Even after the craziness of the past year and the stops and starts as a result of the pandemic, you won’t hear complaints from Mount St. Charles Academy 18-U defenseman Nate Benoit.
On July 24, after sitting through hours of tedious selections at his family’s Bow, N.H., home, the North Dakota commit was selected No. 182 overall by the Minnesota Wild in the sixth round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft.
“It’s unreal,” Benoit, 18, told New England Hockey Journal. “It’s something you’re always working toward and it’s always in the back of your mind, but when it actually happens, and it’s finalized, it’s something that I still haven’t even gotten used to yet. It’s hard to realize it’s real. It’s just such an awesome feeling.”
“As the sixth round came around, I was starting to get a little like, ‘Oh no, this is getting toward the end here.’ So, I just decided, ‘Hey, I’m going to go hang out with the family.’ ”
Of course, that’s when he got the call.
“I put my phone down and five minutes later my mom screamed out from the window that I had been drafted and we all started celebrating together, so it was pretty awesome to have everyone there.”
It’s only fitting his mom was the one to relay the news. After all the early mornings, long car rides and weekends spent in the stands at frigid rinks, it was a special moment for the entire Benoit clan.
“My parents are such a big part of who I am,” Benoit said. “They’ve always been that rock to tell me straight up how I played. They don’t sugarcoat it; they’re not that type. They’ve always been there for me, so it was really special that I could celebrate with them.”
Benoit was one of five current and former Mounties selected on the second day of the draft, joining Penn State commit Owen McLaughlin (Round 6, No. 206 overall); Providence College commit Guillaume Richard (Round 4, No. 101 overall); Omaha commit Joaquim Lemay (Round 4, No. 119 overall); and Zachary Bolduc (Round 1, No. 17 overall), who spent minimal time with the program before matriculating to the QMJHL.
“It was definitely a busy day for the phones,” Benoit said. “I was calling all my friends and family. We were all just chatting, talking about how happy we were for each other. Even the guys that went way before me, it was insane because you just felt so proud for them. When JoJo (Lemay) got drafted, the happiness that I felt for that kid, because I know what a hard worker he is, it’s just nice to see it paying off for your teammates. It’s a really good feeling.”
It was a good feeling, as well, for Mount coach Matt Plante, who oversaw Benoit’s development at the Woonsocket, R.I., hockey academy for the past two seasons since arriving from Selects Academy in South Kent, Conn., in 2019.
“It’s hard to put into words,” the 18-U coach said. “It’s just a thrilling feeling. Nate’s been with us from the beginning. He was a part of the first group that came in when we started, so he’s been with the program from day one. I give the kid a lot of credit. His resolve and his character and his work ethic, his desire, is why he’s gotten the opportunities that he’s gotten the last five, six months. Everybody’s just really thrilled for him.”
Making the most of 2020-21
Benoit’s selection capped off quite the year for the New Hampshire native, who began playing at Mount Saint Charles after several years with the USPHL’s Northern Cyclones. It was a season of ups and downs for everyone in the hockey world, plagued by stops and start.
“That’s something that we kind of overlook is the grind that all of these kids went through,” Plante said. “Nate in particular. He’s a competitor. He wants to win championships. As a junior last year, COVID ended our season prematurely when we had an automatic bid to the national tournament, and then the expectation that we would have more of a season than we actually had — we kind of knew we were going to go through some things, but we never envisioned four pauses throughout the season, and we never envisioned a four-month gap between games. I don’t think anybody predicted that.”
When the team got shut down in October, Benoit went to Tri-City to skate with the Storm, the team that selected him No. 49 overall in the USHL Entry Draft the summer before. He ended up playing three games with the club, demonstrating that he could keep up with the pace and physicality of the country’s top junior league.
“That was so much fun,” Benoit said of his time with Tri-City. “Playing with those guys is such a great time. It’s almost different hockey; just so fast, so competitive. The whole staff there was so great to me, and I can’t wait to go back.”
He headed home from Kearney, Neb., with the expectation that things would be returning to somewhat normal in Rhode Island, but the pause continued all the way through January.
“We ended up not playing again until February,” Plante said. “And I give Nate a lot of credit because a kid like Nate could have easily just given up and left our program, but he stuck with it. I know he was frustrated, and rightfully so, we all were, but once we got back into it, we just kind of put it all behind us and focused on our major team goals because, despite how disjointed the season was, we still had an opportunity to accomplish what we set out to do.”
The team picked up where it left off and surged its way into the New England district tournament, knocking off the Maine Nordiques to win the district crown and secure a bid to USA Hockey 18-U Nationals.
In the end, the Mounties made a good run but fell to the eventual 18-U champion Rochester Coalition, 3-2, in the national semifinals.
Benoit, a two-way power defenseman who can skate, has good physicality and vision, totaled 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists) in 33 games over the course of the stop-and-start campaign.
“I think we had a really good season,” the 6-foot-1, 181-pound blueliner said. “Obviously, we were a little frustrated with how it came to an end, but I was super happy with how the boys played and where our team was come nationals. We came a really long way from the beginning of the year.
Benoit was one of two Mount players donning a ‘C’ during the season. According to Plante, his leadership qualities were on full display in more ways than one, whether it was in the locker room with his teammates or following a pregame meal where he would lead the charge on the clean-up process.
“He was just such a huge piece to our team,” Plante said. “Without him, I don’t know if we would have finished the way that we did, because he was such a big piece. And like I said, that speaks to his character that he stuck it through, and it also speaks to how much he cares about his teammates, his brothers. He wasn’t going to abandon them, and we’re forever grateful for that.”
The feeling is mutual, Benoit said.
“Playing for Plante has pretty much shaped me into the player I am. He demanded what he wanted from me and never really accepted anything less, and that was really helpful. I definitely wouldn’t be where I am without him and going (to Mount), so I’m super, super thankful for all of those guys and how they treated me.”
Gearing up for 2021-22
With the draft and his time in high school now complete, Benoit will turn his full attention to the ice as he gets set to ship out to Tri-City for the start of this coming season's campaign.
After his time in the USHL, he will head to UND, the school he committed to last October. Once he arrives, he will become the first New Hampshire-born player in program history.
Unlike most kids from the Northeast, Benoit was focused on North Dakota the entire way. He first heard about the school in his eighth-grade year and never looked back.
“I fell in love instantly,” he said of his first memories of UND’s storied hockey program. “I was hooked. So, that was always in the back of my mind, like, ‘Hey, one day, if you keep working, that’s the school you can be at.’ For (the commitment) to finally happen was just awesome. That was a big step for me. It just kind of showed me that, ‘Wow, nothing’s out of reach.’”
While Benoit is setting out on a new journey and taking the next step in his development with a new coaching staff in the coming months, he will be in good hands, Plante said.
“I think he’s going to be on an excellent development path with Tri-City and then North Dakota. It’s exciting to see how he’s going to continue to mature and develop on that path with the people that he’s going to be working with. Anthony Noreen is one of the best, if not the best, junior coaches in North America. He’s top-notch. And then, obviously, what can you say about the staff at North Dakota. They just pump out NHLers, so I’m thrilled for his development path and excited to see where he is in a few years once he’s put in the work at those places.”
In the meantime, Benoit will continue to attend summer skates and work out in the New England area before shipping off to Kearney.
It may not have been the year he thought it would be, but he wouldn’t change a thing.
“I almost want to complain about how crappy the season was with all the breaks, but if you really look at how fortunate I am and how lucky I have been to be at a good school and in a good program with the amazing staff and coaches and teammates that I’ve had — and then not only that but on top of it, to have great success personally — there’s really nothing that I can complain about,” he said.
“I’m lucky to have the family that I have, I’m lucky to be in this situation,” he added with a pause. “It’s just awesome that I can look back at such a crappy year and say, ‘There was a lot of good that came out of that year.’"
This article appeared in the print edition of the July/August 2021 New England Hockey Journal magazine.
