ROCHESTER, Minn. – The Rochester Grizzlies and Head Coach Chris Ratzloff continued their off-season push on Thursday with three more tender signings, including Collin Pederson and Zach Wiese from Owatonna High School, and Trenton “TJ” Norris of the Rocky Mountain RoughRiders 18U program.
Collin Pederson, 18, spent the last three seasons playing for Owatonna High School where he totalled 23 goals and 29 assists in 72 games. During his final season this past year, Pederson had a career-high in points registered 29 in 25 games, good enough for third on the team. The Owatonna, MN, native was named team captain in 2019-20 and helped lead the Huskies to a 19-7 record.
Joining Pederson from the Huskies is netminder Zach Wiese who also inked a tender with Rochester on Thursday. The 18-year-old netminder was the main backstop for the Huskies in 2019-20 where he played in 22 of the team’s 25 games, with a statline of 1.72 GAA and .913 save percentage, both career highs. The 6-0, 220-pounder also competed in 13 games for Team Northeast in the Upper Midwest High School Elite Hockey League. After three years in high school, Wiese brings with him a career 2.25 goals-against-average and .909 save-percentage.
Also signing a tender on Thursday was forward Trenton “TJ” Norris out of the Rocky Mountain RoughRiders 18U program. The 17-year-old has played in the Rocky Mountain program the past three seasons including stops with the 15U, 16U, and 18U programs. In 2019-20, Norris had a career year where he logged six goals and 17 assists for 23 total points in 52 games played. For Norris, who’s a Moville, IA, native playing for Rochester means a return to the midwest after his time in Colorado.
The additions of Pederson, Wiese, and Norris are the newest faces to the Grizzlies roster after the earlier adds of Riley VanderHoeven, Sam Williams, Roman Grulkowski, Max Erstad, and Marco Troje, all of whom signed at the end of March.