Burnside: Ryan Hartman finds home with first place Wild

Scott Burnside
Scott Burnside
Nov 15, 2021, 14:22 EST
Burnside: Ryan Hartman finds home with first place Wild

By: Scott Burnside

So, here’s the dream.

A kid grows up outside Chicago and gets drafted by the hometown team in the first round. He soaks in the lessons taught and shown by future Hall of Famers Marian Hossa, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith.

He thinks, understandably, this is where I want to be. Maybe forever.

This is the dream.

The reality?

Well, for Ryan Hartman the reality has been something else altogether.

But what is it they say about the road less traveled? How it makes all the difference?

It would seem it is so for the 27-year-old Hartman. And it would seem it is equally so for the team that has helped him find a hockey home after a number of frustrating zigs and zags to his career, the Minnesota Wild.

A quick refresher course.

Hartman was selected with the 30th pick in the 2013 NHL Draft after two years with the United States National Team Development Program and then two years under Mike Vellucci and the successful Plymouth Whalers program in the Ontario Hockey League.

In his first full NHL season, 2016-17, he scored 19 goals.

But the Blackhawks, winners of three Cups between 2010 and 2015, were beginning to slide into a decline on many fronts from which they have not recovered to this day.

Hartman was dealt to Nashville at the 2018 trade deadline. The Preds thought so much of Hartman that they sent a first-round pick back to Chicago. But it wasn’t a great fit and Hartman floated up and down the lineup without really finding a groove.

Less than a year after joining the Predators he was on the move again to Philadelphia at the 2019 trade deadline.

Four months after that he was traded to Dallas for Tyler Pitlick.

A week later he signed with the Minnesota Wild. It was July 1, 2019 and to be honest Hartman wasn’t exactly sure of just how things had unfolded the way they had.

Thoughtful and well-spoken, Hartman said he understands the idea of playing in Chicago his whole career was a longshot.

“You know it’s a rarity,” Hartman said recently. “But you never picture being traded. Then once you’re on your third team you start to wonder, I don’t know if things creep into peoples’ minds.”

And so the trip thus far has been more than a little frustrating, especially for a player who has always believed he is someone who can make difference regardless of which jersey he’s pulled over his shoulders.

“It’s tough to be in a spot where you don’t feel like you’re being used the right way,” Hartman said. “It’s important to show who you and not change who you are.”

“I feel I’m an impact player,” Hartman added. “I feel like I can make a difference every night.”

I had the opportunity to sit in on the Minnesota Wild draft room in the days leading up to the 2021 expansion and entry draft. This was shortly after the Wild had bought out veteran cornerstone pieces Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. As scouts and the management team went over how they were going to fill those gaps and prepare for the significant salary cap punishment that comes with the buyout decisions, it was clear Guerin’s plan for redefining the culture and identity of this team was going to be put to the test in a hurry.

With the NHL reset to a standard division format after a second abbreviated COVID-19 season in 2020-21, a playoff spot in the competitive Central Division looked like it might be a tall order for the Wild.

And yet here we are a week away from Thanksgiving and the traditional early-season barometer of a team’s real worth and the Wild are atop the Central Division with a 10-4-0 record. Their winning percentage of .714 is fifth in the league. They are 6-3-0 on the road and only Arizona has played more road games in the Western Conference.

“I really like their game,” said one longtime scout and NHL executive. “They have not taken a step back, they’ve taken a bigger step forward since they removed those two players.”

Their leading scorer?

Actually it’s a tie with defending Rookie of the Year Kirill Kaprizov and – wait for it – Hartman with 11 points.

The leading goal scorer? Hartman with seven.

In some ways Hartman is the poster boy for the new reality in Minnesota.

“I think Ryan’s found a place that he likes and we like him,” Guerin said. “And he does fit the type of player that we like here. He’s got good skill and he plays hard and he’s tough. He competes. And now I think he’s gained a lot of confidence in himself.”

In Hartman, Guerin, a two-time Cup winner as a player and two-time Cup winner as an executive with Pittsburgh, sees something of himself and his early years in the NHL.

Some of it comes from the expectations of being a first-round pick, expectations that are often both internal and external.

“You think you’re going to be this offensive player or this producer right away and that might not be the case,” Guerin said. “You struggle finding where you fit. You say, I shouldn’t be a role player. I went through that, too. I was a role player for years in Jersey.”

Vellucci still keeps in contact with Hartman and two things are undeniable to the veteran coach who is currently part of Mike Sullivan’s staff in Pittsburgh.

One he’s not surprised at the success that Hartman is having with the Wild. And second, he’s not surprised it hasn’t necessarily been a straight line for him.

“It hasn’t been a straight line for him because he’s constantly had to prove himself,” Vellucci said.

Vellucci searches for the right way to explain why this is so.

“He doesn’t have high, high, high end skill,” he said. Like the blazing speed or the hardest shot. “But he has exceptional hockey sense and he does everything right.”

“He does it his own way,” Vellucci said. “And he’s constantly had to prove himself.”

He recalls a scouting trip with a colleague from Plymouth when Hartman was playing for the Chicago Mission AAA program.

The scout didn’t like Hartman.

“And I’m trying to figure out why,” Vellucci said.

He doesn’t have high end talent, the scout said.

Vellucci laughs.

“I remember it like yesterday,” Vellucci said.

Hartman scored five times during the game in question.

Yeah, but they weren’t exceptional goals, the scout insisted.

“But that’s Hartsy,” Vellucci said. “He’s a gamer. That’s the best way to describe him. He’s a hockey player he’s not just a guy that plays hockey.”

So great has the fit for both sides in this equation that Hartman signed a three year deal with Minnesota with an average annual cap hit of $1.7 million a number that has led some to suggest he might be one of the biggest cap bargains in the league.

“He can focus on his game and not worry that he’s going to get shipped off somewhere,” Guerin said.

Wild head coach Dean Evason first became aware of Hartman when Evason was the head coach of Nashville’s American Hockey League team in Milwaukee and Hartman was in Rockford with Chicago’s AHL affiliate.

And while Hartman had the first-round pick sheen about him Evason was more impressed with his grit and toughness.

Then in Nashville, Evason was coaching the team’s Black Aces during the playoffs and saw Hartman first hand after he was acquired from Chicago.

“His shoulder was really busted up at the time,” Evason said, and that led to a level of play that bears little resemblance to what Hartman is bringing to the table to the Wild on a nightly basis.

If there was a turning point last season it was when the Wild, not particularly deep down the middle, moved Hartman back to his natural position at center and he ended up playing for long periods with rookie of the year Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello.

“As soon as he got in the middle it just kind of solidified our group,” Evason said.

But what has become more critical to the Wild’s success is that Evason has continued to use Hartman in a variety of positions and in a variety of situations.

He’s played center, yes, but also spent some time on both wings.

He also kills penalties and slides into the power play when needed.

“Not once has he come to us and said how come I don’t play with those guys or this guy,” Evason said. “That’s exciting for a coach.”

You can talk identity and character and culture but those things only take hold, become real, if players believe in the process and live those ideas not just pay lip service to them.

“He’s embraced that and he’s led in that department in not bitching about who he plays with,” Evason said. “I think that’s a huge credit to him.”

In fact even though Hartman does not wear a leadership letter, when it came time to add the ‘A’ after Parise and Suter’s departure Hartman’s name was consistently in the mix, Evason said. The fact he isn’t wearing a letter – Marcus Foligno and Matt Dumba received the letters – it doesn’t diminish Hartman’s role and importance vis a vis the team’s leadership.

And so it was on the day after our conversation with Hartman that he landed back at center playing with youngster Rem Pitlick who had been claimed off waivers from Nashville by the Wild in early October. Pitlick scored the first three goals of his NHL career on Saturday in a win over Seattle.  Hartman provided the primary assist on all three goals.

So, here’s another thing.

Sure, you dream of making the NHL, playing in your hometown even, but there’s something else Hartman has imagined as he’s made his way; being the kind of guy that other people look up to. Being the guy that makes sure a young player being sent to the minors knows that it’s okay, that it’s not necessarily a forever thing.

“I’ve gone through that,” Hartman said.

So he is able to and has shared some of those experiences with the younger players on a Wild team and those players in turn have seen him come to work every day and deliver the goods no matter what is being asked of him. And maybe it encourages them to do the same thing.

“I think one of the goals in my career besides making the NHL and being an everyday player was being part of a core group in an organization, I think that’s always been a goal of mine, to be seen as a leader,” Hartman said.

And it’s a reminder that sometimes dreams do come true.

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