Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Ryan Sandelin can match Minnesota credentials with anyone.
Sandelin, a 27-year-old forward for the Iowa Wild, had a lengthy Minnesota hockey resume before he ever turned pro. The son of Minnesota-Duluth head coach Scott Sandelin, Ryan grew up in Hermantown, Minn., just outside of Duluth. Outdoor ice still remains very much a part of hockey life in Minnesota’s Iron Range. He went to Hermantown High School, one of the most storied programs in the state’s extensive high-school hockey history.
After two state championships, he eventually found himself at Minnesota State-Mankato, where he did more winning. The Mavericks won four conference championships while he was there, and he produced a 21-goal season as a junior.
And now he wears Iowa’s forest-green color scheme that matches its NHL parent club, the Minnesota Wild. After parts of two seasons with the Colorado Eagles, Iowa signed Sandelin to an AHL contract in July 2024. Since then he has established himself as a useful member of the Iowa roster.
His hockey path will now lead him back to Minnesota for Friday’s Iowa Wild Outdoor Classic. Held in Hastings, Minn., the game between Iowa and the Milwaukee Admirals will be a key part of Hockey Day Minnesota’s 20th anniversary. Hockey Day Minnesota began last Saturday and has featured a steady schedule of high-school hockey, military hockey and alumni games.
Coverage of Friday’s Milwaukee-Iowa game starts at 5:30 ET on AHLTV on FloHockey, and will stream free on FloHockey’s social platforms.
It will be hockey outdoors, just as Sandelin remembers it. The Iowa roster has a healthy Minnesota presence: There are captain Matt Kiersted (Elk River), Jack Peart (Grand Rapids) and Will Zmolek (Rochester) on the Iowa blue line. Up front along with Sandelin is Jaxon Nelson (Magnolia). Iowa general manager Matt Hendricks (Blaine) is a Minnesota product as well.
The entire Hockey Day Minnesota initiative celebrates the game’s grassroots connection to life in the state.
“It’s something we’ve been looking forward to,” Sandelin said.
The connection to the game started for Sandelin in Hermantown, a Duluth suburb of 10,000 people a little more than two hours northeast of the Twin Cities.
“I was fortunate to grow up in Hermantown, where hockey’s everything up there,” Sandelin said. “People live and breathe hockey, whether that’s in the Hermantown community, Duluth community, just everything revolves around hockey.”
Each winter day when school finished, Sandelin was off to one of the town’s outdoor rinks. For the next six hours, he and his friends buzzed around the ice and learned the game in the informal fashion that only can come with this type of hockey. A spot on the Hermantown High roster served as another incentive for Sandelin and his friends. While he grew up a Marian Gaborik fan, some of his idols came from Hermantown High. He and his friends went to the team’s games, skated with the players, and idolized them.
“You look up to those kids all the time,” Sandelin recalled. “You see them out, and they’re like celebrities in town.”
Finally he got his chance to represent his high school and his town. His Hermantown High teammates included future pros Wyatt Aamodt, Blake Biondi, Cole Koepke and Dylan Samberg. A new indoor rink opened this month in town to plenty of fanfare as well that should only intensify Hermantown’s hockey culture.
“I think it just speaks to how big hockey is there, and how big of a driver it is for the community,” Sandelin said. “The whole community came out to see it. The rink is the center of town. That’s the best way to describe hockey [there]. There’s no downtown. Downtown is the rink. It’s the centerpiece of the city and that’s where everybody gravitates during the winter.”
That fervor extends to the state’s NHL team that is tied for second in the Western Conference and has a chance to make a strong run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs when the ice and snow have thawed and melted away. The team has a sprawling radio network that covers the state thoroughly and also extends well into North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Since Sandelin signed with Iowa, he has had a chance to go to training camp with the parent team. It was one more chance to connect with his state and its NHL team.
“The buzz up in St. Paul right now is through the roof,” Sandelin said. “People love talking about the Wild. They’re really excited about the potential that that team has.”
Hastings, about 25 miles southeast of the Twin Cities nestled along the Mississippi River, will be a lot like Hermantown. And the weather forecast – temperatures below zero Fahrenheit with wind chills around minus-20 – will definitely remind Sandelin of his days back home skating, too.
But weather permitting, Sandelin hopes to have his daughter in the stands when he takes the ice Friday.
“That’s something that I know when 10, 20 years down the road, and I’m done playing hockey, I’ll be able to look back on a day like this and really cherish it and how special it was. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Each summer he returns home and trains with friends, and it takes him back.
“It started on the outdoor rink,” Sandelin said of his passion for hockey. “That’s exactly where it started.”
