ for the team and now having a Division I commitment to his name as well. The 5-foot-11 forward ended up having an incredibly successful season with the Royals, posting 55 points through 27 games - which was the most goals scored (34) on the entire roster and tied for the most points overall.

Rogers was one of the top teams in Class AA in 2025-26 but the team was unfortunately upset by Wayzata in the Section 6AA semifinal game in a 5-2 loss. Despite the season ending in a way that was less than stellar, Cheslock had a wild finish to the year and scored 26 points through his final nine games of the year - a pretty mind-blowing statistic. Numbers of those kind helped propel him to becoming named as a finalist for the annual Mr. Hockey award, which is a big honor for senior skaters in Minnesota.

“We had a great year [at Rogers], there’s a lot more positive than negatives for sure, and just being with your buddies and everything - that was a big part for me with coming back was just wanting to play with those guys that you grew up with and it’s so special coming out every night to a packed barn and seeing all the love and support from the community was great this year, it was unmatched, and I’m grateful to be a Rogers kid,” Cheslock said about the conclusion to his high school career. “Going to games when I was young with Chase and his buddies, we weren’t very good [the Rogers team a long time ago], and to kind of see that change for Rogers has been great for me and knowing that I’m trying to leave things better than I found it was big for me … The relationships we build will last forever and the support from Rogers was great and seeing what’s being built there is special and now I’m sitting in Omaha and I can kind of look back and see all the memories I had and be so grateful for it.”

And now - with a crazy and hectic month of travel behind him, Cheslock is now competing with Omaha until their season is over. He is currently doing online school to finish up his high school degree but he took extra credits during the fall/winter semester which made his current workload this spring much more manageable. He will spend at least a full year in juniors in the future before eventually making his way out to Augustana to join the ranks of college hockey and he is currently considering majoring in something related to business, possibly accounting, but isn’t quite sure yet.

For any Vikings fans who haven’t been able to watch Cheslock play yet, he self-describes his game as being more of a power-forward out on the ice and he is someone that is willing to take on whatever role is needed to help his team win. He isn’t afraid to be a leader out on the ice, too.

For now, Cheslock will spend the rest of the season in Omaha before another year of junior hockey in 2026-27 and eventually heading out to Sioux Falls for college.

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