Minnesota (ⁱ/mɪnɨˈsoʊtə/) is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state on May 11, 1858. Known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", the state's name comes from a Dakota word for "sky-tinted water". Those waters, together with forests, parks, and wilderness areas, offer residents and tourists a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities.

Minnesota is the 12th most extensive and the 21st most populous of the U.S. states. Nearly 60% of its residents live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area (known as the "Twin Cities"), the center of transportation, business, industry and education and home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast, now cleared, farmed and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and recreation.

Nathan MacKinnon (born September 1, 1995) is a Canadian major junior ice hockey forward who currently plays for the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). MacKinnon has excelled in ice hockey throughout his career, drawing comparisons to National Hockey League player and fellow Nova Scotian Sidney Crosby. He has been mentioned as a candidate to be selected first overall in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.

MacKinnon grew up playing in the minor ice hockey system of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. As an atom aged player, MacKinnon recorded 200 points in 50 games. When MacKinnon was twelve and thirteen, he played Bantam AAA for the Cole Harbour Red Wings, recording seasons of 110 and 145 points respectively. After these two seasons, MacKinnon enrolled at Shattuck-Saint Mary's in Faribault, Minnesota. Also as Crosby did, Nathan chose to leave his hometown and attend the Minnesota boarding school because of the strength of its ice hockey program. In his first season at Shattuck-Saint Mary's playing with the Bantam Tier I program, he scored 101 points in 58 games played to finish second in team scoring. For the 2010–11 season, MacKinnon joined the Under-16 Midget program at the school. Despite being the team's second youngest player, MacKinnon was averaging more than two points a game and was second in team scoring at the midway point of the season. During the season, MacKinnon was named to the team that represented Nova Scotia in the ice hockey tournament at the 2011 Canada Winter Games. At the tournament, MacKinnon scored eight goals and eleven points to finish fourth in tournament scoring as Nova Scotia finished in seventh place. MacKinnon finished his second season at Shattuck-Saint Mary's with 93 points in forty games played, and was second on the team with 45 goals scored.

Mikael Antero Granlund (born February 26, 1992) is a Finnish professional ice hockey centre who most recently played for HIFK of the Finnish SM-liiga. He was the ninth overall pick, selected by the Minnesota Wild, in the 2010 NHL Draft and is currently under contract with the Wild. He is the older brother of Markus Granlund, who was drafted by the Calgary Flames.

Granlund played junior ice hockey with Kärpät in 2007–08 and 2008–09, averaging greater than a point per game in both seasons, and was named a first-team All-Star by his junior A league in 2009. He gained his first professional experience late that season, making his debut with Kärpät's team in the SM-liiga on his 17th birthday. He played only two games before he became embroiled in a contract dispute with the team. Granlund and his agent alleged that the four year junior contract he signed with Kärpät in 2007 was invalid, because it failed to define what compensation he would get from the team, and that the team had altered the end date on his SM-liiga insurance application from April 2009 to April 2011 without his approval. The team admitted that mistakes were made, but that they were made in good faith as both the team and player wished to get him in their top team immediately.