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Odin Nelson and Ryan Siegel Bring Family Ties to Chipotle All-American Game

By Sean Shapiro, 01/15/25, 10:45AM EST

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Nelson and Siegel will serve as officials at this year’s All-American Game

Odin Nelson remembers when he caught the officiating bug.

“It was a YMCA flag football game when I was 5 or 6, my older brother was going to be a ref, so naturally I wanted to do the same thing,” Nelson said. “From there, I guess you can say the rest is history.”

It’s actually a very fun, and connected history for Nelson, who will be one of the four officials working the Chipotle All-American Game on Jan. 16 at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan.

After the flag football experience, Nelson started officiating 8U hockey games while he was in the same age bracket.

Due to Nelson’s exuberance for officiating, the league made an exception for him to play and work in the same division, often in back-to-back ice slots.

“I would play my own game, then take off my shoulder pads and ref the next game,” Nelson said. “It was a real young, real early jump into officiating my own age group, but it was awesome for me.”

Nelson had the help of a great mentor. His dad, Thor Nelson, was a long-time NHL linesperson who worked more than 1,000 games and officiated at the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics.

“I like to tell this story, because I wanted to be a lot like my dad, and I remember being a kid and watching a game my dad was working, and they didn’t have commercials for some reason on the game, so during the commercial break, I watched my dad throw a coach out,” Nelson said. “So, since I wanted to be like dad, and handle things like him, one of the games I worked soon after that as a little kid I tried to throw out a coach for saying something – so that got me into a little hot water.”

Nelson has since followed in his dad’s strides and has worked his way up to the professional ranks. Last season he worked his first professional game in the ECHL, and this season he began officiating in the AHL.

While Nelson has family ties to USA Hockey, so does fellow official Ryan Siegel, who will work as one of the referees for the All-American Game.

Siegel — who’s mom, Maureen Thompson-Siegel, chairperson for USA Hockey’s disabled section — started officiating games as an 11-year-old. By the time he was 16, he started to realize it could be a way for him to reach the highest level of hockey.

“It starts as something where you realize it’s a great way to make some money in high school or college and work your way up and then realize it can become a career and a path to the highest level,” Siegel said.

For Siegel, working the All-American game is another adventure in hockey he never would have expected.

“You think about the memories and where the game gets to take you, and it’s an honor to be able to work that game,” Siegel said. “It was surprising to get the call, but I’m really looking forward to the opportunity.”

Siegel’s journey in hockey also helped connect his mother to her eventual position with USA Hockey. In high school, Ryan volunteered to help with a special needs hockey program. From that initial experience, Thompson-Siegel kept getting more and more involved, and eventually ran for election for her current position.

“It’s something about being able to give back and work within the game that is so important to both of us,” Siegel said.

Siegel and Nelson are both also products of USA Hockey’s Advanced Officiating Development Program, and both have worked other marquee events together. They were both part of the crew for the 2024 Clark Cup Final between the Fargo Force and Dubuque Fighting Saints. A year before that, they worked the NAHL’s Robertson Cup.

Siegel and Nelson have also worked professional games together, most recently on Dec. 14 in an ECHL game between the Toledo Walleye and Bloomington Bison.

Now they’ll get to add the Chipotle All-American Game to their resumes.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

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