Top 15 Massachusetts Defensemen: The 2010 Class Recruiting Board Opens August 1.

Twenty-nine points is the highest total any 2010 defenseman put up in prep hockey last season, and he's one of the few who actually scored — six goals alongside 23 assists. He wasn't invited to the National 15 Camp at all in 2025. A year later he was at the 16 camp with three points and had both Sioux Falls and Halifax take him. There is nothing left on the checklist for him to collect.

Twenty-five assists as a freshman, running the Belmont Hill power play. That is the most assists any 2010 defenseman recorded in Massachusetts prep hockey last season, and he did it in his first year against juniors and seniors. Quarterbacking a NEPSAC power play at fifteen is a job most programs don't hand to an underclassman, and Ware held it all year. Omaha took him in the USHL and Cape Breton took him in the Q. The goal column reads zero, which is the one thing left to add — but distribution at that volume, that early, is the harder skill and the one that carries.

The most dynamic offensive defenseman in the 2010 Massachusetts class, and it isn't especially close. Five goals and 17 assists at St. Mark's — the only defenseman in the group who both scores and distributes at volume. He was the top-scoring Massachusetts 2010 defenseman at the National 15 Camp with four points, then went back to the National 16 Camp and produced again. Two straight summers in front of national evaluators, two straight summers on the scoresheet. He's confirmed to Green Bay in the USHL, which makes him the first player on this board with his next stop settled. Newfoundland holds his Q rights. He jumps a level this fall while most of this list plays another prep season, and that is the fastest track available to a defenseman his age.

The cleanest riser on the board, and the most intriguing projection in the class. No National 15 Camp invite in 2025. Seventeen points at Winchendon, then a National 16 Camp invite — and once he got there he was named to the camp all-star game, which is the part that matters. Being invited is one thing; being one of the best players in the building that week is another. Cedar Rapids and Rouyn-Noranda both drafted him. He also has the frame college and junior staffs project on, which at this age is a real separator on a blue line where most of the group is still filling out. The pedigree is there too — his father, Tom Poti, played more than 800 NHL games. A year ago he was outside the USA Hockey process entirely. He is now one of the more valuable pieces in it.

The best two-year camp arc of anyone here. Three goals and no assists at the 15 camp; two goals and three assists at the 16, leading all Massachusetts defensemen there. He went from a shooter to a player who makes the players around him better inside twelve months. He leaves Cushing for Master's Academy International this fall, the one meaningful program change in the top fifteen. If this board were built on camp weeks alone he'd be at the top of it.

Same path as Poti — no 15 camp, 11 points at Dexter, then the 16 camp invite with two points and rights taken by Sioux Falls and Drummondville. Two of the six 2026 camp defensemen came from outside the previous year's group, and Porter is the second of them. He closes out the sweep: every 16 camp invitee was drafted twice.

The strongest case on this board that a ranking is too low. Thirteen prep points is more than three of the six players in the 16 camp group. He was at the 15 camp, didn't get the callback, and it didn't cost him anything with the junior clubs — Sioux Falls and Rimouski both took him anyway. When USA Hockey and the drafts disagree, this is what it looks like.

Ten points at Belmont Hill, pointless at the National 15 Camp, no callback in 2026, and Shawinigan took him in the Q with no USHL club following. A half-credential profile: enough for one league to commit a pick, not enough for the other. He's the second Belmont Hill defenseman in this top ten, which says something about that program's blue line.

The hardest player on this board to place. Three points at Rivers, no invitation to either national camp, and Drummondville drafted him regardless. Someone in the Q organization saw something that no camp roster and no box score reflects. He ranks ninth on the strength of that pick alone, and he's the most likely name here to look badly ranked in either direction by March.

Three points at Milton and a Boys Festival invitation this spring that he didn't convert into a Final 40 spot. Modest production, but he's the last player on this list with any 2026 USA Hockey credential at all, which is the line that separates him from everything below.

The name college staffs should be writing down. Eight points at BB&N with no camp invitation, no festival, and no draft selection — more production than four of the players ranked above him. Everything about his ranking is a function of what he hasn't been given rather than what he's done. If any player on this board moves up sharply by March, the odds favor him.

Three goals from the blue line is tied for the third-most in the entire 2010 defense class, behind only Fishbone and Cotter. Seven points overall at Roxbury Latin. He shoots more than almost anyone here, which is a real trait at this age, and he has no national or junior credential attached to it yet.

Six points at Nobles with no camp or draft attachment. A steady defensive season in one of the stronger NEPSAC programs, which is worth more in a coach's evaluation than it is in a points column. He needs a scoring jump this winter to move on this board.

Two points at Brooks, no credentials. He makes the fifteen because he played a full prep varsity season in this class, and the sophomore year is where players in his position separate. This is the spot on the board that turns over first.

The point total is the least interesting thing about him. Vernazza made the Thayer Academy varsity roster as a freshman, which in a program of that caliber is a genuinely hard thing to do — most players in this birth year spent last season on a JV bench or waiting a year for the spot. He won it in year one. Zero points reflects the minutes a freshman defenseman gets on a deep NEPSAC blue line, not the player.

The traits are the reason he's on this board. Like Poti, he brings real size and length to the position, and he pairs it with the best hockey sense of anyone in the back half of this ranking — he reads plays a step early and defends with his stick and his gaps rather than chasing. That's the profile that scales when the ice time comes, and the ice time should come this year with a season of varsity behind him. He also leaves Militia for the Cape Cod Whalers on the club side.

Nobody on this list has more room to move than he does.