In early May of 1984, the Minnesota Twins summoned a little-known outfield prospect from their minor league system and told him to report to Anaheim for his major league debut. Kirby Puckett hailed a taxi upon arrival at the Southern California airport. When the future Hall-of-Famer got to the ballpark, he had to go in the clubhouse and take up a collection from his new teammates to pay the cabbie.
In 2026, the everyday behind-the-scenes work of Dominic Hennig, the Minnesota Wild’s team services manager, is an illustration of how much things have changed in professional sports.
Courtesy of Minnesota Wild
Dominic Hennig (Minnesota Wild)
When the Wild recall players from their minor league system for their NHL debuts, or acquire players in a trade — as they did with a handful of current roster members in early March — Hennig arranges for a driver to meet them at baggage claim. The player’s name is on a placard. A black SUV waits outside to whisk them to the hotel or arena.
Their first taste of the Wild organization is orchestrated to impress.
“You know the saying, you get one shot at making a first impression?” Wild general manager Bill Guerin said. “We just want to make sure that our guys are treated accordingly. Treated not just with respect, but treated well. We believe we’re a first class organization.”
Hennig, 34, is in his second season with the Wild after serving in the same capacity with the San Diego Gulls of the AHL. When the Wild travel, he is in charge of all of it — flights, lodging, bus rides, meals, you name it. At home, he caters to all of the players’ off-ice needs — housing, personal appearances and charity work all part of a list that seems endless.
The “…and other duties as assigned” part of his job description is a doozy.
For example, last season when former Gophers standout Travis Boyd made his Wild debut for a game in Calgary, Hennig met him at the airport. It was snowing, and the game was fast approaching. The closer their driver got to the Flames’ home rink, the worse the traffic got until they were hopelessly stuck in gridlock still several blocks from the arena.
That’s when Hennig grabbed Boyd’s sticks, the player grabbed his bag, and they made a run for it through the Alberta snow, getting to the rink in time, and offering a spectacle for fans waiting to park.
At the 2025 trade deadline, the Wild were in Vancouver and acquired Boston forward Justin Brazeau, who had played in Carolina the previous night, When a reporter posted on social media that it would be unlikely that the Wild could get Brazeau from the Eastern Seaboard to the shore of the Pacific in time for a same-day game, Hennig replied with text immediately.
“You doubt me?” he messaged with a smiling emoji.
Indeed, Hennig hastily arranged for Brazeau to fly from Raleigh, N.C., across the continent to Vancouver and join the Wild in time for their game versus the Canucks that night.
Last week, when Bobby Brink learned he had been traded from the Flyers to the Wild, he was in Philadelphia. Within roughly an hour, Hennig had Brink on a cross-country flight and had made arrangements for Brink to be shuttled from the Las Vegas airport to the team’s hotel.
“They pretty much figured out everything for me, told me where to go and when to go there and gave me the ride to get there,” Brink said. “They just give me instructions, and I follow them.”
Although this year at the trade deadline, Hennig’s normal hands-on protocol had to be adjusted a tiny bit. When he got a text informing him that the Wild had traded for Michael McCarron, Hennig was in a labor and delivery room at a Twin Cities hospital with his wife Nicole working hard to deliver their first child, daughter Kelly Marie.
Hennig had tried to figure out a way to be in two places at once, and the general manager was having none of it.
“Billy has done an outstanding job of creating good culture here,” Hennig said. “He told me that if I was on the plane to Vegas, he would fire me. Family comes first.”
So Hennig, for the first time since joining the Wild, stayed home with mom and healthy baby, dealing with the joys and challenges of newborn parenting and handing off some of his duties to other members of the staff for the games in Las Vegas and Denver. When Brink arrived in Nevada, members of the Wild’s media relations team met him at the airport, for example, but true to Guerin’s standards, it was a first-class welcome.
Hennig arranges for the team to stay at five-star hotels in every city they visit, and their food coordinated with dietary plans laid out by the team’s nutritionist. At home, they are fed by some of Minnesota’s most renowned chefs, so the players’ first, last and only concern when they get to the rink is finding a way to win hockey games.
The efforts aren’t unnoticed.
“They sacrifice a lot — a lot of time, a lot of energy. Dom is top notch,” Wild defenseman Brock Faber said. “He works his tail off for us, and we couldn’t be more appreciative of what he does for us, because it’s such smooth sailing, everything, because of him.”