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DULUTH — Three brothers from Hermantown will climb over the boards together at AMSOIL Arena this weekend wearing Minnesota Duluth sweaters, lining up beside one another for the first time in college hockey and completing a family story years in the making.
Max, Zam and Victor Plante are expected to open the Bulldogs’ 2026-27 season together on one forward line, giving UMD a combination that is equal parts sentiment, skill and intrigue. They are three NHL draft picks from the same hockey family, two established college scoring stars and one highly regarded true freshman, all suddenly sharing the same bench, locker room and line.
The arrangement also fulfills a promise coach Scott Sandelin made years ago to Victor, the youngest brother: If Max and Zam were still Bulldogs when Victor arrived, Sandelin would give the three a chance to play together. Now Victor is here, Max and Zam are back, and the promise has become one of the biggest stories surrounding UMD entering its opening nonconference series at AMSOIL Arena. Around the Bulldogs this week, the brothers have been nearly impossible to miss — not simply because they are together, but because they rarely seem to stop smiling about it.
For Victor, returning home after spending the previous two seasons with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program has meant more than beginning his college career. It has reunited him with two brothers whose games he has followed from a distance and whose daily habits he can now study firsthand. “It's great. I mean, just to be able to see their habits every day, see what they do on and off the ice, just be around them more too. Just see their personalities everywhere. I've never been in locker with these two, so just to see what they are around the team, it's been pretty fun. It's been pretty exciting.”
There is plenty of hockey substance behind the family novelty. Max and Zam were two of the most productive forwards in college hockey last season, combining for 103 points while helping UMD win 24 games, reach the NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship game and advance to an NCAA regional final. Victor arrives after two productive seasons in the national development program and an NHL draft summer of his own. All three think the game aggressively, look to create offense and have spent much of their lives competing with and against one another. What Sandelin is putting together this weekend is not merely a photo opportunity. It has the potential to become an extraordinarily creative college hockey line.
Max said much of their chemistry is instinctive. “I think it's been fun. We all kind of think and play a little bit the same way or just try to make plays all the time. So it's fun to have people like that because they're trying to make a play to you and you're trying to make play to them all the time. I think it's easy communication for us because not a lot of it's said out loud because I feel like you can kind of see it in each other's eyes when they know they made a mistake or they're mad at you. I mean, Zam I feel like is more vocal when someone makes a mistake, but I feel like, I don't know, when Victor knows he made mistake, I feel like he knows and it's kind of easy to deal with that.” Victor offered the younger brother’s assessment: “Yeah. I mean these two are pretty good players, so it kind of makes it a little easier too. They create a lot of space and they're smart players too, so it's fun.”
“Pretty good players” is considerable understatement. Max returns for his junior season after producing 25 goals and 27 assists for 52 points in 40 games last season, establishing himself among the elite offensive players in college hockey. His season brought major individual honors, national recognition and another opportunity with USA Hockey. That followed a freshman season in which he had nine goals and 19 assists for 28 points in only 23 games while dealing with injury and international commitments. He earned NCHC All-Rookie recognition and continued building a national-team résumé that has included World Junior competition and senior international experience.
Zam’s rise has been nearly as striking. After scoring seven goals with 14 assists for 21 points in 33 games as a freshman, he erupted last season for 20 goals and 31 assists for 51 points. Over an entire college season, only one point separated the brothers. Zam became a major power-play threat, delivered timely goals and established himself as another central piece of UMD’s offense. He enters this season as one of the Bulldogs’ alternate captains, while Max returns as one of the team’s captains.
Then comes Victor, the new piece of the family line. He spent the past two seasons with the national development program, producing 33 points in 48 games during his first season before increasing his output to 21 goals and 27 assists for 48 points in 57 games last season. He has also represented the United States in international competition, adding another elite development path to a family already deeply rooted in Minnesota hockey.
Victor is trying to keep the transition simple despite the attention surrounding his arrival. “I mean just have fun with it. At the end of the day, it's just a game. So just not dwell on the mistakes. Just try to go out there and work as hard as you can. Just do your best.”
The NHL has already invested in all three. Pittsburgh selected Zam in the fifth round, 150th overall, in the 2022 NHL draft. Detroit selected Max in the second round, 47th overall, in 2024. Then came a remarkable coincidence this summer when Detroit also selected Victor in the second round with the 47th overall pick — exactly the same draft position the Red Wings had used on Max two years earlier.
The bloodlines are impossible to ignore. Their father, Derek Plante, became one of the most accomplished players in UMD history before playing 450 NHL games and winning the Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars in 1999. Their mother, Kristi, also competed collegiately at UMD. Yet the foundation of the brothers’ relationship was built well before draft tables, international tournaments and packed college arenas. It came through the ordinary competition of brothers growing up in a hockey family in Hermantown.
Max remembers the basement battles particularly well. “I think we got a little annoyed. We played Niyac in the basement a lot and Victor put up a lot of fights if he wasn't winning and he'd just go to his room crying and stuff. Sold a lot of games. We'd go to our mom and then we'd get in trouble for being too hard. Stuff like that. Straight lies.” Victor, sitting alongside his brothers Wednesday, offered a considerably different recollection. “No memories of that. No clue.”
The venue has changed, but the competition has not. “It's always intense,” Max said. Victor said having all three together every day has only added another layer to it. “It's ever not intense. I'd say it's probably a little bit more just because we're all around and see what everyone's doing.”
There was never any guarantee this particular season would happen. When Sandelin was recruiting Victor, the youngest brother was still years away from college eligibility. Max and Zam had their own careers to navigate, and professional hockey always loomed as a possibility before Victor reached Duluth. Still, Sandelin made Victor a promise: If his brothers remained at UMD when he arrived, they would get their chance together.
Victor never forgot it. “I do, yeah. It was pretty cool that he had promised that because he doesn't promise much. So that was pretty cool that he said that.”
The biggest uncertainty ultimately involved Max. Following his breakthrough season and collection of individual honors, professional hockey represented an obvious option. Instead, he returned to UMD, preserving Sandelin’s chance to keep that promise and giving the brothers something they had never experienced before — all three playing together at the Division I level.
Zam said there was no family pressure campaign to bring Max back. “I told him he made the right decision when he said he's coming back, but that was about it. I didn't try to sway him either way.” Max instead sounds like a player increasingly aware that college hockey offers something the professional game cannot duplicate.
“Yeah, I think, like Victor said, enjoy it. I went to Worlds at the end of the year and kind of talked to some guys about what it's like in the pro ranks and they said once you get there, it's never the same. You'll never have as close of a group as you had in the younger teams, even college. And the group we have here is so awesome. So I'm just going to try and soak it all in, enjoy it. We got a lot of guys going through the same thing. So for me, I'm excited and I know we're going to be a good team and hopefully it shows this weekend.”
Plenty of family members will be there to see whether it does. Max estimated roughly 18 relatives could attend the opening weekend, creating enough ticket demand that the brothers have been searching the Bulldogs locker room for teammates with extras. “I think everybody that Ken's going to be like 18 family members probably coming. Okay. And then more than that, but yeah, at least. Some get their own tickets, but we got to provide some. We had to ask around. Took all of our tickets and all of our teammates tickets for the weekend.”
The brothers are not interested in spending the season trying to manufacture memories. The circumstances have taken care of that already. “I think just play. Live in the moment. I think there's so much documentation done that we don't have to do. So I think it'll be easier to look back on now. Plus our mom takes a picture of everything. We'll be good to go on that front.”
So they will play.
Three Hermantown brothers who once battled in the basement, three NHL draft picks who traveled different developmental paths and three Bulldogs now beginning the season shoulder to shoulder at AMSOIL Arena. Sandelin may keep them together for a weekend, a month or considerably longer. Performance will eventually decide that.
But the first shift will belong to the family.
And when somebody asked which Plante brother remains the most competitive, Victor supplied an answer that may explain much of how all three reached this point.
“Depends on the day. Depends on who's losing.”
