![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stp-l-domhemming-0317-01.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIn 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.\u00a0When 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.<\/p>\n
In 2026, the everyday behind-the-scenes work of Dominic Hennig, the Minnesota Wild\u2019s team services manager, is an illustration of how much things have changed in professional sports.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Minnesota Wild<\/p>\n
Dominic Hennig (Minnesota Wild)<\/p>\n
When the Wild recall players from their minor league system for their NHL debuts, or acquire players in a trade \u2014 as they did with a handful of current roster members in early March \u2014 Hennig arranges for a driver to meet them at baggage claim. The player\u2019s name is on a placard. A black SUV waits outside to whisk them to the hotel or arena.<\/p>\n
Their first taste of the Wild organization is orchestrated to impress.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know the saying, you get one shot at making a first impression?\u201d Wild general manager Bill Guerin said. \u201cWe just want to make sure that our guys are treated accordingly. Treated not just with respect, but treated well. We believe we\u2019re a first class organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 flights, lodging, bus rides, meals, you name it. At home, he caters to all of the players\u2019 off-ice needs \u2014 housing, personal appearances and charity work all part of a list that seems endless.<\/p>\n
The \u201c\u2026and other duties as assigned\u201d part of his job description is a doozy.<\/p>\n
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\u2019 home rink, the worse the traffic got until they were hopelessly stuck in gridlock still several blocks from the arena.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Hennig grabbed Boyd\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
At the 2025 trade deadline, the Wild were in Vancouver and acquired Boston forward Justin Brazeau, who had played in Carolina the previous night,\u00a0When 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou doubt me?\u201d he messaged with a smiling emoji.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s hotel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey 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,\u201d Brink said. \u201cThey just give me instructions, and I follow them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although this year at the trade deadline, Hennig\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Hennig had tried to figure out a way to be in two places at once, and the general manager was having none of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBilly has done an outstanding job of creating good culture here,\u201d Hennig said. \u201cHe told me that if I was on the plane to Vegas, he would fire me. Family comes first.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s media relations team met him at the airport, for example, but true to Guerin\u2019s standards, it was a first-class welcome.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s nutritionist. At home, they are fed by some of Minnesota\u2019s most renowned chefs, so the players\u2019 first, last and only concern when they get to the rink is finding a way to win hockey games.<\/p>\n
The efforts aren\u2019t unnoticed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey sacrifice a lot \u2014 a lot of time, a lot of energy. Dom is top notch,\u201d Wild defenseman Brock Faber said. \u201cHe works his tail off for us, and we couldn\u2019t be more appreciative of what he does for us, because it\u2019s such smooth sailing, everything, because of him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In early May of 1984, the Minnesota Twins summoned a little-known outfield prospect from their minor league system…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[3201,5,161,38,5280,4,43,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-506409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-bill-guerin","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-wild","12":"tag-minnesotawild","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116239935819990737","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}