Bruce Boudreau details how he got the Capitals to sign Matt Hendricks: ‘The first preseason game, he got a hat trick, and I was in George’s office the next morning’

Over the years, the Washington Capitals have had several players reach cult-hero status during the Alex Ovechkin era. One of those players is former fourth-line forward Matt Hendricks, who played with the Capitals for three seasons from 2010 to 2013.

Hendricks originally played in the Capitals’ organization with the AHL’s Hershey Bears during the 2006-07 campaign, but spent just one year in Chocolatetown before moving on to two other AHL stops in Providence and Cleveland. Bruce Boudreau, then the Bears’ head coach, was a massive Hendricks fan and was eventually the reason the rugged forward ended up with the Capitals.

“Oh my god, Matt Hendricks is one of my favorite people of all time and a well-known Cap,” Boudreau told Jeff Marek on a recent episode of the Hockey Lifers Podcast. “He played for me in Washington, he played for me in Minnesota – I’ll tell you how we got him in Washington. That first year in Hershey – he was on an American League contract. He had come from the East Coast League to the American League.

“I just kept waiting for the Caps to sign him, and they didn’t, and Colorado jumped in and signed him, and so he went and played in Colorado for a year, had a good year, and then at the end of that next year, they wouldn’t meet Matt’s demands, I guess. So I phoned Matt up, and I said, ‘Matt, listen, just come to camp in Washington. I promise you, as the head coach, I will not let you go down. You will be on our team for the year.’ One of the few times a player actually trusted the coach, and Matt did. And he came to Washington.”

While Boudreau did get Hendricks into the building, the Minnesota native still had work to do because he was only at the Capitals’ 2010 Training Camp on a professional tryout basis. He didn’t take too long to start grabbing the attention of the team’s decision makers, as he left about as perfect a first impression as you can in his first exhibition game with the Caps.

Hendricks notched a hat trick in 14:46 of ice time against the Columbus Blue Jackets, playing on a line with a rookie Marcus Johansson and AHL star Andrew Gordon. He then showed off one of his other assets, a willingness to drop the gloves, in another preseason game against the Boston Bruins a week later.

“I remember the first preseason game he played in Columbus, he got a hat trick,” Boudreau said. “I was in [general manager George McPhee’s] office the next morning, saying, ‘See, look at how good this guy is. Look at how good this guy is.’ And I just kept going and prodding.

“He made the team, and he had a really good NHL career after that. You will never meet a better team player than Matt Hendricks, and what turned out to be a great, great friend. If I took 10 of him on my team, we would win every single year because he was that good.”

Hendricks ended up playing 203 career games for the Capitals, recording 42 points (18g, 24a). He was a regular on the team’s penalty-killing unit and far and away their leader in penalty minutes with 278, including 32 fighting majors.

The Capitals also eventually found out that Hendricks was an absolute ace in shootouts, using a go-to, fake-shot move later dubbed “The Paralyzer,” which frustrated even the NHL’s top goalies. During Hendricks’ three seasons with the Capitals, only Alex Ovechkin scored more shootout goals (10) than Hendricks (8).

Hendricks went 8-for-13 in the skills competition with the Capitals and finished his career with a 39.3 percent success rate. Of the 295 NHL players to have at least 20 career shootout attempts, Hendricks ranks tied for 68th on the all-time list with Michael Nylander, Petr Sykora, Daniel Briere, and Andrei Svechnikov. He ranks ahead of names like Sidney Crosby (38.5 percent), Leon Draisaitl (37.5 percent), and Rick Nash (37.2 percent).

After departing the Capitals in 2013, Hendricks would go on to play 344 more NHL games with the Nashville Predators, Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, and Minnesota Wild. However, he never had a better single season than his 2010-11 with the Capitals, when he recorded 25 points (9g, 16a) in 77 games.

Hendricks retired after the 2018-19 NHL season and took up a job as the Wild’s assistant director of player development. He held that position for five seasons before being promoted to director of player development and general manager of the AHL’s Iowa Wild last season.