Hudson Perry To Become First Nantucket High School Graduate To Play NCAA Hockey

There have been very few, if any island hockey players that have embodied what it means to be self-less, hardworking, and a natural-born leader more than Hudson Perry, a member of Nantucket High School’s Class of 2022. It is only fitting that Perry, a former captain, will become the first NHS graduate to play NCAA hockey after it was announced Saturday evening that Perry was committing to Rivier University to join their Div. 3 program.

“I was wondering about that and I couldn’t think of any players I know that graduated (from Nantucket High School) and played college hockey,” Perry said when told he was the first NHS graduate to ever commit to an NCAA hockey program. “If that is the case I mean, that's pretty unreal. It kind of just shows you don't have to be playing the greatest hockey and all that. That means a lot after growing up there and playing there my whole career and then being able to move on and play at the college level. I just hope that a lot of the young guys, young kids from Nantucket see that and know that they have a chance after playing hockey there to go on and play at a high level.”

While Perry will become the first Nantucket High School graduate to ever join an NCAA hockey program, he is the third Nantucket hockey player to play at the NCAA level – joining Jillian Fey, who played Div. 1 hockey at Boston College but played her high school hockey off island at prep school (Nantucket did not have a girls hockey team at the time) and Ben Jenkinson, who is playing at Endicott College but left the island after one season with the varsity squad as an eighth grader to play at prep school.

Perry was a captain for the Whalers and became a significant piece of their team as early as his freshmen year. A natural forward, Perry willingly made the sacrifice to move back to defense midway through his freshman and senior years at NHS as his team struggled with injuries and/or depth on the back end. To this day, former Whaler head coach Scott Corbett – who coached Perry throughout his high school playing career – is adamant that the sacrifices made by Perry changed the course of both seasons.

In 2019, Perry and the Whalers nearly knocked off top-seeded Hanover on the road but lost 4-2. In 2022, Perry led Nantucket to the state quarterfinal. It was the first of three consecutive trips for the program.

"I played defense in youth hockey and then when I went into high school, I thought I would be a forward,” Perry said. “I played forward for the Express U14-U16 before high school and started high school off as a forward, but then I ended up moving back to defense just because we were struggling.”

Perry believes those sacrifices that he made in high school and the high expectations levied on him helped pave the way for him to develop into a college hockey player.

“I think just going in as a freshman, that switch put me in a spot where I had to really step up and try to play with a lot of confidence just being a younger guy,” Perry said. “I think just that part of it being younger but thrown into a big, big role helped me build my game so when I moved up to juniors and started juniors, I was a younger guy, but I think I was already kind of prepared to play in a big role.”

Perry joined the Express Hockey Club, a junior hockey team based in Walpole, MA that plays in the eastern hockey league (EHL) after graduating. In his three years with the club, Perry has earned every ounce of success he has enjoyed.

In his first season, Perry played for the team’s B squad as part of the Eastern Hockey League Premier (EHLP), a sub-division of the EHL. In his second year, Perry made the EHL roster as a fourth line center. He began the year trying to make the most of limited minutes but by the end of the season, worked his way into the team’s top two lines. This season, Perry was named an assistant captain by his teammates and has played top six minutes all year while being named an all star.

“Huddy has been a three-year guy for us at the Express,” Nic Cota, Express head coach, said in a release. “Each season with us, he has been an impact player. I’m extremely honored to have been able to be around him for the past three years. His unmatched work ethic and love for the game of hockey will be greatly missed at the Express. Congratulations to Hudson and the Perry family on this next chapter at the NCAA level. I look forward to seeing his impact in year one at Rivier.”

In 82 games for the Express A Team, Perry has tallied 31 goals and 30 assists for 61 points. He represented the Express at the EHL All Star College Series, which was a team made up of the best EHL players from the Northeast teams. That all-star team then had the opportunity to play two Div. 3 schools (Keene State and Wentworth). Perry shined in both games, recording one goal and one assist in both games for four points total.

"I played pretty well in that and that was a cool experience to meet all those guys you play against (during the EHL season),” Perry said.

Perry will be playing college hockey at a time when it has become more difficult than ever to make a team following a ruling in November of 2024 by the NCAA Div. 1 Council that Canadian Hockey League (major junior) players are now eligible to play Div. 1 hockey for the first time ever.

“So all the nasty kids that are tearing it up in the junior leagues in Canada are going to start committing to all the Div. 1 teams so then the D1 kids that are good but they're not playing, maybe they're going to start transferring to Div. 3 because there's no Div. 2,” Perry said. “It's just getting so much harder.”

Perry will have four years of eligibility. Strong academics, as well as the opportunity to be a part of a hockey program that is in the early stages of building something special was intriguing to him when he made the decision to commit to Rivier University.

"One thing that really attracted me to Rivier was they are a lower end division three team, but they're building something there and I kind of wanted to be a part of something where I can help build a program from somewhere where it's not so high right now, and kind of just be a part of something that grows bigger while playing a lot of minutes,” Perry said.