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22 M H J ON L I N E . C O M | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 'A TEAM-FIRST GUY' Pierce was always an offensive threat. In Ely he was a part of every rush and became the go-to guy, ready to jump into the play when given the chance. He had no fear of being in the offen- sive zone—made apparent by his 34 points (14 goals, 20 assists) through 21 games in 2016-17—and he had no desire to be strict- ly a stay-at-home defenseman. Instead, Pierce led from the backend. He captained the 2017-18 Hermantown Bantam AA squad to the Minnesota Hockey State Tournament. That's where Andrews first caught a glimpse of Pierce the defender. In the Fall of 2018, due to injuries, Andrews got to see Pierce the forward during the Upper Midwest High School Elite League. "For one game I was going to play forward," explained Pierce, who collected six goals and 14 points in 21 games with Team North. "I ended up playing really well, and the coach asked me if I wanted to keep playing." As one game snowballed in to a few more, Pierce drew the attention of his Hermantown High School coaches during an Elite League tournament in Duluth. " We started by trying him out as a for- ward in scrimmages," recalled Andrews. " We put him on the top line with (Biondi) the second week and he had something like four goals that weekend in two scrim- mages. He had two more goals through another half a game. You can't deny your offense of that. "But it's tough. We went round and round last year—do we play him at D or do we play him at forward? If we put him at forward, he's one of our top two forwards; if we put him at D, he's one of our top two D." And while the dynamics of excelling in two positions creates a win-win situation, Andrews said the biggest win is Pierce's willingness to go wherever he can help the team out the most. "Joey is 100 percent a team-first guy," said Andrews. "He just wants to win, and he wants to have great experiences. He's made that point known to me hundreds of times. …He wants to play D, and that's great and we'll honor that, and I wanted him to be the one to make the decision. But he also told me that, at the end of the day, he wants to help the team win, and if we need him to play forward, he'll do that." "I never want to hold anything back selfishly just for myself," added Pierce. "I think for me, I'll do anything to help the team win. It there's an opportunity that the coaches present me with to do that, I'll usually take it. I trust them, so if they 're Pierce is a dual threat in baseball too, where he's played both catcher and outfielder. He's also a cross-country runner. FUN FACT: Photo / The Pierce Family "I think playing multiple positions teaches you more about the game. Playing forward this past year taught me a ton about being a defenseman, being on the other side of the puck and finding out what works and what doesn't work there. Playing against other good defensemen, I was able to learn from them as a forward, and that helped me a lot. You see the game from a whole other angle and teaches you lot." – JOEY PIERCE Pierce will try to lead the Hawks back to Xcel Energy Center this March.