PHOENIX –  Cullen Potter’s season ended early when he sustained a left shoulder injury in a hockey game against Miami (Ohio) Jan. 10. The day after he underwent surgery, as his world shifted, it at times felt as if very little had changed.

“He’s pretty chill,” said his mother, Jennifer Potter, an Olympic hockey gold medalist and four-time world champion. “He’s just hanging out with his teammates or doing his homework, or going to an athlete meal.”

The hope in Tempe is that he will be doing all of those things again next season, although that decision comes with inevitable outside noise.

Potter faces several options once his rehabilitation is complete: return to Arizona State for his junior season, turn pro and join the Calgary Flames, the organization that drafted him 32nd overall at the 2025 NHL Draft, or explore opportunities elsewhere through the transfer portal. 

Well-funded programs such as the University of Minnesota and Michigan could emerge as potential suitors.

Despite those possibilities, all signs point toward Potter returning to ASU next season.

“There’s nothing negative at all about ASU and how he has been treated there,” said Calgary Flames President of Hockey Operations Don Maloney, whose team made Potter the highest drafted Sun Devils player in the program’s history. “He has really been well-handled. It has been a really good place and a good situation for him.”

Potter is facing a projected recovery time of three to four months.

“Huge loss for us,” ASU coach Greg Powers said. “Our heart goes out to the kid because he was playing so well. But we have to do what is always best for our players’ long-term success.”

Before going down, Potter appeared to be finding his footing. He recorded eight points in his previous five games and 16 over his final 10 appearances – a late-season surge that drew attention beyond Tempe.

Flames Director of Player Development Ray Edwards said Potter had been performing at an elite level.

“Development isn’t always linear,” Edwards said. “You always have some ups and downs but what I liked about Cullen is his perseverance and his ability to keep going, keep fighting and scratching.”

The timing of Potter’s loss is especially difficult for ASU, with its grip on the National Collegiate Hockey Conference race beginning to slip. The Sun Devils sit sixth in the standings with 17 points after No. 3 North Dakota swept them at Mullett Arena last weekend.

“It was tough to see him go down,” Edwards said. “He was playing at a high level and things were going really well for him and the team. But in the same token, it happens to everybody and he’ll come back bigger and stronger from it.”

Potter underwent successful surgery Jan. 22 and has begun the early stages of rehabilitation, leaning on his family as he navigates the first weeks of recovery. 

“It’s gonna be challenging at first, because he can’t use his one arm,” Jennifer said. “We’ll be there to help, do whatever he needs, drive him to physical therapy or make food for him.”

Before suffering the severe upper-body injury, Potter had hoped to join Calgary’s organization after ASU’s season ended. Those discussions are now on hold.

“We haven’t talked about any hockey,” Jennifer said. “It was really hard to make the decision to do what he needed to do, which was best for his future, not only in sports, but for the longevity of his body.”

The focus will now be on strength and power when Potter returns, areas Edwards identified as the next step in his development.

“He’s an elite skater,” Edwards said. “It’s more about adding that strength and power to be able to play against men. 

“There’s details to his game as a center that we can continue to work on. If his strength and power can improve, then the rest of that stuff becomes a lot easier.”

Maloney said Potter’s late-season surge only reinforced the organization’s belief in his long-term upside.

“He had a slow start but was really coming on of late and we were really happy with his play,” Maloney said. “He has elite speed and high-end hockey sense and those are two things we need a lot more of in this organization.”

Maloney emphasized there is no urgency to rush decisions about next season. 

“There’s nothing wrong in my mind with slow-cooking a player,” Maloney said. “As far as next season, it’s really up to him, his family and his advisor.”

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Feature photo by Danielle Cortez.