Interview with Bret
By Tommy Aird
From IceAge Magazine Vol.28, No.4
Tommy Aird from an elementary school in PoCo interviewed Bret for Ice
Age recently:
Tommy: Now that you are in the NHL, what are your future goals?
Bret: I hope to be playing in the NHL for another 7 years. Anything
longer than that will be a bonus. After my hockey career is over, I plan
to go back to school. I want to get my Business Degree.
Tommy: How old were you when you started to play hockey?
Bret: I was four years old when I started to skate. I started to play
on a hockey team when I was five.
Tommy: Did you make the "A" team when you were a kid?
Bret: Yes. I was fortunate to make the "A" team. But only because I
stuck to it and put in a lot of hard work.
Tommy: If you could not play for the Vancouver Canucks, what team
would you play for?
Bret: The only team I want to play for is the Canucks=)
Speed To Burn
Written by Mark Keast, Sports Only
This article orginally posted August 2, 1997
If you can't skate, you don't belong in the NHL these days.
The quest to kill the clutch and grab through enforcement of hooking,
holding, intereference and general obstruction of players skating
without the puck through the neutral zone has meant a more wide-open,
entertaining game.
No one appreciates the change more than the gifted skaters.
And Vancouver Canucks' defenceman Bret Hedican is a gifted skater.
"With Heddy, it's in his cells," says teammates Jyrki Lumme. "I'd
have to work 100 years to skate like him."
Even when teams utilize a neutral zone trap system unfettered by
league rules, a player like Hedican was a bonus. Because of his
explosiveness he could jump into the offence and still have enough speed
to rush back and play defence.
The more the game opens up the happier Hedican gets.
"No question," says the 25 year old Minnesota native, acquired by
Vancouver from St. Louis along with Jeff Brown and Nathan Lafayette for
Craig Janney on March 21, 1994. "The main thing you see is when you want
to jump up into the play you don't have a guy hooking you the whole way.
"In the old days, if you were a guy who had enough gas to jump by a
guy, someone would put the hooks on you and take a ride on you the whole
way down the rink," he says. "By the time you got down to the other end
you were so tired you couldn't get back. A lot of times in the past that
reason alone kept you from wanting to jump up in the play. It's
definitely a lot more fun now. It's helped me a lot."
If you're looking ast skating ability alone, then place Hedican up
there with the NHL's elite. He was a Western Conference finalist in the
Topps NHL Superskills competition at the recent NHL All-Star game in
Boston in the fastest skater competition, along with Mike Gartner of
Toronto, Chicago's Tony Amonte and Detroit's Sergei Fedorov. That
competition, against their Eastern Conference counterparts, was won by
Gartner, with a time of 13.386 seconds. Hedican finished 6th overall,
with a time of 13.840 seconds.
For Hedican, the opportunity to take part in the skills competition
was fun. Even more fun was the opportunity to hang out with some of his
boyhood idols, like Detroit's Paul Coffey and Boston's Ray Bourke.
"The thing was being able to rub elbows with guys like Coffey and
Chris Chelio," says Hedican. "Those guys I look up to as far as their
style if play. It was just nice to sit and talk with them."
Watch Hedican skate and you see why others, most notably his peers,
marvel - good acceleration, a nice, deep knee bend, a fluid stride.
Even if he gets beat by an opposing player Hedican still has the
speed and quickness to recover, keep up with the attacker and steer him
off.
It's a huge advantage. With his speed, in his own zone, he can get to
the puck quicker, and has more time to move the puck around. Teams are
probably hesitant to dump the puck in his corner, because he gets there
faster. Offensively, he takes a pass and is gone.
"I played with a guy names Gary Suter who is pretty explosive, like
Heddy," says Canucks' defenceman Dana Murzyn. "A lot of people talk
about Coffey, but Heddy is a lot more explosive. he can jump into the
play from a standstill and be right with the rush."
You want him on your team no matter what style of type of team you're
playing against," he says. "If you're playing a pressure team he gets
back faster and gets a step on a guy to make a play. If you're playing
against a trap, he can hit a hole."
Lumme says there are differences between Hedican and some of the
othergreat skaters in the NHL.
"He's different than Coffey," says Lumme. "Coffey takes a few steps
and it seems like he's gliding. Heddy is a little different. Four or
five quick steps and he's gone. He'll out it in that second gear and
just take off."
Hedican grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, about one black away from a
hickey rink.
"I spent a lot of time skating as a young kid," he says. His parents
- Gerry and Theresa - are both athletic. His father played baseball and
taught power skating.
"My parents told me I was a good skater growing up," says Hedican,
6-2, 195 pounds. "I never knew that. I just went out and tried to
progress, year after year."
Hedican's numbers haven't matched the flashes of skill and potential
he has shown offensively. Perhaps more is expected of a player who
produced eight points in 42 games in 1992-3, 12 points in 69 games in
1993-4, and 13 points in 45 games last season.
No one realizes that more than Hedican himself.
"I know I was frustrated with that," he says. "A lot of things are
coming together now. I'm getting a lot more opportunities to score. I'm
getting a lot of quality shots."
This year Canucks' fans are starting to see some sign of Hedican's
offensive potential. And some thanks for Hedican's mini-offensive
splurge - he had five goals, 21 points after 51 games - goes to none
other than Alexander Mogilny, who knows a little about scoring goals
himself.
Hedican notched his first goal of the season against Tampa bay, on
January 3.
"Alex had been using my sticks for about a month of two," he says.
"He had been changing the curve on my stick, putting a lot more toe on
it than I use. He asked me to try one. So I did, in practice one day. I
liked the feel of it. The next game I went out and scored my first goal
of the season.
"Since then, I've kept it, and it's worked well for me," he says
smiling. "I thanked him afterwards, a couple times."
Hedican's numbers should improve as his experience and confidence
grows, which is obviously what the Canucks are banking on. Premier
defenceman around the league - liek Brian Leetch, Coffey, and Al
MacInnis - have all found more room to create plays and improve their
team's transition game.
Speed is a tool he has to utilize.
"He was a little conservative when he first came here," says Lumme.
"He didn't really use his speed offensively. Now he's realized that with
his speed, he can get in there, and catch the other guy coming back too,
if something goes wrong. He's finally discovering what he can do. He has
a lot of skills."
And that, of course, is the key. Hedican won't lead the team in
scoring,, but he should develop into a player who finishes first or
second among team defenceman.
"I think people in Canada appreciate more what each guy brings to the
team," he says. "whether they score goals or not. And that's made me
feel more comfortable."
Bret's Musical Talent
This article originally posted August 2, 1997
Bret Hedican is also a Canuck who can boast musical talents as he
enjoys the guitar. In fact, the news of Bret's skill has spread to some
local Vancouver media and he recently appeared as a guest on the Bob and
Dean Morning Show on CFMI Radio. Listeners learned that Bret can not
only play the guitar well, but he can sing too!
"It's one of those things that's been in my family for years. My
cousins and uncles all play. It's one of those things where we get
together at Christmas time and they all bring their guitars and play
after everybody's opened their presents."
Like Brashear (who plays the piano), Bret plays to relax and get his
mind off the everyday grind of a long NHL season. He calls music his
'hobby' and has begun what could eventually become an impressive
collection of autographed guitars.
"I've got two guitars now that have been signed. One from Angus Young
of AC/DC and one from the whole band of Hootie and the Blowfish. It's
the start of a nice collection."
So will Donald (Brashear) and Bret ever get together to play some
music?
"We've never really talked about it," says Hedican. "Donald said he
bought a guitar, and I think Burnie (Mike Burnstein) bought a guitar.
I've got Adrian Aucoin playing now and I taught him a little bit. So,
we've got a little group now, a few guys that are starting to get
interested in it."
