Hnidy heads to Hockey Hall after long career

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This article was published 18/06/2024 (496 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shane Hnidy was the ultimate team guy during his long professional career, but the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame has given him something to celebrate that he earned all by himself.

Hnidy, 48, a defenceman from Neepawa who played 10 seasons in the National Hockey League and now serves as an NHL broadcast analyst, will be officially welcomed to the Hall during an induction dinner in Winnipeg on Oct. 5.

The fact he’s going in alone makes it both a little different for him and very memorable.

“I’m always a team-first guy so this is kind of my first individual award from hockey and recognizing what I did as an individual,” Hnidy said. “I’m always more about the team aspect so I think that’s what makes this special.”

The news of the upcoming Hall of Fame class was announced last week. The other Westman connections are the late Brad Maxwell of Brandon as a player, and the 1986-1992 Cartwright Clippers, who are earning the nod as a dynasty team.

The path Hnidy took from a youngster in Neepawa to the Hall certainly didn’t hint at what was to come.

He began skating around age four, with his mother Diana putting him in power skating before he began to play house-league hockey in Neepawa.

“That was the good thing about growing up in a small town,” Hnidy said. “Sometimes we would get on the outdoor rink but there was always ice available. From Grade 1, there was always a group of kids from the first grade to fifth grade who lived there, and we played hockey every night. Every night.

“It was something you did year-round. We didn’t necessarily always need ice. When I was young, a lot of it was playing road hockey. It was the passion for the game.”

Hnidy grew up a goal-scoring forward, and by age 11 or 12, became a rink rat. If someone was needed to run the score clock, move nets or do the scoresheet, Hnidy was probably there.

He kept his skates, gloves and helmet in a locker at the rink, so whenever ice was available, he would jump on until the next booking.

“If I wasn’t playing a game myself, I was taking advantage of that free ice,” Hnidy said. “For a while, they had an outdoor rink behind the Yellowhead arena, so there was the outdoor option for a while.

“I tried to grab ice whenever I could, and road hockey wasn’t just a winter sport.”

If it wasn’t hockey, he and his friends would play baseball or throw a football around. That helped nurse another facet of Hnidy’s athletic tool box that would lead to future success.

“I always had a natural competitiveness to me from a young age, hating to lose,” Hnidy said. “I loved all sports but hockey was the one that took off.”

He was also given every opportunity to succeed. His parents Diana and Ed always made the game accessible, something that was complicated by the fact his older brother Shawn also played.

“You know the financial and time commitment that parents put in and you can’t speak enough to it and what they sacrifice for you,” Hnidy said. “My parents certainly did that for me. I’m not where I am without my mom and dad and even the support of my brother.”

During the 1990-91 season, Hnidy and three others from Neepawa joined the U18 AAA Yellowhead Chiefs.

He went through a growth spurt at the time, and by his own words didn’t dominate as one of the youngest players on the team, contributing nine goals, 11 assists and 92 penalty minutes in 36 games.

“There were always doubters,” Hnidy said. “It’s not like I stood out in AAA by any means but it was certainly a level up from playing locally in Neepawa where we were always the dominant team. I played up [an age group] from ages 11 to 14. Whatever team needed me — there were a couple of us, Kori Pearson was the other one — we were the two at our age level who would play up and back, and then we both went on to AAA midget with Yellowhead.”

It was a big step in a developmental sense, and helped facilitate an even bigger move the next fall. But he certainly faced some long odds.

“I still believed I could be better,” Hnidy said. “I always believed in myself I guess when others didn’t. Certainly nobody saw me taking the jump from the season I had in AAA to the WHL the next year.”

But that’s exactly what he did.

He played a couple of games with the former Neepawa Natives, now the Titans, at the end of his U18 season, and gained a lot of confidence from the team’s coach, Heavy Evason, as he posted a couple of points.

The Western Hockey League’s Swift Current Broncos invited him to their camp the next fall, and at age 15 he travelled west with his mother with no real expectations.

He had strept throat at camp, but didn’t let it slow him down, and he was invited to stay through the exhibition season. His mom headed home and returned two weeks later to pick him up, only to find her son had made the team.

“As she says, she let me stay and then spent seven hours crying all the way back from Swift Current to Neepawa,” Hnidy said. “She came to pick me up and take me home and went back by herself.”

While his parents kept him in equipment and helped him travel to games as a youngster, the father of four now understands how difficult that sacrifice — letting him go — must have been. While he turned 16 on Nov. 8 that year and was a teenager heading out on an exciting new adventure, he is now empathetic about what his mom and dad must have gone through back in Neepawa.

“I couldn’t imagine letting my kid leave at that time,” Hnidy said. “I wanted it and without their sign-off, you never know.”

After posting four points in 56 games as a rookie, he made the transition that ultimately led him to the NHL in his second season. His coach at the time, the notorious Graham James, moved him back to the blue-line, and he played the rest of his career on the back end.

“They knew I had a mind for the game,” Hnidy said. “It’s always been my strength, the ability to think the game. Rob Daum who was the assistant coach, did a lot of work with me. You have to learn how to skate backwards. I remember putting in a lot of extra time in year two just learning to skate backwards.”

He had a terrific start because he could see the ice so well, and knew when it was a good idea to jump into the play. But at the same time, he continued to work on his foot speed, a criticism he said he heard through his whole career.

“It was a fit obviously, because it worked out in the long run,” he said.

After a trade during the 1992-93 campaign, he spent the final three-and-a-half seasons of his WHL career with the Prince Albert Raiders, where he became one of the top defenceman in the league. In 1994, he was selected by the Buffalo Sabres in the seventh round, 173rd overall, of the NHL draft.

In 1995, he posted a career-high 169 penalty minutes and was part of the legendary East Division series with the Brandon Wheat Kings that the Manitoba club captured in seven games. During the 1995-96 season, Hnidy set career highs of 11 goals and 42 assists in 58 games.

But he was still a long ways from the NHL.

“Nobody ever saw that coming,” Hnidy said. “I had a good junior career, and a long one playing five years as an under and an over in the Western League. Usually people who do that don’t go on.”

He started his pro career in 1996-97 in the ECHL with the Baton Rouge Kingfish and earned a promotion to the American Hockey League’s Saint John Flames.

He spent the 1997-98 campaign with the International Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins, and after two more seasons in the AHL — and a move to the Detroit Red Wings organization — Hnidy finally received the break he needed after a trade to the Ottawa Senators to start the 2000-01 season.

Veteran defenceman Lance Pitlick had signed with the Florida Panthers, and Hnidy recognized he could potentially fill that physical role on the back end.

“Going into camp, I was turning 24 and feeling this was my opportunity,” Hnidy said. “When I speak to kids now, it’s ‘Recognize the opportunity, and when you get it, you have to try to grab hold because you never know when it will come.’

“If you’re a high draft pick, you’ll get two or three opportunities. I was at the point where I was running out.”

Just like in Swift Current a decade earlier, but this time with wife Michaella and daughter to support, he was able to turn heads during camp and the pre-season.

Still, he was a scratch for the season opener until Swedish defenceman Sammy Salo fell ill. Hnidy slotted in, and on Oct. 5, 2000 in Boston, he made his NHL debut against the Bruins, playing just over six minutes on nine shifts, taking a minor penalty and finishing with a plus-minus of +1.

“I think maybe that helped,” Hnidy said of the way it happened. “There wasn’t a lot of time to think about it. It was like ‘OK.’ I made some calls to make sure everyone could watch. That turned into 10 games.”

In his 11th game, the Senators travelled to meet the Toronto Maple Leafs and he was interviewed by Ron MacLean on Hockey Night In Canada.

“At the end of the interview he said ‘You’re doing great’ and I was ‘Hopefully I can stay,’” Hnidy said. “He said ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be staying.’ It was kind of a cool moment to get recognized at that point and I never looked back after that.”

He went on to play 550 regular season games and 40 playoff contests, with additional stops with the Nashville Predators, Atlanta Thrashers, Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins and Minnesota Wild.

He ended up with a momentous second run with the Bruins when they signed the free agent late in the 2010-11 season as a depth defenceman. He played three games in the regular season and three more in the playoffs as the Bruins captured their first championship in nearly 40 years.

After a chance to bring the Stanley Cup back to Neepawa, Hnidy retired from his playing career on Aug. 31, 2011. He seamlessly transitioned into a new career, joining TSN and Sports Radio 1290’s play-by-play team of Dennis Beyak and Brian Munz for Winnipeg Jets broadcasts after the franchise relocated from Atlanta.

He spent six seasons with the Jets crew, and then accepted a job in 2017 to join the Vegas Golden Knights broadcast as their TV analyst, and was with them in 2023 when they raised the Stanley Cup. After 11 years playing in the league and 13 as a broadcaster, Hnidy’s ability to spot developing plays and boil down complicated concepts and present them in a digestible form are among his many strengths.

“You don’t want to overcomplicate the game,” Hnidy said. “As I’ve gone through my career as an analyst, it’s changed a little bit but the game has to be fun. I want to be able to break down plays simply for them to see and not get into the technical stuff as systems have changed.

“With hockey, it’s not like football or baseball where you have a long time to explain. You have to be in and out quick because it’s such a fast sport. If you try to overcomplicate it, it takes away from it. You have to be quick, you have to be precise and you have to be clear on your message.”

While Hnidy understood the game when he started, he said Beyak was a huge mentor to him as a broadcaster. But Hnidy also brought a deep passion to the job that certainly helps.

“Everybody sees the goal,” Hnidy said. “I want to see the play that happened not two or three steps behind but maybe four or five. Where did it happen?”

But even Hnidy didn’t spot what was coming earlier this month. He found out he was being inducted into the Manitoba Hall of Fame a week before it was announced. “It wasn’t even on the radar, to be honest,” Hnidy said. “I’m certainly excited, it was a very nice surprise to hear that and for my parents who are there. Manitoba is considered home, and I still go back every summer.”

After the news became public, he received a lot of texts and notes of congratulation. That included some old friends who were there at the very start.

“That group of guys I grew up playing road hockey with, we’re still all on a group text, and I heard from them,” Hnidy said. “Kenny Pearson is one of them, the head coach with the Neepawa Titans. We stay in contact. We may not see each other as much as we would like, but we stay in contact.”

It’s a nice nod to the player who couldn’t get enough of the game growing up, made an unlikely switch in position in junior, bided his time in the minors before he finally had his chance to play in the NHL and then found a second career as a broadcaster.

He doesn’t take for it granted.

“I reflect all the time on how grateful I am for the sport,” Hnidy said. “I don’t know what the hell else I would do. You always have aspirations, and I always said I had the greatest job in hockey and now I have the second best job. I can’t trump playing and playing at the National Hockey League level, but I’ve been part of the NHL now for 24 years and part of a Stanley Cup on both sides of it.”

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