After a 17-year career as an NHL defenseman and a 14-year career as a broadcaster, Bret Hedican (53) will shift careers once again and become a Player Development Analyst for the San Diego Gulls, the Anaheim Ducks affiliate in the AHL.
We have hired Bret Hedican as our Player Development Analyst.
— San Diego Gulls (@SDGullsAHL) July 30, 2024
Hedican (198th overall in 1988) began his NHL career in the 1991-92 season and played 1039 games for five teams, including the St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, and Anaheim Ducks, and scored 294 points. He added another 108 playoff games, scoring 26 points, and hoisted the Stanley Cup as a member of the 2005-06 Hurricanes.
Internationally, Hedican represented the United States on five occasions, including three IIHF World Championships (1997, 1999, 2001) and two Olympic Games (1992 and 2006).
“I can remember that moment when you are given the Cup for the first time. It’s like that emotion that floods through you that says, wow, I was right to keep going. I was right to never give up on a dream. I was right to believe in the people around me and who I leaned on to help me get there,” Hedican told Max Miller of The Hockey News. “[A] real wave of humility comes through, yet there is also an appreciation for always going back to the drawing board and looking for other ways of improving.”
‘I Couldn’t Be More Excited To Get Back On The Ice’: Sharks’ Bret Hedican Joins Ducks In Player Development Role
Throughout his playing career, Hedican was known as a defensively-driven player in the NHL and took it upon himself to encourage and support younger players as they adjusted to the top hockey league in the world.
“I mean, you become a guy that helps mentor others, younger guys. I think for me, when I came into the game, I don’t think I had a lot of defensemen that were really trying to help me become better because, well, you’re trying to take their job,” Hedican said. “I really looked at that way, about that attitude, and I said, I’ll never be that way. When I get to that level of being in this game, for as long as maybe I have the opportunity to stay in it, I’m going to do everything I can to help the younger guy take my job. Having that mindset of making the guy beside you better eventually comes back to you and makes you better personally.”
Hedican began his broadcasting journey immediately after playing as a pre and post-game host for NBC Sports California. He provided color commentary for the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi for Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey and joined the San Jose Sharks in that same role in the fall of 2014, where he held that role since.
The San Diego Gulls will have an influx of young incoming talent like Yegor Sidorov, Nico Myatovic, and Noah Warren in 2024-25 to add to their already young, developing core that includes Nathan Gaucher, Jan Mysak, and Drew Helleson.
“It does feel great to get back on the ice with the players. The role for me is going to be player development. It gives me a chance to take all the things I’ve learned in the game through my trials and tribulations, or ups and downs of learning how to stay in the NHL for as long as I did, to play as long as I did,” Hedican said. “I think with that, I always took an attitude to never stop learning through my career, and because of that, it allowed me to have that longevity, and it eventually helped me win a Stanley Cup.”
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