SIOUX FALLS — Walker Duehr makes his way back to Sioux Falls each summer to be near his family and train at the Sanford Sports Complex, and each time, there’s something new within the local hockey community that marvels him.
Since just last summer, Augustana’s Division I hockey program completed its inaugural season, which saw the unveiling of its $75 million, 154,000 square-foot facility — Midco Arena.
ABOUT THIS SERIES: This is the second installment of Hockey SoDak, an ongoing retrospective that explores the timeless tales of hockey in South Dakota.
Duehr has seen photos of the new hockey arena. He wants to get out and tour it in person while he’s in town training throughout the offseason, and he knows it’s only going to bring even more eyes to the sport he loves.
Of course, there’s long been a USHL team in town with the Sioux Falls Stampede. Duehr looked up to Herd players growing up like they were NHL stars. His parents were season-ticket holders, and Duehr couldn’t get enough.
A smile creeps across Duehr’s face as he reflects on the naivety of his adolescent perception — it’s an expression that’s presumably induced by the astonishment of it all.
In 2021, following a four-year playing career at Minnesota State, the Sioux Falls native made history when he signed an entry-level deal with the Calgary Flames, becoming the first player from South Dakota to ink an NHL contract. Duehr made his NHL debut in November 2021, and just last spring, the 6-foot-2 right wing agreed to a two-year extension with the Flames worth $1.65 million.
Trent Singer / The Rink Live
All these years later, Duehr has become the template.
“What he’s doing, he probably doesn’t even realize it right now, but he has set the bar,” says Noëlle Needham, who has coached and trained Duehr for the last decade-plus. “There’s so many good kids coming up from South Dakota that could potentially play in the league and play Division I and stuff like that. They all really look up to him.
“The rinks and everything are great because they’re necessary for the game to grow, but you have to see it to believe it. And he has done that. Now I think you’re just going to see a lot more kids reaching higher levels from this state.”
Throughout the summer Duehr will pass by younger players in between workouts at the Scheels IcePlex and Sanford Fieldhouse, and occasionally, one might pry at the 26-year-old forward for advice.
Hey Walker, what does it take to get to the pros?
It’s certainly a loaded question, one that can only be answered by personal experience. However, it’s only a matter of time before others begin to find the answer on their own.
Contributed / Calgary Flames
“To just have another higher level of hockey here and all the kids now that are playing at the IcePlex, it seems like more and more kids are playing because the facilities are there,” Duehr says. “They have everything at their disposal. I just think it’s going to keep growing and getting bigger.
“The Stampede’s always drawing. They’ve always done great with attendance, and to have Augustana now with high-level hockey and great facilities, too, it’s just another avenue to get kids interested in hockey.”
For Duehr, hockey has always been a family affair.
Born in Sioux Falls, Duehr’s family moved to Brookings when he was 3, and it was around that time he first began to skate.
Duehr’s interest in the sport was initially sparked by his older brother, Wyatt, and his cousin, Zeb Knutson. By the time Walker was 5, the Duehrs moved back to Sioux Falls, where hockey was beginning to entrench itself in the community with the recent addition of the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede.
Back then, there were two sheets of ice available during the winter in Sioux Falls — one at the Sioux Falls Ice and Recreation Center (SFIRC), formerly known as the Minnehaha Ice and Recreation Center, and one in the Expo Building at the W.H. Lyon Fairgrounds.
“That was kind of just a barn with a hockey rink in it,” Duehr says about the Expo. “I remember our dressing rooms were just mobile homes that we got dressed in, so ice time and stuff was a bit harder to come by.
“We did the best we could and made the best of what we had.”
Contributed / Neal Duehr
Duehr got involved in organized hockey through the Sioux Falls Flyers program in the Sioux Falls Youth Hockey Association. But around the age of 12, a fateful encounter one day changed everything.
Neal and Victoria Duehr had rented ice time for their sons and nephews — Walker, Wyatt, Zeb and Zaccheaus — to skate at the Larson Ice Center in Brookings. It was there that the four boys caught the attention of Needham, who had moved back to her parents’ ranch in nearby Elkton, South Dakota, following a career-ending injury at Minnesota State.
“Neal Duehr, Walker’s dad, was actually sitting in the stands, and I vividly remember he had a Detroit Red Wings hoodie on,” Needham says. “I just went up to him and said, ‘Hey, I would love to work with these boys, and I really feel like I could help them.’
“That kind of started the journey with it. It was just kind of a cold call.”
From there, the four cousins began training with Needham at the Larson Ice Center until the ice was taken out for the year.
At the time, the SFIRC was the only place where ice was available in the summer, so Needham rented ice there as often as she could. However, the coils at the SFIRC didn’t run all the way out, which left a roughly two-foot, sand-covered gap between the ice and the boards.
“You had to jump on this, and this was actually how we started our summer training at the SFIRC. And we lost a lot of pucks,” Needham says. “But we weren’t able to use the boards or anything because there wasn’t ice going all the way out to it.
“Then, the following summer, there wasn’t ice anywhere except for Mitchell, so I would pick Walker up and drive him to go and skate two or three times a week in Mitchell just to stay at it.”
I just went up to him and said, ‘Hey, I would love to work with these boys, and I really feel like I could help them.’ That kind of started the journey with it. It was just kind of a cold call.
Noëlle Needham
Whether it was in Brookings, Luverne (Minnesota), Sioux City (Iowa) or elsewhere, ice time came at a premium, and Needham was toting Duehr everywhere she could to skate.
But the training Needham provided for Duehr was unlike anything he’d experienced.
It was more personalized, tailored to a more elite level, and it wasn’t just the basics. Needham was teaching the young skater what it took to separate himself from the others, as well as how to fine-tune the smaller skills.
It was the start of what is now known as Legend Hockey — a program founded by Needham and her business partner, Ashley Munsterman, that offers elite and youth training designed to build strong foundational skills and prepare players both mentally and physically.
“She’s just been a voice and someone I can rely on just for advice and answered questions when I was younger,” Duehr says. “My family and I, we didn’t really know too much about moving onto higher levels. My brother kind of paved the way for me through her as well, too, so she’s been a huge asset for me.”
Contributed / Neal Duehr
Throughout his high school years, hockey sent Duehr all over the country.
Duehr attended high schools in five different states, beginning with a one-year stint with the Las Vegas Storm 16U AAA team in 2012-13. After that season ended with the final quarter of his freshman year remaining, he returned to Sioux Falls and transferred into Roosevelt High School to finish out his first year. Then, the following season, he headed to the Chicago suburbs as a sophomore to play for the Chicago Young Americans 16U AAA team in Wheaton, Illinois.
In 2014, Duehr was selected by the Sioux City Musketeers in the eighth round of the USHL Entry Draft. He attended Sioux City East High School his junior year and appeared in 54 games during the Musketeers’ 2014-15 campaign before getting traded in the offseason to the Tri-City Storm. He took online classes in Kearney, Nebraska, to finish out high school.
While playing away from home isn’t uncommon for hockey players in high school, Duehr certainly experienced more than the norm.
Contributed / Chicago Steel Hockey Team
“A lot of kids my age when I was growing up here were all at Roosevelt,” Duehr says. “I had to move away from them, but they lived a lot different high school life than me.”
Duehr’s final season of junior hockey came in 2016-17 when he played 43 games for the Chicago Steel, totaling 27 points on 12 goals and 15 assists. He was traded again that winter to the Bloomington Thunder, landing on his fourth USHL team in three seasons.
The buzz around Duehr’s name began to grow immensely during his second season of junior hockey.
Duehr racked up 27 points (11-16-27) over 49 games for Tri-City in 2015-16. NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings in 2016 had Duehr ranked No. 162 among North American skaters, and on top of the interest he was beginning to receive from NHL teams, he was also being pursued by a number of college programs.
Among the official visits Duehr took that season was one to Minnesota State, where his cousin, Zeb, was a sophomore at the time under then-coach Mike Hastings.
“It was just kind of a place that was closer to home, and that was a huge draw for me was to finally be closer to home,” Duehr says. “It was an elite-level program for hockey and was good education-wise, too.
“I went through the typical recruiting process, and then I ended up just committing there.”
Contributed / Minnesota State Athletics
With his brother, Wyatt, also attending MSU as a student, Needham believes the family ties were an obvious factor in Duehr’s decision to commit to the Mavs.
“I think a big part of this has been just the ability to do this as a family like they have been able to do,” Needham says. “To stay true to your morals and values and all those things through this whole journey is really important, but it’s also really hard.
“Them being able to still be together to watch each other and play alongside each other, I think that was a really big-time factor in him choosing to go there.”
Duehr played in only eight games as a freshman and picked up just three points. Yet his minutes increased heavily as a sophomore in 2018-19, during which he totaled 16 points (10-6-16) over 34 games. Duehr then amassed 15 points (3-12-15) over 32 games as a junior, which began an uptick in interest from the pro ranks.
Contributed / Minnesota State Athletics
However, the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season early, and Duehr was unable to attend the NHL development camps he had been invited to. But then came a senior season that positioned Duehr for the next level.
Duehr scored 10 goals and added seven assists over 28 games, helping the Mavericks advance to the Frozen Four for the first time as a Division I program.
“That’s kind of when it started to become a reality for me,” Duehr says. “Fortunately I was able to garner interest and fulfill that dream a little bit.”
On April 11, 2021, Duehr signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the Calgary Flames. He made his NHL debut on Nov. 14, 2021, in a 4-0 win over Ottawa but spent the rest of the season with the Flames’ AHL affiliate in Stockton, California.
Then, the following season on Jan. 12, 2023, Duehr was playing in his second game after getting called up when he finished off a breakaway late in the second period, scoring his first NHL goal in a 4-1 win over St. Louis.
“I think I blacked out,” Duehr said during the post-game media scrum. “It was a pretty cool feeling and something you dream of, so it was pretty cool.”
Duehr finished the 2022-23 season with 11 points (7-4-11) with the Flames before being sent back down to finish out the campaign with the Calgary Wranglers of the AHL.
On April 24, 2023, Duehr was awarded a two-year extension worth $1.65 million, a fitting contract for the fourth-line grinder.
The hype that surrounded Duehr and paved the way for his extension has dissipated after he finished the 2023-24 season with just seven points (2-5-7) in 40 games, spending almost the entirety of the season with the Flames.
However, a proving ground awaits.
The physical tools that are necessary to contribute as a bottom-six forward are all there, and with a number of open spots available for Calgary in 2024-25, Duehr figures to have plenty of motivation as he heads into the second and final year of his deal.
Angela Burger / Calgary Flames
Since the end of April, Duehr has been back in Sioux Falls training during the offseason. He took a few weeks off before getting back into it in early June with Needham’s group while also doing one-on-one workouts with Sanford’s lead strength and conditioning coach, Brad Rilling.
“I plan to be here training until probably August,” Duehr says. “I’ll get up to Calgary again in August and just get acclimated and start training there with some of the guys until training starts in the second week of September.”
Needham can’t help but notice the similarities between Duehr’s rise in the pro ranks and her own ascension.
The 38-year-old Elkton, South Dakota, native broke a glass ceiling in 2018-19 when she was hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs, becoming the first-ever female amateur scout in the NHL. Needham held that position through the 2019-20 season before she took over as assistant general manager of the Steel for three seasons (2020-23).
Throughout that time, Needham has also remained the head coach of the 16U AAA team for Sioux Falls Power, a Tier 1 hockey organization she co-founded in 2014 alongside Matt Tobin.
“I’m really close with their family,” Needham says about the Duehrs. “He feels more like family just given how we’ve all kind of come up through this in the past 10 years, and I’m just so proud of what he’s doing and how hard he works and how disciplined he is.”
Before Needham came along, Duehr’s father, Neal, ran basically everything on his own, including the coaching side of things.
“He didn’t really know anything about hockey,” Duehr says about his father. “He kind of picked it up when my oldest cousin, Zeb, first started playing. That’s when he got introduced to the game, and then my older brother, Wyatt. He kind of learned as they learned.
“I’d say the biggest challenges were just getting those ice times, having ice availability, and then just having kids around my skill level and who had the same vision as me and just finding someone to kind of lead the charge before Noëlle came along.”
With Needham came a standard of excellence from her time at the prestigious Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in Faribault, Minnesota.
Brett Holmes / USA TODAY Sports
A 2004 graduate of Shattuck, Needham grew up alongside some of the NHL’s current stars, including Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Kyle Okposo.
In order to establish a cultural identity in Sioux Falls, she attempted to emulate the Shattuck standard.
“It was a deeper type of success and goals and work ethic that I experienced in my upbringing through going to Shattuck,” Needham says. “From that, we had to do whatever it took to be on the ice because you have to work at a certain level consistently to achieve these things. Not having a place to skate or train, that can’t be the excuse.
“I think that was the perspective that we took. It was like, ‘It doesn’t matter right now. We’re going to go where we have to go, but we have to go because we have to work hard.’”
Duehr says he loves coming back every summer to train with Needham and is always happy to help out with the Flyers whenever he can.
As the standard-bearer of what it takes to make it to the NHL from South Dakota, Duehr says the most important advice he can impart on younger players is to simply have fun.
“I think a lot of kids these days are putting in a lot of work, and sometimes they get burnt out,” Duehr says. “I found my parents kind of had a healthy balance for me. It was always what I wanted to do. If I wanted to do an extra day, they were always there to support me first and foremost.
“I think it comes from the player within. If they’re having fun and want to put in extra work, I think if the parents are able to support them, it’s great. It’s kind of got to come from their will.”
Trent Singer / The Rink Live
The growth of hockey in Sioux Falls is attributed to the collective efforts from a number of individuals, all of whom seem to support one another rather than compete.
Duehr’s journey to the pro ranks is rooted in humble beginnings, but thanks to the resources that are now in place, Needham believes he is the first of many more South Dakotans who will carve out their own path to the NHL.
“Now people have these examples and understand you can’t just skate for four months and then shut it down and want to play in the NHL one day when you get to a certain age,” Needham says. “Multi-sports are still really important, but you still have to do things consistently throughout the year to continue to improve.
“People understand that now and really buy into it, but the support for hockey here — the Stampede plays a large role in this — is just tremendous. It always has been, so now you’re seeing all these things come together. The level of players that are coming out of here now is remarkable.”
Hockey SoDak is an ongoing retrospective that explores the timeless tales of hockey in South Dakota. Do you have a story you’d like to share? If so, contact Sioux Falls Live reporter Trent Singer.
