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FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD
Veteran Sheldon Dries finds peace in the frenzy of pro hockey by doing what he can to push himself and his teammates toward excellence.
Story and photo by Mark Newman
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
– Henry David Thoreau
Sheldon Dries has never been the biggest, fastest, or strongest hockey player, but superlatives are not why he is now in his eighth pro season.
Dries has a hockey pedigree – his father, Todd, played at Western Michigan University in 1986-87; his uncle, Ray Jr., was a captain at the University of Michigan in 1984-85 – but it has been his work ethic that has allowed him to stick out from the crowd.
"My brother is four years older and we grew up playing hockey and baseball and a little roller hockey – we were always busy," he said. "My dad, my uncle, and my cousins all played, so his advice was to go out there and have fun. Play the game the right way. Play it honestly. And I think that's the best advice. He still texts me: 'Good luck. Have fun.'
"My dad's always been that way and I always looked up to him. My dad had a carpenter business with another partner and he was my coach until I was 15 or 16, then I moved over to a different team and went to juniors. So he had a big impact."
Dries grew up in the Detroit area, so he played AAA hockey as a teen for Honeybaked and Belle Tire teams against some of the top competition in the country, including Compuware, Little Caesars, and Victory Honda, as well as teams from Chicago.
"It was some of the top teams in the country," he said. "It was the best hockey that you could play, game in and game out. It was not easy, but I think it helped everyone develop. As a team, we'd get to play at Joe Louis Arena sometimes, and as a family, we tried to make at least one Red Wings game a year. I was a huge fan growing up."
Dries admired the play of Henrik Zetterberg.
"He was a great center – in the defensive zone, offensive zone," he explained. "He was gifted, obviously. Even just killing penalties. I remember watching him block shots in the Stanley Cup Final.
"He played the game honest, I thought. He didn't cheat the game. He did a little bit of everything. I didn't think I could ever be the player he was, but I thought he was a good one to look up to."
Dries was inspired by Zetterberg's dedication and commitment to excellence. The same determination that enabled the Swedish center to go from late-round draft pick to Stanley Cup winner proved to be an incentive for the young Dries as he pursued his NHL dreams.
It's the reason that Dries cites as a favorite quote the words of Henry David Thoreau, who believed too many people wander through life performing routines without pursuing their true desires – ultimately finding quiet desperation, not fulfillment.
"I think you've got to be a free thinker in certain aspects of your life," Dries said. "If you just want to go with the crowd, just be another foot soldier, or whatever metaphor you want to use, you're not going to grow as much. I think you have to bet on yourself sometimes. I think when you step out of your comfort zone, that's when you really grow."
Standing 5-foot-9 today at age 30, "growth" – at least from the standpoint of stature – has been an ever-elusive pursuit for Dries.
"I heard it 100% at every level – 'he's too small' - absolutely," he said. "You'd hear, 'He can't play junior hockey – too small.' 'He can't play college.’ Then in college, again, 'He's too small – he won't play pro.' I love to prove the doubters wrong. I think it gives you motivation. As a natural competitor, I think we all want to prove something."
Dries left home at 17 to play for the Green Bay Gamblers in the USHL. "I think I was just young and naive at the time, but I didn't know much about the USHL," he said. "They drafted me and it honestly couldn't have been better for me."
The move was made easier because he headed to Wisconsin with his Honeybaked linemates Nick Schilkey and Alex Kill. "We stayed aligned from the time we were about 12 years old until we were 19," he said.
Green Bay went 47-9-4 during the 2011-12 campaign, the first season under head coach Derek Lalonde, with the team's 98 points and 25 road wins setting new USHL records. The Gamblers ultimately captured the franchise's fourth Clark Cup championship.
"When hockey is going good, everything kind of seems to fall into place," he said. "We had a great group and Newsy [Lalonde, who would accept the Red Wings job 11 years later] did a good job bringing that group together very quickly. And I think that translated to our on-ice play."
Although the Gamblers continued their winning ways in 2012-13, a repeat title was not in the cards. Dries was already ticketed to go to his father's alma mater next. "When I turned 16, Western reached out to me," he recalled. "It was actually [Jeff] Blashill and then Pat Ferschweiler and Rob Facca, who recruited me.
"I committed to Blash when he was at Western before he left [for the Red Wings organization]. I met Andy [Murray, who became the Broncos’ head coach after 16 NHL seasons] and I wasn't going to leave. It worked out perfectly because I loved Andy."
Dries said he never seriously considered going anywhere else.
"My parents put so much into youth hockey and stuff that I thought the least I could do was go to college somewhere where they could see me play," he said. "I think that's important from a family aspect. But I also wanted to go somewhere I was wanted, and Western made me feel that way. And I loved my decision."
Dries felt Western was the perfect place to refine his game.
"In my first year, Andy threw me into a third-line checking role, so I was playing against the top line of every other team – so not many points, but a lot of ice time and a lot of defensive situations, which helped me grow as a player."
His leadership abilities led him to be named captain as a sophomore, eventually becoming only the second player in school history to serve as a three-year captain.
"I definitely wanted to be a leader from a young age," he said. "I was a captain in youth hockey and then Newsy gave me a letter in Green Bay, which was really cool. So it's something that was instilled.
"I wanted to be a leader on that team, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon. Andy had full faith in me and I didn't take a day for granted while I was a captain there."
Dries demonstrated leadership during his senior season when he continued playing despite a broken thumb suffered from blocking a shot.
"It happened during Senior weekend," he said. "I couldn't grip anything – it was completely broken. The doctor said I needed surgery, but it was my last season. I wanted to play, so they put a little cast on it and I played."
Coming out of college, Dries wasn't sure what was next. "I didn't know if I was going to play pro," he said. "I didn't have an agent. I had my criminal justice degree, so I was looking at the FBI, the police academy, and stuff like that. Andy hooked me up with an agent, we started talking, and he said Texas was interested."
He spent the 2017-18 AHL season with the Texas Stars, tallying 19 goals in 70 regular-season games. He was the team's second-leading goal scorer during the playoffs, recording 10 lamp-lighters in 22 games during the team's Calder Cup Playoff run.
"I was just enjoying being a pro, enjoying hockey as my job, and I think that played a lot into it," he said. "When you take the outside noise and push it to the side, you can just have fun being there."
The Stars reached the Calder Cup Finals, losing in seven games to the Toronto Marlins.
"It was heartbreaking, for sure," he said. "It was a cool experience going through playoffs. Obviously, as a young kid, you think, 'Okay, we just lost, it's my first year, we'll be back,' but it is tough to get back. It is really hard. It makes you want that chance one more time, at least."
Dries spent the next three seasons in Colorado, splitting his time between the Avalanche in Denver and the AHL's Eagles in Loveland, about 45 miles north of the Mile High City. He made the Avalanche at the beginning of the 2017-18 season but shuttled back and forth for the majority of his time in the organization.
In Denver, he played for Stanley Cup winner Jared Bednar, the former Griffins defenseman (1998-99) who’s now in his ninth season behind the Avalanche bench.
"I loved him as a coach," Dries said. "As a player in my position, an up-and-down guy, you never want to be lied to and he was always honest. He never beat around the bush with me. He would tell me exactly why I was getting sent down or what I needed to work on.
"That gives you a goal to work on when you go down to the AHL to hopefully come back up. And that's what I appreciate. Of course, everyone wants to be in the NHL, and getting demoted in any aspect of life doesn't feel good. But if you want to pout and cry and say this isn't fair, that isn't fair, it's never going to work for you.
"But if you get sent down and you have a good mindset where you're going to work hard and do the right things, there's a chance you'll be back. Control what you can control because, as I said before, the outside noise can get loud, but if you push that to the side, you'll put yourself in a good spot."
With the Eagles, Dries got to know another former Griffins defenseman, Aaron Schneekloth (2002-04), who has served as an assistant or head coach with the Eagles for 12 seasons after spending the last seven seasons of his playing career with the team.
"He's got his jersey hung up in the rafters there, so he's a little bit of a legend," Dries said. "He was awesome. We had a great relationship and I'm super happy for him and the success that he's having with the Eagles. Whenever we play, I try to see him after the game and talk a bit."
Dries spent the past three seasons in the Vancouver Canucks organization. He scored 35 goals in 54 AHL games in Abbotsford during the 2021-22 season.
"We were a close-knit team and things just kind of clicked," he said. "It wasn't anything special. I wasn't trying to shoot more. I wasn't trying to be a puck hog or anything like that. It just clicked. I don't know how to describe it, but it was a fun year."
He felt the team had the potential to make a good run in the playoffs.
"But the big team had some injuries and six of us went up the last month or whatever, so it was tough to come back and get that chemistry again quick, and we lost in the opening round. In a two-out-of-three series, it's always tougher."
Dries spent most of the 2022-23 season in the NHL. In 63 games with the Canucks, he registered 11 goals and six assists. It showed that he could play at the NHL level if given the opportunity.
"Vancouver made a trade and opened up that 13th forward spot. I knew if there was ever a time to grab that spot, it was then, and things just worked out," he said. "Bruce Boudreau was the coach at the time and I liked him. He was very honest, similar to Bedsie [Bednar]. I felt like he truly wanted me to succeed. He saw potential in me and gave me a chance, and that's all you can ask for."
The Canucks, however, replaced Boudreau midseason with Rick Tocchet, and Dries eventually found himself back in the AHL the next season. He tallied 52 points (29-23--52) in 55 games a year ago, when he spent the entire season in Abbotsford.
"It was frustrating, but it's a business, and they needed to give their young guys a chance to play," he said. "I thought I could have provided some utility up with a big team, but that's not my decision. So I just tried to be the best teammate that I could in Abbotsford and help the young guys to be ready when they went up, because it's not easy."
Signing a two-year contract with the Red Wings this past summer was a dream come true.
"There were a few teams interested but finding two [NHL and AHL] teams that are closer in distance to each other was important to my family," he said. "An opportunity to play for your hometown team is something you can't pass up. I was super excited to hear that they were interested.
"So being able to put on the Winged Wheel for the first time, even in preseason, was truly amazing."
This past summer was especially energizing for Dries, Red Wings contract aside. After moving down the street from their first home in Waterford the previous summer, Dries and his wife, Emilee, got to spend the warm months welcoming the arrival of their first child, Remy Ray, who was born last May 17.
"We got knocked out of the playoffs and I flew home from Abbotsford the next morning," he recalled. "She was 10 days late, so we were waiting. It's hard to describe being a first-time father, but it's amazing what the birth of your own child can do to you. Every day is a challenge, but it's one of the best challenges anyone could have. It's been awesome."
And now Dries, an itinerant gardener in his free time, would like to help the Griffins grow and blossom into a championship team.
"You need that extra gear, and we definitely have it here," he said. "You know when you're coming to the rink, you're having fun, and you're smiling, that's when you have something special.
"I think we have a lot of smiles coming to the rink every day, which is very important. Guys respect each other and push each other, which helps us grow as a team. We know we're fortunate to do what we do, to play hockey as our job. We're not taking a day for granted.
"We've got a great staff, great players here, so it's fun. There should be a buzz around the city. There's still work to do, but it's exciting."