MINNEAPOLIS — Standing on a balcony overlooking the ice, where a dozen or so kids from Minnesota’s largest city were playing a pickup game, Dan Brooks couldn’t help but think of his father, the legendary Herb, who died in a car accident nearly 20 years ago.

“My dad would’ve loved to be here today,” Brooks said, then offered a clarification as he glanced down to the rink. “Well, not up here. He’d have been down there, on the ice.”

Herb’s children Dan and Kelly were among those on hand recently at Northeast Ice Arena, just a few miles from the skyscrapers of downtown Minneapolis, for the dedication of new facilities designed to be an access point for hockey in the city, and leave a legacy for the best-attended hockey game in Minnesota history.

The 2022 NHL Winter Classic will be remembered for the below-zero cold as the Minnesota Wild fell to the St. Louis Blues on a temporary rink at Target Field. But the lasting legacy of the game will be used for years to come.

The Wild, the NHL and the Herb Brooks Foundation together funded roughly $75,000 in improvements to the community rink in Minneapolis, which is run by the city's park and recreation arm. The addition includes a state-of-the art room for dryland training and a smaller mentoring room where kids and their coaches can gather in a quiet place with comfortable chairs and places to do homework or go over hockey strategy.

To properly christen the new workout room, Wild strength and conditioning coach Matt Harder put the boys and girls captains from the Minneapolis high school hockey program through an intense series of stretches and drills, similar to those the NHL players endure.

Minneapolis and St. Paul were once hotbeds of hockey in Minnesota, with standouts like Brooks (St. Paul Johnson), Tom Chorske (Minneapolis Southwest), Paul Holmgren (St. Paul Harding) and Reed Larson (Minneapolis Roosevelt) learning the game on the neighborhood rinks that dot the metro area. That is no longer the case, as increasing ethnic diversity in both cities has meant fewer kids from traditional hockey-playing backgrounds in the public schools, and fewer kids on the ice in the winter.

Minneapolis now has just a lone public high school program for kids from more than a half-dozen schools, and while the Minneapolis boys made a spirited run to the state tournament last year, there’s a clear idea that more can and should be done to get kids from the core cities back on the ice in greater numbers.

A place like the dryland training center dedicated in Minneapolis with officials from the Wild and the NHL on hand can absolutely help, they believe.

“Facilities like this are important because communities engage where they have the resources to engage,” said Kim Davis, who works for the NHL on the game’s growth and social impact. She raved about northeast Minneapolis having a safe place with top-notch equipment, and where kids can work on their physical and mental health. “It makes them feel like part of our community, and it makes them feel part of our sport, and that’s vitally important for growing the game.”

This is not a new idea for the Wild, who in 2021 launched their Hockey is For Me program. The goal is to get more kids of color to try hockey, and give them opportunities to stay in the game if it is something they love.

The Wild work with community leaders among the various minority groups in Minnesota to identify kids who have an interest in trying hockey, and whose families have the resources to keep them involved in the sport for the long haul.

“We’re not just trying to find any kids who will sign up. We want them, after that first year, to still be able to afford it,” said Kalli Funk, who administers the program for the Wild. “Hockey is an expensive sport, and that’s a whole other topic, so there’s a big recruiting piece that goes into this program.”

In 2021 they brought 100 kids of color to TRIA Rink in St. Paul for four weeks of skating lessons, using loaner skates and helmets provided by the Wild. If a player is interested in taking the next step after learning to skate, they are enrolled in the Little Wild Learn to Play program, and given a full set of hockey gear. If they want to move on when that program is done, the Wild will pay up to $500 to enroll a child in their community’s youth hockey program for their first year.

Of those 100 who learned to skate their first year, 70 of them moved on to Little Wild. This year, 80 kids learned how to skate and 51 of them are learning to play hockey, with the goal of more people of color on the ice and in the audience at hockey games in Minnesota. According to one Wild player, it is working.

“For me to be on the ice and look out and see people of color in the stands, that’s something that doesn’t happen that often, but you’re starting to see it happen at Xcel more, which is cool,” said Wild defenseman Matt Dumba, whose mother is Filipino-Canadian. “That’s not how it was at the start of my career. Friends and family of mine would come to the rink and feel like a needle in a haystack when they’re at the Xcel, and that’s starting to change. Hockey is becoming more vibrant and more welcoming. That’s what I’ve been trying to do these last few years.”

Still, there are myriad challenges facing the game in the inner city. Some involved in Minneapolis youth hockey say that the costs are one big factor, and transportation is another. Think of all the miles a hockey parent puts on their car getting a child to and from practice and games. Then think of those who rely on public transportation to get around, and it is a near impossibility to meet a kid’s sports schedule that way.

Jeff Scott, the NHL’s point person for growing diversity in hockey, not only on the ice but in terms of fans and job opportunities, said there is much work to be done, but he remains encouraged by what he sees in places like Minnesota.

“We’re making progress,” Scott said while visiting the new facility in Minneapolis. “I can’t say that we are there yet. I can’t say that we are settled, but I can say that we’re extremely optimistic from the progress we are making and the conversations we are having, to make sure we make the game more safe, more welcoming, more inclusive for what we would consider non-traditional sports enthusiasts and fans.”

While they chase a Stanley Cup on the ice, the Wild have adopted the mission statement “Creating a Greater State of Hockey” to characterize their efforts off the ice, which include contributing to facilities like the one in Minneapolis.

“Things like this are so critical to revitalizing areas like this that were once the hotbed of hockey,” said Wild team president Matt Majka. “As much as Minnesota is the State of Hockey and it’s so important to so many of us, there are still many communities and kids that don’t know the sport and frankly it hasn’t been accessible to them. So things like this are so important to broaden our footprint and introduce communities that haven’t had the opportunity.”