Penn State men’s hockey commit Carter Schade was the first player selected in this year’s USHL Draft.

He’s set to join the Lincoln Stars, the same junior organization that rising senior goaltender Peyton Jones and former Nittany Lion blueliner Trevor Hamilton played for prior to the start of their college hockey careers.

Schade, a left-handed defenseman from Mars, Pennsylvania, has played for the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite organization for the past three seasons. He scored a total of 16 goals and 14 assists in 70 games with the organization’s U-16 and Midget teams during the 2018-19 season.

The blueliner committed to Penn State in April 2018, and he’s currently slated to join the Nittany Lions in 2021. He’s a physical defenseman who was once described by former All-American defenseman Brian Mueller as a “meat-and-potatoes kind of guy.”

Schade earned a tryout for the United States’ National Team Development Program, which is the same junior team that NHL stars like Patrick Kane and Auston Matthews played for during their junior careers, this year. He ultimately didn’t make the team, but missing out opened the door for him to be selected with the first overall pick in the USHL Draft.

The USHL is the top junior hockey league in the United States, and many of its players go onto play in college. More than half of the players on Penn State’s 2018-19 roster spent time in the league before arriving in Happy Valley.