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MHJ // You don't often see that type of innate sense or knack for scoring from defensemen. Any forward time in your playing career to give you that offensive edge? Pionk // I actually played forward until I was about 12 years old. My dad was the coach and our team needed help on defense, so my dad put me back there and I stuck with it. I think it gives me that offensive instinct for sure. I think having a defenseman who is able to carry the puck and play with that offensive instinct helps out the offense a bunch. MHJ // Tell us more about your youth career. Pionk // I was 4 years old when I first skated, and 5 years old when I first played organized hockey. I have four brothers, one older and three younger, and my older brother didn't exactly get the hockey bug—he played college baseball—but the rest of us played hockey. MHJ // We hear you could be found as often on a baseball diamond as a hockey rink yourself. Pionk // Yeah, I played baseball until I was 21, second or third base. I still like watching and following it. I was never a one-sport kind of guy. MHJ // Hockey is such a lifeline in Hermantown— how special is it to have been a part of that? Pionk // It was awesome. The youth hockey program in Hermantown was great. We were always competitive, always had good teams, but then of course we idolized the Hermantown high school teams. They were making state tournament runs every year. I think it first started when I was going through youth hockey and they won their first state tournament in '07, I would have been 12 years old then. We grew up idolizing the high school team and we looked forward to the day that we finally got to play and make our own state runs. It was a lot of fun. 15 M A R C H 2 0 1 9 | M H J ON L I N E . C O M Through 74 NHL games, Pionk has 6 goals and 34 assists. Photo / New York Rangers I think as a 16- or 17-year-old, there's no bigger or better stage than playing at the Xcel in Minnesota in March.