Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/954498
30 // MARCH 2018 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM my side and kind of my mentor but more importantly my good friend and been by my side through my entire hockey journey. He always texts me and tells me how proud he is of me. So when I got the opportunity I called him and just let him know that if it wasn't for him who knows if I would've done the hockey thing. He helped me and stayed with me the whole time, and I told him that I couldn't have done it without him. He's a pretty emotional guy so he got pretty emotional on the phone call. It was fun just to be able to do it and sit back and think about how far I've come, and he's been a major part of it. I can't thank him enough. ••••••••• Ryan Gunderson | Bensalem, Pa. I called Bob Klein, who was my agent in North America. He was excited to hear from me. By the end of the call it felt like he was thanking me. I said, 'Bob, I'm calling to thank you.' I was just an average college player and after my senior year he was really eager to represent me. He was a full-time lawyer at the time and doing this on the side. He wasn't trying to make a dime off me, it was just a matter of trying to help me. He knew I was from the area and believed in me. It gave me a little more confidence to try and take hockey a little bit further. Coming out of col- lege I was bound for the East Coast League and you don't really know where you're going from there. Maybe you get to a second league and then you're out. He kept saying, "The NHL is in your future." We kind of laugh about that because it's a little tough at my age. He just kept telling me to keep doing the little things right. His advice helped me take a step back and think that maybe I can go a little bit further than I thought. ••••••••• Brandon Maxwell | Winter Park, Fla. I called a couple of people. One was Marco Marciano, a goalie coach who worked with me a lot. There was some times when I didn't have a contract going into a season and tried to give him a check to pay him and he'd write on it "earning a contract is paying me back enough.' I also called Rick Pracey, a scout with the Colorado Avalanche. He's always had my back and actually helped me get my first job in Europe. If it wasn't for him, who knows where I'd be right now. I also called Joe Exeter. He's been huge throughout my hockey career, playing at the [National Team Development Program]. He took my mental game to another level. He's a great guy and I talk to him just about every week. ••••••••• Ryan Donato | Scituate, Mass. I talked to two people. The first person I called was my uncle, Danny Dexter. He's been with me since I was a freshman at high school. He started at Salisbury prep school and then went over to Dexter. He got me in there at a time when I don't know if I should have, but academically he helped me through the whole process of being a good student but also playing great hockey. He took me under his wing and gave me a chance to play varsity hockey and gave me all the opportunities to be on the power play and do everything I did. We've had mornings when we'd wake up at 4:15 and we're at the rink five days a week during the season. I couldn't thank him enough. He was very thankful to hear from me and happy for the opportunity that I have here. T h e o t h e r p e r s o n I c a l l e d w a s m y g r a n d m o t h e r. M y g r a n d f a t h e r p a s s e d away when I was younger and he was a big inspiration through my whole career, so far. He hasn't been with us for a very long time but I use him every day to motivate myself. I know that he's looking over me and know that he'd love to hear that I was thinking about him throughout this whole process. ••••••••• Noah Welch | Boston I called two people. Paul Vincent, a skating coach, and Neil Sheehy. They had two differ- ent roles in my life. Neil really kind of helped me as an advisor and ended up being one of the guys who really believed in me. And with Vinnie I was a big, slow-footed defenseman who turned me into a decent skater for a big guy. I didn't come from a hockey family. It was just me and my mom and brother and we didn't know anything about hockey. We didn't have money, either. So Vinnie would let me go to his camps for free as long as I worked at it. The same with Neil, who took my family under his wing and said as long as you work hard and you're coachable you can come in. It was a big break for me. Those are the two guys I called, but honestly I could've called 20 other people as well. ••••••••• David Leggio | Williamsville, N.Y. I've actually reached out to a bunch of people, college coaches, junior coaches, some youth coaches and goalie coaches. The guy I called is Pete Marchant. I also called Ken Hanson, but we've been playing phone tag. Pete and Ken were my BONUS DIGITAL CONTENT PHONE A FRIEND