Oliver Peer made good on his solely likelihood; now carries the fun-having torch for Bemidji State

Oliver Peer by no means misses an opportunity to have fun, particularly in additional time.

On Oct. 24, the Bemidji State males’s hockey heart scored the sport’s solely purpose simply over two minutes into the 3-on-3 session to beat Augustana. Peer, after batting in a unfastened puck on the again door, dropped to a knee earlier than leaping face-first into the glass.

On Nov. 8, after Lake Superior State tied the sport on the finish of regulation with a 6-on-5 purpose, Peer received it in additional time once more. He lifted a backhand shot over Rorke Applebee’s shoulder, then did Patrick Kane’s memorable “heartbreaker” celebration.

Last weekend, with the rating deadlocked at 0-0 once more after regulation, Peer pressured a turnover close to the BSU blue line and broke unfastened on a 2-on-1 rush with Connor McClennon and scored the sport’s solely purpose. Peer then used his stick and his left arm, mimicking the enjoying of a stringed instrument, to the house crowd in Mankato.

“I’m just at my best when I’m having fun,” Peer stated. “That doesn’t mean I’m not trying, not caring or I’m messing around. I’m just at my best and I perform at my best when I’m having fun.”

In a Bemidji State season that’s at instances been exhilarating, whereas additionally underwhelming within the second half, Peer has been the Beavers’ beacon of maintaining issues gentle.

Courtesy / Brent Cizek Photography

“When your team is going through something tough, I just think we’ve spent enough time being upset as a team,” he continued. “Me, personally, I’m just done with moping around and being upset. So you know what? Let’s just enjoy ourselves, and maybe we’ll start playing better if we have some fun. We’re getting there. We have a good team. We just have to get there, and we’re getting there.”

Peer has been no stranger to onerous instances.

Raised in Ontario for many of his life, he went unselected within the Ontario Hockey League draft. He was pushed apart by Ontario Junior Hockey League coaches and compelled to play AAA hockey at 17 years previous in a season that was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Peer was one 12 months away from quitting the game. He had postsecondary education choices lined up earlier than he determined to stay with hockey for another season.

Now, he’s one in every of Bemidji State’s most prolific single-season scorers ever, with quite a lot of hockey forward of him.

Calling Peer a late-bloomer is considerably of an understatement.

“I’m the perfect example of a late-bloomer,” he stated with amusing.

After his 2018-19 season, Peer had his sights set on the OHL draft. Playing within the OHL was at all times the purpose, however he by no means noticed his identify come throughout the ticker when he watched the draft.

“People don’t care about major juniors in America, but where I come from, around Toronto, it’s everything,” Peer stated. “I was passed over. It was a terrible day for me. I remember watching all 15 rounds of the draft. I thought I was going to get picked. I thought I deserved to get picked. I should’ve been picked, to be honest. But I didn’t, and I was devastated.”

He began reaching out to OHL coaches for a tryout, however none of them took the bait. Peer determined to decide on enjoying Junior A hockey within the OJHL, however didn’t have any takers there both.

“I had four or five coaches tell me I wasn’t good enough,” Peer stated. “I was going to play another year of AAA hockey at 17 years old, which is just brutal. I mean, that’s my NHL Draft year, and I can’t get a spot on a team better than AAA? And that was during COVID, so there was no season.”

After his 2020-21 season was canceled, Peer, for the primary time, actually contemplated shifting on from his hockey profession.

TJ Rhodes / Bemidji Pioneer

“I always loved it, and I never wanted to quit,” he stated. “There was never a time I wanted to quit. But there was a time when I was like, ‘Man, I just don’t get it. Am I bad? Am I delusional?’ Maybe I was, maybe I was a little delusional, but maybe that’s a good thing.

“I don’t get drafted. I can barely find a spot to play AAA. After that year, I’m seeing all of these guys sign with Junior A teams. I just didn’t get it. You start to think that maybe you shouldn’t do this.”

Peer’s mother and father advised him to use to native schools. He stuffed out three purposes.

“I got into all of them,” Peer quipped. “Humble brag.”

But even with the acceptance letters in hand, he nonetheless couldn’t pull the set off.

“COVID was my Grade 12 year, so I decided I’d take one year off and go play hockey,” Peer stated. “If it works, if I’m feeling good, I’ll keep playing. If not, I’ll call it, but at least I could say I tried.”

As Canada’s COVID-19 precautions loosened, Peer discovered himself again in native rinks in the summertime. He was skating with a number of OHL gamers. A scout from the Windsor Spitfires was in attendance.

“He saw me skating and he had no idea who I was,” Peer stated. “He goes, ‘Who are you?’ I told him, ‘I don’t know.’ He asked me where I’m playing next year and I said, ‘I don’t have a spot. I don’t know where I’m going to play. I just finished my 17-year-old season, which I didn’t even get to play, and no Junior A team will take me.’”

Peer was advised to go to Windsor’s preseason camp for a tryout. At lengthy final, he was given his shot to play within the OHL.

“I crushed it at their camp,” Peer stated. “The GM signed me that weekend.”

Madelyn Haasken / Bemidji Pioneer

The Spitfires, which included now-NHLers Wyatt Johnson and Will Cuylle, completed first within the Western Conference in 2021-22 with a document of 44-17-4-3. Peer performed in 50 regular-season video games and totaled 9 factors.

But Peer didn’t get his first actual style of the OHL that season till the playoffs. Windsor dispatched Sarnia, Kitchener and Flint within the first three rounds, establishing a best-of-seven OHL finals in opposition to the Hamilton Bulldogs.

“It was the best hockey experience I’ve had so far,” Peer stated. “It was wicked.”

The sequence went the space. Before Game 7, three contests have been determined by one purpose, with two of them going to additional time. Ultimately, the winner-take-all recreation was reasonably uncompetitive, with Hamilton successful 6-1.

“I don’t think I knew how special it was to win at that point,” Peer stated. “That was my first year, so you think it’s going to happen every year. But you’re the only two teams playing. All of Ontario is watching. The arenas are sold out every night. It was the highest-attended OHL finals ever, I think.”

After his first OHL season, Peer retreated house to his typical summer time stomping grounds. It was there when he bought one other camp invitation, this time from the Pittsburgh Penguins.

TJ Rhodes / Bemidji Pioneer

“Junior kids who are watching and minor hockey kids who are watching, I want them to understand that I went from not having a spot to play, to teams in the OJHL telling me that I wasn’t good enough, and not 12 months later I was at Pittsburgh’s development camp,” Peer stated. “It can happen like that. It doesn’t matter where you are right now. If you work hard and are fully dedicated, good things can happen.”

Peer admitted it was discouraging being handed over so many instances, but additionally stated the last word payoff was greater than price it.

“I should be proof to you that it’s possible,” he stated. “I remember getting that call from Pittsburgh. I literally couldn’t believe it. I called my dad and told him I’m flying to Pittsburgh tomorrow. We were both just sitting there, like, you had eight Junior A coaches telling you that you couldn’t make their team, you just played in Game 7 of the OHL finals, and you’re going to Pittsburgh for an NHL development camp. And it happened in less than 12 months.”

Peer performed his three seasons within the OHL with Windsor and the Flint Firebirds. He performed one recreation with the Fort Wayne Komets within the ECHL earlier than he realized his hockey profession was at one other crossroads.

“I was a really good player and could do a lot of good things, but looking back at it now, I wasn’t ready to go where I was hoping,” he stated. “I needed to get bigger. I needed to have better habits. I needed to get stronger. I needed to develop different aspects of my game and make them assets.”

Peer enrolled on the University of New Brunswick. He had 19 factors in 24 USports video games as a freshman, however change was already within the air.

On Nov. 8, 2025, the NCAA amended its amateurism guidelines for males’s hockey, giving Canadian Hockey League gamers NCAA eligibility for the primary time in about 50 years.

“I remember joking around with some of the guys, saying stuff like, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re all going Division I. We’re going to the big leagues,’” Peer stated. “They were just jokes, obviously. But within the next couple of days, coaches started texting us. Everybody went silent. We weren’t really joking anymore. This thing’s real.”

One of the faculties that reached out to Peer was Bemidji State. He needed to lookup the place Bemidji was on a map, however was aware of the Beavers. He recalled their journey to the Frozen Four in 2009, regardless of having restricted data of school hockey when he was recruited.

Courtesy / Brent Cizek Photography

“I knew Bemidji was a legit school and everything, but I didn’t know anything about it or where it was,” he stated. “I’m still learning about it, because as soon as I signed major junior, I never thought I’d play college in the States. Ever since I got here, I’ve just been learning all the time. It’s a crazy ride this hockey thing has taken me on.”

After enrolling at BSU within the fall, Peer shortly realized of the variations between NCAA hockey and USports.

“NCAA is way more skilled but less physical,” Peer stated. “It’s a lot less physical, actually. USports is vicious. I had a guy put his shoulder through my nose last year. It’s the most aggressive hockey I’ve ever played. There’s not that much skill. You don’t have the Plante brothers in Duluth. You don’t have anything close to that in USports. You have big, strong men, and the youngest guy you’ll play against is 21 or 22. I was playing against 28-year-olds last year.”

In his first NCAA recreation, Peer had a pair of assists on the highway in opposition to Alaska-Anchorage. He scored the following evening, then twice extra in his third recreation in opposition to St. Cloud State.

Peer leads the Beavers in factors (31) and targets (18). His three additional time targets are essentially the most within the nation. Only six different gamers in faculty hockey have scored greater than he has.

Listed as a junior, Peer has one thing he’s hardly ever had earlier than this season: choices. He can return to varsity hockey subsequent season or see what his professional choices are.

“It’s been a wild ride, and I don’t want to say that I’ve been just hanging on, but I’ve been sticking around with it and enjoying it,” Peer stated. “It’s been awesome. There’s been great times and bad times. The opportunities and the situation this game has put me in, this game’s just done so much for my life and for me. Even if this was my last year ever playing for some reason, I’d be forever grateful.”

Regardless of the place Peer’s profession takes him subsequent, he’ll take the chip on his shoulder with him.

“It was so tough, man. I went through some tough years,” Peer stated. “I faced a lot of adversity early on in my career. As opposed to a lot of guys, let’s say they get to the college level and they’ve just been a stud since they were 8 years old, but right now they’re not the best guy on their team anymore. I’ve already gone through this long rollercoaster where I’ve just been chewed up and spit out so many times. I just feel like it’s really good for my mentality, my mental strength. I think that’s benefited me a lot.”