FluxVib

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Beckett Hendrickson is typically a pretty confident guy, and it shows in the winger’s game.

But on this early June day, he was a little rattled. Nervous. Quieter than usual. 

The first team he interviewed with at the NHL Draft Scouting Combine in Buffalo?

The Minnesota Wild.

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Hendrickson, 18, grew up in Minnetonka as a huge fan. He’s got an encyclopedic knowledge of the team’s prospects, especially those in AHL Iowa. So when Hendrickson walked into the suite at the Buffalo hotel, GM Bill Guerin figured he should try to break the ice.

“When are you going to get pipes like your dad?” Guerin joked.

They all laughed. 

Beckett’s dad is Darby Hendrickson, a Wild lifer as a player and assistant coach since 2011-12. His son doesn’t have his pop’s biceps, but growing up around the game prepared him for Thursday’s milestone moment: getting selected in the NHL Draft. It wouldn’t end up being the Wild picking him, though. Like Darby, who was picked by the Leafs in 1990, Beckett got drafted by an Original Six team, the Bruins taking him in the fourth round at No. 124.

Beckett turned to his father, saying “thank you,” and the two hugged.

“I love you,” Darby replied.

“I’m living through our son,” Darby said after. “There’s a lot of times through your career where the focus is on you. It’s fun that it’s on him.

“It’s really special.”

Darby’s draft day experience was much different.

It was in 1990, back when the NHL Draft was 12 rounds. There was no social media then. 

Hendrickson didn’t attend the draft in Vancouver, instead going to a graduation party for a buddy in his hometown, Richfield, Minn. He had watched the first round the day before on ESPN. Owen Nolan was the No. 1 pick. Hendrickson figured he’d be a mid-round pick. He was heading into his senior year of high school at Richfield, where he’d become Mr. Hockey the following year. He was committed to the University of Minnesota.

Life was already good.

Hendrickson got a phone call at his friend’s house. It was his father, a high school coach. He told Hendrickson he’d been picked by the Maple Leafs.

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“I remember leaving and just being excited,” Hendrickson said. “I went back to school that year, and the teachers didn’t know how it all worked. They thought I was going to Toronto immediately.”

Dan Marr, then a Leafs scout, called Hendrickson that day and told him: “I went to bat for you. I want you to be a player.”

Marr is now the director of NHL Central Scouting and was announcing picks on the second day of the draft when Beckett was taken.

“A small world,” Darby said.

Beckett was born in 2005, so at the tail end of his father’s playing career, which brought him from Toronto to New York to Vancouver and, in 2000, to the Wild. Beckett never saw him play live, but he’s watched plenty of clips online, like when Darby scored the Wild’s first goal at home. He’s also seen examples of his physical play. “He’s a pretty good fighter,” Beckett said.

Beckett’s love for the game was sparked in their backyard pond and through knee-hockey battles in the basement. Andrew Brunette, Hendrickson’s former Wild teammate and the current Predators coach, is a close family friend. He’d come over for two-on-two mini-hockey in the basement. One day, it was Darby and his other son, Mason, against Brunette and Beckett. Beckett’s team lost.

“He ran down the road,” Darby said of his son. “He came back and told Bruno he didn’t try hard enough. Told him he was awful …

“He just had that fire.”

Beckett was able to get an up-close look at the NHL once his father was working as an assistant coach. He’d get to see how Mikko Koivu was on and off the ice, what the players did preparing for a season. Beckett intensely follows the Wild’s prospects, even watching some KHL feeds on his computer of Marat Khusnutdinov. Darby jokes Beckett’s favorite team is the Iowa Wild, though it has helped to study some of Minnesota’s players.

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“I really try to model my game after Matt Boldy,” Beckett said. “The way he plays down low, he’s really smart. We’re both bigger bodies. He plays around the net. I try to take stuff from his game.”

Darby said his game as a player primarily stemmed from his skating, with his son more of a different style, a power forward that’s good below the circles.

“He’s better at going to the net,” Darby said. “I like that part of his game. He’s learning how to go to the hard areas, not be a perimeter player.”

Beckett said his father does a great job of not putting pressure on him. He’ll offer tips and show video clips, sometimes those of NHL players. They talk after almost every game, a lot of times over the phone because of Darby’s Wild schedule.

“I don’t want to micromanage him,” Darby said. “You can reinforce habits. But I want him to like hockey not for his dad, for himself. I believe that’s how he’ll have success — his joy, even with the ups and downs. I want him to like hockey. If that’s in him, it’ll play out. My late father coached, and he had a way of taking pressure off me, and being in tune to the bigger picture. You’ve got to work, but you don’t have to put all this pressure on yourself.”

The same thing went for making his college decision. Beckett was choosing between Boston University, North Dakota and Minnesota, where his father went for two years. If Beckett picked Boston University, Darby would have gladly worn a “BU Dad” shirt. It wasn’t until Gophers coach Bob Motzko made an impromptu recruiting visit during the summer that he decided to commit. The Hendricksons, who live in Minnetonka, had a big family gathering, and some went out on a boat.

Motzko popped over on his pontoon and spent some time with the father and son.

“He said he’s never done that,” Darby said. “He said, ‘We’d love for you to come to Minnesota. We want you to be a Gopher.'”

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Beckett plans to play in the USHL next year with Sioux Falls, then re-evaluate, potentially jumping to college the following season.

“No matter what,” Beckett says, “I’ll be in a great spot.”

Beckett and Darby sat down for an interview at a restaurant called Barlines in downtown Nashville the day before the draft, going over their journey.

This family time has been precious. Darby said he and his wife, Dana, and their three kids haven’t had this many meals together on consecutive days in a few years because of his NHL schedule. As Beckett met with teams — he interviewed with 11 at the combine — Darby tried to give him advice.

“It doesn’t matter where you get picked,” he said. “It’s your desire to find your way.

“All you need is one team to believe in you.”

That’s what Darby had with Marr going to bat for him with the Leafs in 1990. After the Wild’s interview loosened Beckett up, he had a really good chat with the Bruins. He felt more comfortable, was able to show his personality.

Darby watched all the players getting drafted in Wednesday’s first round — the families popping out of their seats to celebrate. As the draft reached late into the fourth round on Thursday, he could tell his son was getting nervous, anxious. They figured Beckett would go anywhere from the second to fifth, but you never know.

Darby said Beckett didn’t say much in the stands, and neither did he — just checking in with a “How are you doing?” on occasion. Brunette and his wife came to offer support, sitting near them for most of the day Thursday. When the Bruins announced the pick — at No. 124 — Beckett got up and quickly gave his father a hug. There were loud cheers from his section, including some teammates from the U.S. National Team Development Program.

“Once you hear his name, you just want to give him a hug,” Darby said. “You’re just so happy. It’s the hug, not even the words. You’re happy for him.

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“And now he’s off.”

(Top photo of Beckett Hendrickson: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

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