How the All Hockey Hair Team became a tradition of the state of Minnesota

A high school age Jake Oettinger raced to open YouTube. A friend had just sent him an SMS with news that Hed received one of the biggest awards for a hockey player from Minnesota High School: a nod in the video of the entire hockey hair team.

And yes, there he was during the honorable mention of the video, who led his goalkeeper glove through his long brown hair.

That was almost all that I spoke about for a few weeks afterwards, says Oettinger, now with the Dallas stars.

The All Hockey Hair Team may not call fans outside Minnesota. But in the state that his Creator, John King, calls the land of 10,000 locks, it is part of the culture. King, a 50-year-old advertising professional, sets up the video after the State Tournament in high school and brings tribute to the top hairstyles during the event.

The more bizarre, the better.

Every year players make ridiculous cuts, painted hair, permanent, mustaches and more. Sometimes whole teams work together on a theme.

There is an atmosphere around Minnesota when the State Tournament comes, says Wyatt Kaiser, now a defender on the Chicago Blackhawks. You do something with your hair. It just feels a bit good.

The State Tournament is a major problem in Minnesota. Think of high school football in Texas. On Saturday, the AA -Final class attracted 20,491 fans more than every NHL match that day. Otettinger dreamed of playing in growing up in it. He remembers that he went to games as a fan as a fan.

In the splendor before the long -awaited games, teams are in the final signs of Xcel Energy Center, the Minnesota Wilds Home Rink. The public address announcer reads the name of each player and every player skates to the blue line. A camera broadcasts their introduction to 45TV.

If the game is their chance to show off their hockey skills, this moment is their chance to show off their electricity.

This is where King comes into the picture. He studies the images and then makes a top 10 list, together with honorable mentions and a lot of analysis, puns and quippy comments.

As soon as the tournament is over, you wait a little until the video comes out and watch and check whether you agree or not, says Kaiser.

It was always a kind of icing on the cake at the end, Oettinger adds.

King, who now runs a media company called Pulltab Sports, made the hair team for the first time in 2005. Some of his friends had an hour of late-night Airtime on local TV, and King put together a two-minute video to record.

He didn't do it again until 2011, when he uploaded it to YouTube. He sent it to a few lists with parents, and it wasn't long before it started. The annual videos Now rake in thousands, if not millions, views. His record is 2.9 million in the 2015 team. The following year Barry Melrose went to Minnesota to do an ESPN function on both the All Hockey Hair Team and the Hockey Hair in general.

Nowadays, Kings videos are popular enough to raise money for the Hendrickson Foundation, which aims to make hockey more accessible to people with disabilities.

Forty-nine-nine-born hockey players have appeared in NHL games this year, so it is no surprise that some inclusions in Kings All Hockey Hair team videos are now playing professionally. Cad Fairchild, a recording in the 2005 team thanks to a mop of brown hair, then played five games with the St. Louis Blues in 2011-12. At least four active NHLERS have appeared in the more recent videos: Oettinger, Kaiser, the Boston Bruins Casey Mittelstadt and the Winnipeg Jets Dylan Samberg were all included in the Honorable Mention of Montages category in the entire video.

What did King like about their hair in their younger years, and what does he think about it? He breaks it out for Athletics.

Jake Oettinger, Lakeville North

Jake Oettener in 2014 (thanks to 45TV) and 2025 (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty images).

The 4 Nations Face-Off was not only a collection of many of the world's top players. Americas Top Hockeyhaar Expert was also present. King went to the US-Sweden competition, where he got an all-alumnus from the entire hockey hair team in the net. Oettinger made 21 saves for the Americans that night, and King found what he saw, both on the ice and in terms of her.

If their goal song is free bird, he certainly lives free, says King.

Some parents want their children to keep their hair clean, but Otettingian mother, Kateri, was the opposite. She loved hockey hair and believed that her son needed Flow when he started playing the sport. When he was a first -year student in Lakeville North, his hair went well past his ears and almost hit the target pads that stop from his sweater.

Oetting paint his hair or style it in a unique way when he made the State Tournament 2014 as a first -year student, but he came on the occasion of his player introduction. He skated to the camera faster than expected, and a few hairstacks fell in place and on his forehead. Then something magical happened. Oettier used his glove to put it in place.

That's what I call a glove, Save, said King in the video.

Looking at Oettinger's team USA -headshot this year, King remains impressed by the goalkeepers. Otettinger even had a mustache in the photo.

I expect a little bit to sleep on my couch after playing call of duty all night, says King.

Unfortunately for King, Otettinger cut his hair during the 4 Nations Tournament and he has since shaved his mustache. He goes through phases, you never know what I'm going to throw at you, says Oettinger and the more unmanageable style has disappeared, at least temporarily.

To make it even worse for King, Otettinger often keeps his hair hidden.

I usually wear a hat, he says. I am married now, so I don't really have to worry about my hair anymore.

Casey Mittelstadt, Eden Prairie

Casey Mittelstadt in 2017 (thanks to 45TV) and 2024 (Michael Martin / Getty Images).

Sometimes King makes an attempt to include the top players of the United States in his video. They may not get the prestigious honor of a top 10 ranking, but their skate can appear in the opening assembly.

Mittelstadt had no less than 64 points in 25 games his last year at Eden Prairie. King started his video 2017 with a poem Flowetie, he called it and made an early note of Mittelstadt.

This year the Double-A tournament seemed to be quite the beast, he said. Mr. Mittelstadts Unfinished Business Out West and Hill-Murray from the East.

But his hair did not come to the usual standard of kings. Mittelstadt wore it briefly and neatly, not exactly Kings style.

He looks a bit like a soldier in high school, says King. As if he went to the shopping center and maybe spoke with the armyman for too long, he accidentally did a few pull-ups and maybe drew some papers.

Mittelstadt, taken over by De Bruins in a deal with the Colorado Avalanche last week, has let his blonde grow a little more during his NHL career. On points in Colorado it put out of his helmet and the front was much longer than during the State Tournament 2017.

The mountains are higher on top, says King. He looks like a man who has now received a little John Denver in his life. Good for him. He definitely goes the right direction.

Dylan Samberg, Hermantown

Dylan Samberg in 2017 (thanks to 45 TV) and 2024 (Jonathan Kozub / Getty images).

Samberg comes from a suburb of Duluth called Hermantown. However, that is not what King calls it. He calls it as a hairdresser.

Samberg actually appeared twice in Kings videos. During the opening mounting of the 2015 video, King had a clip prime and pruning while he stood in line with his teammates.

However, the video 2017 is where Samberg really left its mark. King recorded him in his introduction, not long after Mittelstadt. Samberg had no long hair at the time, but he wore a dark mustache and when he skated to the camera for his player's introduction, he made a finger dance movement. King appreciated him to show some personality in his eyes, the detached teams play the best and loved the face hair.

He had a legitimate mustache as a high school student, says King.

Samberg, it turns out, kept King fooled. He couldn't grow a mustache then. He dyed the whisper of what he had black, just so that they were visible. As far as the DAB is concerned, he says he immediately thought about it.

Nowadays Samberg has both long hair and a legitimate beard that do not need dyes. King says he looks like a man with whom you want a beer, probably. Samberg, however, recently expressed words that King would probably have shivered and possibly change his mind.

I have a hairstyle arriving.

Wyatt Kaiser, Andover

Wyatt Kaiser in 2020 (thanks to 45 TV) and 2024 (Chase Agnello-Dean / Getty images).

Making the entire hockey hair team was not a motivation of Kaisers in high school, even when he watched the videos when he was younger. He and most of his andover teammates simply kept the tradition of crazy hairstyles. They broke into small groups and each found a way to make their hair stand out.

Then you come to school a little the next day and you look at what everybodies got and laugh at each other, he says.

The result was enough to attract the attention of kings. He recorded Kaiser in the final mounting of the 2020 video.

I had a permanent, a mul and matte tips, says Kaiser.

That doesn't look like a permanent, King adds. That looks like an excellent hockey hair.

Nowadays Kaiser keeps his hair pretty tame. His headshot has King shivered. Too professional.

It seems that he went from Rinkedin to LinkedIn, he says.

Kaiser, however, says that his hair comes to Cycli. After all, it grows. He lets it get longer in the winter and he recently worn some facial hair. Maybe there is room to win back King.

The permanent and matte tips, that is one-and-doe, says Kaiser. Ah, I don't know so well. You never know

Who is the next?

King placed the 2025 Version of the video At the beginning of this week, which may have some future NHLERS himself.

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / AthleticsWith photos thanks to TV45 and by Darcy Finley and Cole Burston / Getty images)