Eric Healey knows a thing or two about life in professional hockey.
The native of Hull, Mass., rose to play two games for his hometown Boston Bruins during the 2005-06 season while spending nearly 600 games in the American Hockey League and ending his long career in Switzerland and Austria.
But, the second day of the NHL Entry Draft on July 8 was a whole new experience in a full hockey life.
“I think he was way more relaxed than I was,” Healey said of the buildup to his son, Ryan, being drafted by the Minnesota Wild with the 121st pick in the fourth round. “It gets stressful because you’re just hoping that next one is his name. In the end, I think he ended up in a great spot with a great organization.”
For the younger Healey, a Harvard-bound defenseman who played for the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede in 2021-22, hearing his name called among 10 New England native draftees at Montreal’s Bell Centre was an ultimate “dream come true” experience.
After spending most of the previous three years climbing to the higher age groups within longtime coach Tim Lovell’s Boston Advantage program, advancing to the USHL this past season to prepare for both the draft process and the next step of playing college hockey was logical.
“It was obviously a really exciting moment,” Ryan Healey said. “Obviously, every kid’s dream is to play in the NHL, and this is like the next step. It’s something I’ve dreamed of for a while. I talked to some teams after games, on the phone or Zoom. I had great conversations (with the Wild), so I’m really happy ending up there.”
Healey heard the news of his selection live in Montreal, sitting in a section alongside his family, agent Matt Keator and Harvard classmate Ben MacDonald (Weston, Mass.), the former Nobles center who shares the same agent and was drafted in the third round by the NHL’s newest team, the Seattle Kraken.
Being so close to someone going through the same experiences helped ease whatever nerves Healey had as the draft board started to fill up in the middle rounds.
“That helped a lot,” said Healey, who was selected to the 2022 BioSteel All-American Game and played in the 2021 Hlinka Gretzky Cup with Team USA. “It was a really exciting feeling when we both got those text messages.”
There is plenty to like about Healey’s new organization, including the number of other talented defensemen it has drafted in recent years and its strong connection to New England. GM Bill Guerin (Wilbraham, Mass.) and director of amateur scouting Judd Brackett (Harwich, Mass.) are among Wild staffers who call the region home.
Healey is excited to join the Wild organization fresh off the winningest regular season in franchise history. The feeling is mutual, especially since he was the first defenseman selected in Minnesota’s eight-member draft class this year.
“Ryan is a terrific puck mover, really agile (with) great edge work,” Brackett told reporters following the selection. “The power play is certainly his bread and butter. He’s going to Harvard with a great opportunity in front of him to continue to develop that offensive side.”
Healey admitted to being “almost too (focused on his) offensive” play at the beginning of his first full USHL season in South Dakota, but developing a more rounded game was a focus as the year continued.
Being on a lower-end team in terms of the USHL standings forced him to play in the defensive zone more often than not, but he finished the season with three goals and 21 points in 59 games to rank second among the team’s defensemen in scoring.
High offensive ability is a trait that has helped a number of recent Harvard defensemen have a boatload of success at the college and NHL levels. Healey will follow the likes of 2021 Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox and fellow current pros John Marino (North Easton, Mass.), Jack Rathbone (West Roxbury, Mass.) and Reilly Walsh (Andover, N.H.) to Cambridge.
Harvard’s world-class education goes without saying, but there’s also plenty of hockey pedigree in longtime coach and former Bruin Ted Donato’s (Dedham, Mass.) program.
“They develop players. You can play in the NHL coming out of Harvard,” Eric Healey said. “Ryan’s style of play, I think that suits him well. I’m sure they have a lot of structure, but by all accounts, they let their players play as long as they’re accountable.”
Healey became the 15th NHL draftee on Harvard’s roster for the upcoming season, the most in program history. He will join a defense corps that returns four of the top five contributors from the reigning ECAC Hockey championship squad.
Of course, there was no better place for Healey to get ready to make that challenging next step than the USHL, where so many of the nation’s top soon-to-be college prospects hone their skills just before debuting at the college level.
“Being offensive is good, but you’ve got to play defense. I worked on that a lot,” Healey said. “My coaches helped me a lot with that, and playing against better players. You’re playing against the best guys in the country every night. It’s really competitive and pushes you to be a better player.”
The past year in the USHL was a key developmental period for Healey, but pulling the red and green Wild sweater over his head on draft day allowed him the opportunity to reflect about a long journey on the ice.
Alongside his family, Lovell has been a key figure in Healey’s hockey path. He skated with the Boston Advantage all the way through his youth career, starting from about the age of 5.
“The skating and skills that they provide to their players, it’s just on another level,” Healey said. “Tim, my dad and all my coaches have helped me a lot after playing at a real high level. I’ve played with some awesome teammates, too. There’s a lot you can learn from the people (who have surrounded) me.”
It wasn’t just about what a player can learn on the ice, however. Education and the way Healey carried himself off the ice were stressed from a young age.
“My family talks a lot about the fact that having character is just as important as your skill set,” Healey said. “That’s an important part of being on a team, having something bigger than yourself. I know Harvard is going to be a great program to be a part of — great education, great team, great coaching.”
