What’s It Like To Plan The Minnesota Wild’s Logistics?

Any time the members of the Minnesota Wild — players, coaches, team staff, etc. — get on a plane, or check into a hotel room on the road, or take a bus to a visiting arena, or sit down for a team meal, you can bet that Andrew Heydt played a role in making it happen. As the person in charge of team services and the growing alumni association for the Wild as they approach a quarter-century as the State of Hockey’s NHL team, Heydt spoke to Mick Hatten and Jess Myers of The Rink Live about the unique challenges of his position, and the summer’s biggest music/hockey event, a Crazy Game of Hockey, coming up in the Twin Cities.

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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro

1:30 Crazy Game of Hockey charity weekend with 3 events with the band O.A.R. and Minnesota’s own, guitarist Cory Wong on July 7 and 8 in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The weekend activities will consist of three events helping launch and promote the newly announced Wild Alumni Association.

3:30 How the Wild Alumni Association has come together and the goals for it

5:00 The Minnesota Wild Foundation and what it does

6:05 What is Andrew’s background (working for Minnesota Twins and Tampa Bay Rays), 10 years of working for the Minnesota Wild, what all his job entails

8:15 The variety of vendors and companies that he deals with in his job, controlling the weather and the traffic

10:00 Players being superstitious vs. routine, what it’s like working for GM Bill Guerin and coach Dean Evason

11:30 What goes into an NHL team going to the NHL Entry Draft, how long they are in the city, how many people from the organization go, the uniqueness of the NHL draft vs. others

14:00 How many former Wild players live in the state and in the area, the alumni association giving former players a reason to visit the state again, Da Beauty League in Edina

16:45 Where Pat Maroon was when he found out he was traded to the Wild

17:05 Where his interest in hockey began because he did not play hockey

18:00 Helping foreign players learn the language and how to get around when they move to play for the Wild, Kirill Kaprizov’s determination to learn English

19:40 Being away from home 160 days a year, the importance of getting along with others

20:55 The most interesting request from a player (it’s a Tampa Bay Ray), putting together a wedding in 48 hours, his tough first day and week on the job with the Wild (getting Devin Dubnyk and helping Zach Parise with funeral arrangements)

25:20 How long he has known O.A.R. and what it is like working with them, who some of the celebrities are who will play in the celebrity game

28:30 Where to get tickets for wild.com/crazygame

29:00 How they put together a list of celebrities to play in the charity hockey game, how Greg Ostertag, a 7-foot-2 former NBA player, got involved