The memory of a friend has a daily, enduring impact on defenseman Ian Mitchell.

Before the puck drops and the noise rises, there’s a moment of stillness that never changes for Grand Rapids Griffins defenseman Ian Mitchell.

“Every game, when the anthem ends, I remind myself how grateful I am to be there, to be playing hockey, to still be doing this,” Mitchell said.

It’s his own quiet ritual, one that doesn’t really draw any attention. No stick taps. No dramatic pause. Just a breath and a reminder.

Mitchell has played hockey from rural Alberta to the highest level of college hockey, in the National Hockey League and now the American Hockey League. But since 2019, wherever he goes, he brings something with him.

It’s small, about the size of the palm of your hand. It bears the name and number of someone he refuses to leave behind.

“It’s just a little decal, but it means a lot,” he said. “It says ‘In memory of Logan Hunter’ and it's got his number, number 18. It’s in my stall [at Van Andel Arena] and I bring it with me for every road trip game and put it in my stall on the road.”

It’s not a good-luck charm, he said. It’s a reminder. Of friendship, of loss, and of a perspective that fundamentally changed his hockey journey.

Why It’s Personal

On April 6, 2018, a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League collided with a semi-trailer truck on a rural Canadian highway, killing 16 people and injuring 13 others. Mitchell lost one of his closest friends, Logan Hunter, in the crash.

Mitchell’s connection to Hunter went back to sixth grade and was documented by Jason LaRose, senior manager of content strategy for Hockey Canada, during the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship.

“That connection, that bond you make growing up with someone, when something like [the bus accident] happens, it’s hard to put into words,” Mitchell told LaRose. 

And though their paths had diverged before that tragic day, Mitchell vowed to carry Hunter’s memory with him, forever.

That promise shows up in the smallest of ways. The decal was made by Hunter’s mother about a year after the crash and given to his friends. Mitchell has kept it with him ever since.

“It’s been with me through college, through pro hockey,” he said. “It comes with me wherever I go.”

There’s no fanfare. And, Mitchell added, the decal and the reminder it provides are not meant to define him. But he does hope they steady him.

Hockey, especially at the professional level, moves fast both on and off the ice. Locker rooms change. Teammates come and go. A stall that feels permanent one season can be gone the next. Through all of that movement, Mitchell’s small decal has remained constant, a quiet presence in spaces that are often otherwise temporary.

“You think of all hockey players anywhere,” Mitchell said. “How many buses we've been on. And for whatever reason, those guys didn’t make it home. You just try to take from it some kind of gratitude for the life that you do have and for the opportunities.”

The ritual has become part of how Mitchell processes both the game and life. It pulls his focus away from outcomes and back to appreciation. It reminds him that playing hockey is a privilege, not a guarantee.

And it reminds him of someone who should still be lacing up skates.

That sense of gratitude didn’t just begin after the Humboldt crash, though. It was already being shaped long before, in a small community where hockey was a way of life.

Built in Alberta

Mitchell grew up in Calahoo, Alberta, just outside Edmonton, where hockey was part of the culture.

“Yeah, when you grow up there, you’re born into hockey,” Mitchell said with a chuckle.

He started playing at 5 years old, but his foundation was laid even earlier through power skating, technique work that his father, Bill, had learned as a young skater and later passed along to both Ian and his younger brother Sean, who now plays at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.

“We spend lots of time with no pucks, no sticks, just our skating and our edge work,” Mitchell said.

Those early lessons mattered. They shaped Mitchell into a smooth-skating, two-way defenseman who was comfortable moving the puck and transitioning play, traits that still define his game today.

Much of that love for hockey was built at a covered outdoor rink not far from home called Villeneuve, a magical place complete with a heated shack, excellent ice, and a strong sense of community.

It was an environment that legendary Montreal Canadiens goaltender Ken Dryden described so well in his 1983 book, “The Game.”

Wrote Dryden: “The Canadian game of hockey was weaned on long northern winters uncluttered by things to do. It grew up on ponds and rivers, in big open spaces, unorganized, often solitary, only occasionally moved into arenas for practices or games.”

Mitchell would agree.

“I was always begging my dad to go there and play,” he said with a smile. “Whenever I could, I would have my birthday party there. We spent so much time at that rink, just playing and having fun.”

When Mitchell reached junior hockey eligibility, he stayed close to home, playing for the Spruce Grove Saints in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, a 12-team Junior A loop.

“I was able to live at home and didn’t have to billet,” he said. “And it was about 20 minutes away from where I grew up. It was really an ideal situation.”

The Saints weren’t just another stop. They were his childhood team.

“When I was a kid, I would go to Saints games,” Mitchell said. “So when I had the opportunity to play there, that was kind of a dream come true.”

While Mitchell was drafted by the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League, his family leaned toward a college path, one that allowed more time for growth on and off the ice. Spruce Grove was a natural stepping stone on that chosen path.

“I just felt that there wasn't really a rush to get to the pros,” he recalled. “The whole point of why I went to college was to give myself a bit more time to mature and get ready for the pro game.”

Finding His Fit

That path became a clear possibility during an AJHL showcase early in Mitchell’s first season with Spruce Grove, when the University of Denver first saw him play.

“Once I started talking to [the Denver coaches] and after I went on my visit, I was totally sold,” he said.

Mitchell committed in 11th grade and arrived at Denver ready to develop. Over time, the transformation was evident.

“When I look at pictures of myself when I started there versus when I left, I just look like a totally different person,” he said.

His career at Denver was marked by immediate impact and steady progress.

As a freshman in 2017-18, he played in all 41 games and ranked among the highest-scoring freshman rearguards in the NCAA with 30 points. The next season saw him lead all Denver defensemen with 27 points and represent his country at the 2019 World Junior Championship.

In his third and final season in the Mile High City, Mitchell was named a captain and finished the season among the top NCAA defensemen in scoring with 10 goals and 22 assists in 36 games.

“Getting back to be the captain was appealing,” he said of returning for his junior season, after being drafted 57th overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2017. “I wanted to win a national championship.”

That season, in which he was named a CCM/AHCA Hockey All American, was, of course, cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s always something I’ll think back on,” Mitchell said. “Wish that it could have happened.”

Still, Denver did what Mitchell hoped it would do: prepare him for the realities ahead.

That preparation went far beyond systems and structure. Denver taught Mitchell how to lead and how to manage both his time and his expectations. College hockey was a place where development was assumed. Time was built in.

In pro hockey, every day can feel like an audition.

Lineups change. Roles shift. Younger players arrive. Veterans fight to stay. Opportunities are earned daily and can disappear just as quickly. The habits Mitchell developed at Denver, from attention to detail to emotional discipline, became essential tools rather than nice-to-haves.

Those lessons would soon collide with the reality he describes best.

Learning the Pro Game

“In pro hockey, one day you can be at the top of the mountain, and a week later you can be in the doghouse,” Mitchell said. “You really just have to keep an even keel about things. It’s all about timing too.”

Since turning pro in 2020-21, Mitchell had played 110 NHL games and another 156 in the AHL heading into the 2025-26 campaign with Grand Rapids. 

But he has never been part of a team that began a year as hot as the Griffins. 

This season, he said simply, “has been special,” and he has been thrilled to be lending a hand in making AHL history.

He knows that starts like this don’t happen often in professional hockey. At the AHL level, parity is the rule. Every roster is filled with players chasing opportunity, fighting for the same limited spots and capable of winning on any given night.

That’s what has made the Griffins’ start stand out and what has made it meaningful for a player like Mitchell.

His role has been defined by trust. He’s been used in multiple situations, asked to move the puck, manage pace, and help drive play from the back end. He’s having a blast.

“It’s fun coming to the rink,” he said. “The guys get along great. Everyone comes to work ready to get better and try to do something special this year.”

Winning helps, of course. But Mitchell also recognizes how fragile momentum can be at this level. Success doesn’t erase competition. It heightens it. Every strong performance is both a step forward and a reminder that consistency is required.

For Mitchell, the season represents alignment: preparation meeting opportunity, perspective meeting performance. It’s a place where his steady, grateful and grounded approach fits.

“There’s a lot of ways a defenseman can impact the game,” he said, “whether it’s breaking out pucks, playing defensively, or starting the offense.”

What He Carries

Away from the rink, Mitchell’s life has changed in the best possible way. He and his wife Mackenzie recently welcomed their first child, daughter Ella.

Fatherhood has only deepened his sense of perspective and reinforced the lessons he carries with him each night. And it has caused him to reflect more deeply on his own hockey journey and what he might tell his younger self, or his daughter, about the road ahead.

“I would say just have fun,” Mitchell said. “Enjoy every moment because eventually you’re not gonna be able to play anymore and you’re gonna just have memories.”

Those words carry extra weight given what he’s experienced.

Before every game, the decal is there, in his stall at Van Andel Arena or taped up in a visiting locker room somewhere on the road. It’s a routine fans don’t see, but one that shapes how Mitchell approaches every shift.

The anthem ends. Mitchell takes a breath.

He remembers a friend. He remembers the buses. He remembers how fortunate he is to still be doing this.

Then he steps onto the ice, skating with both passion and perspective, playing the game he’s always loved.

Phil de Haan brings years of experience as a writer and communications professional to the pages of Griffiti, having crafted features and stories for organizations across West Michigan. A hockey fan since his childhood in Exeter, Ontario, and a longtime member of a local 6 a.m. hockey group, he combines a lifelong love of the sport with a storyteller’s instinct for bringing players and teams to life.

Photo by Nicolas Carrillo/Griffins