It’s no shock that future RedHawk Jakeb Lynch is heading back to the USHL, this time with his hometown team, the Omaha Lancers.
“Omaha acquired forward Jakeb Lynch from the Minnesota Wilderness of the North American Hockey League in exchange for future considerations. The Lancers have also received three future draft picks from the Chicago Steel in exchange for forward Cam Caron,” per the Lancers’ press release on Monday (11/2).
Lynch is a 5-foot-8, 165-pound forward who has bounced between the NAHL and USHL over the past three seasons, playing for the Minnesota Wilderness (NAHL), Des Moines Buccaneers (USHL), and Waterloo Black Hawks (USHL).
In 41 USHL games, he’s recorded 10 points (three goals, seven assists), averaging 0.24 points per game. The most came last season with Des Moines/Waterloo as a depth forward, where he put up 10 points in 34 games played.
He’s lit up the NAHL, though, recording 95 points in 80 games played (32 goals, 63 assists). At the time of Monday’s trade, he led the NAHL in scoring with 28 points through 16 games, averaging 1.75 points per game. It was time to jump back.
“Jakeb is an experienced USHL player who brings a wealth of experience at the junior hockey level to us,” head coach Ron Fogarty said. “That type of grit will go a long way to helping us. He’s a skilled player and he wants to be in Omaha. Coach (Christian) Graham coached Jakeb during his youth hockey career and guys like Reese Lantz, Mason Noble and Ryder Reynolds have all played with him before and look forward to doing so again,” per the Lancers’ press release.
This is a good pickup for Omaha, especially considering Lynch’s familiarity with the program and his connection to the coaching staff. He’s been committed to Miami since June 2024, around the time former Tri-City head coach Anthony Noreen initially took over.
Now, Lynch gets another opportunity to prove himself at the USHL level, this time with his hometown team. He’s shown that he can produce offensively in the NAHL, but the question will be how that production translates back to the USHL.
I think he’ll get a better opportunity this time around from the Omaha staff, and it’ll be interesting to see how he takes advantage of it. Continuing to get stronger and developing a more physical presence in his game will be important as he makes the jump back up.
Lynch has already shown what he can do offensively at the NAHL level, and now he’ll have another chance to establish himself in the USHL before eventually making his way to Oxford for the 2027-28 season.
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