Walker Duehr has come to be a powerful symbol of what could be for hockey-crazed kids in Sioux Falls.
After all, the Calgary Flames forward is the only citizen of that South Dakota city to make his way to the National Hockey League.
But maybe it won’t be long before he’s joined by others from his hometown, thanks to his own influence coupled with the rise of the Sioux Falls POWER hockey academy.
“I would have killed to have that when I was growing up, for sure,” said Duehr, when talking about the POWER AAA program, which is sending its 18-and-under side to the 2025 Circle K Classic in Calgary.
“When I was growing up in Sioux Falls, it was a fight to find ice-time, and there were only two buildings that provided ice in the winter,” continued the Flames right-winger. “One building had a rodeo off and on during the winter so there wasn’t always ice in it. And then there was another arena — a really small arena — that was just up during the winter, as well.”
Cue the POWER, an unknown entity for most folks following the annual Circle K Classic since the South Dakota academy is making its maiden visit to the world-renowned annual tournament for 18-and-under puck programs.
But it’s one Duehr is able to shed light on.
“I think it came about when I was a junior, so I was already and gone and out of Sioux Falls,” said the 27-year-old Duehr. “But Noelle Needham and Matt Tobin are the two main founders, and they’ve done a great job of building that program, and they’ve got a lot of people now graduate on to USHL and NCAA Division I commitments.
“They actually have one draft pick (in Carolina Hurricanes’ Jayden Perron) out of there too, now.
“I skate in the summer quite a bit with Noelle, and a lot of the guys I skate with are actually from the POWER program,” continued Duehr. “It’s a great organization with their set-up with the three sheets of ice that they have in that facility. And then it’s probably a five-minute walk to where they have a really nice set-up for weight training and stuff. I think it’s a top-of-the-line AAA program in the United States.”
It’s a much different hockey environment in Sioux Falls than the one in which Duehr himself grew up.
In fact, the young talent was forced to travel far and wide — with the help and commitment of his parents — to hone his burgeoning hockey career.
“Yeah … when I was 12 years old, my cousin, Zeb Knutson, and my older brother, Wyatt, were playing for a AAA team out of Overland Park, Kansas, called Russell Stover, and they had an under-12 team,” Duehr said. “They allowed me to play for that team to kind of find some high-level hockey, because in Sioux Falls, they didn’t have the AAA program quite yet.
“So that Russell Stover team allowed me to live at home still and not away quite yet. When we weren’t practising on the weekends, we travelled to wherever the games were. So my parents put on a lot of miles — and we did that for two years.”
Then came high-school life at a handful of different institutions from Grade 9 to Grade 12 and a four-team adventure in the United States Hockey League for the well-travelled Duehr in more nobody-cares-about-hockey states, including Nebraska and Nevada.
His hockey resumé reads like this:
- 2011-12 with Russell Stover 14U AAA in Overland Park, Kansas
- 2012-13 with the Las Vegas 16U AAA Storm in Nevada
- 2013-14 with the Chicago Young Americans 16U AAA in Illinois
- 2014-15 with the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers in South Dakota
- 2015-16 with the USHL’s Tri-City Storm in Nebraska;
- 2016-17 with the USHL’s Chicago Steel in Illinois and the USHL’s Bloomington Thunder in Illinois
“Hockey wasn’t super prominent, obviously, where I was from in Sioux Falls,” Duehr said. “I was always following in the footsteps of my brother and my cousin. Anybody that kind of reached out for higher level hockey, we didn’t really question it or look into it too much. We knew it was higher level and didn’t really have any other options, so we kind of went with that.
“That’s how I ended up with Russell Stover and then eventually the Vegas Storm and then on to the Chicago Young Americans.”
He persevered, of course, before — finally — finding a home with the NCAA’s Minnesota State Mavericks for four years and eventually signing as an undrafted free agent with the Flames, with whom he has played 77 career NHL games over the last four seasons.
Most recently, he’s got the call up for an opportunity to help the team’s penalty kill.
It’s not the path kids in Sioux Falls are likely to pursue given the POWER’s emergence in the city of 200,000.
“Noelle’s been a huge part of the reason why,” said Duehr, of the shift in hockey dynamics in his hometown. “She started a program called Legend Hockey, and I started partaking in that probably around like 11 years old. And that slowly and slowly grew, and then once they just got the facility called the SCHEELs IcePlex, that helped grow hockey, because it just meant more ice available. So there was more interest garnered in that. And then from that interest, she saw a need that AAA program could be of use.
“They had to really recruit trying to get players there. But now it’s a pretty wanted destination for players to try to get to.
“A very legit program.”
And one to power the puck talent of South Dakota.
“A lot of the guys from the POWER program aren’t from Sioux Falls — like they’re coming to Sioux Falls for that program,” added Duehr. “But there are some kids from Sioux Falls that are playing in those programs that have the chance — if they stay on the right track and keep working — to actually play professional hockey.
“I like to think that I’ve paved the way a little bit. I kind of like to see myself as a role model, so I’m trying to be a good example for them and something for them to look up to and show them that if they keep working, that they can do it.”
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@ToddSaelhofPM