Like not that I’m an expert on him and I don’t claim to be and I don’t know him personally and would run for my life if I ran into him at Maynard’s. But I have watched all his content and watched him play now for a few years. So I think I can ramble for a bit.

Like he is a very loyal dude, extremely loyal. He’s a golly gee gosh guy but he also will absolutely swear like a sailor on the ice and is not afraid to get into the shit with anyone and everyone. He was heavily protected in his early years because he was a star rookie but he’s not so much anymore. He will fight for his teammates without question. Unless catastrophe strikes he will never leave Minnesota, a place he loves incredibly much as anyone from Minnesota does. Most Minnesotans end up coming back home and never leave for long. He’s extremely close to his family and still is friends with basically everyone from childhood to college. And they are all extremely loyal to him. When Quinn arrived a group of his friends were mad on his behalf because he wouldn’t be on the PP1 anymore.

He makes friends pretty much everywhere he goes and people become quickly obsessed with him. He’s just that guy. Tons and tons of hockey players would list him as their friend or someone they admire, he has very few enemies in the game and one of them is just the entirety of the Dallas team. But other than that, he’s extremely well regarded and well liked. Players that were on the Wild for like 2 months have him at their wedding.

There’s a reason that everyone on the Team USA hockey team picks him as their must fun, favorite, surprise, beauty, etc. everyone from Werenski to McAvoy talks about him with absolute delight and affection. Sometimes awe. He’s the life of any party he is at and can go at it pretty much endlessly until someone stops him. That includes weddings. He’s not afraid nor cares if he looks goofy as hell as long as everyone is having fun. He’s seemingly a walking meme without trying at all just by being himself. You can tell the way others talk about him that they just adore him and that he’s sort of a weird magical horse.

In the Wild Room he’s often cited as the funniest of the team, whether just being things he says, the way he and Bolds go after each other, or just by his general demeanor. But he also always comes to the room with energy. It’s kind of noted the more you watch the Wild, if Brock is not having a good day NO ONE is having a good day. He’s a mood maker and a big presence.

His sense of humor leans on the goofier side of things but he can certainly be dry especially when he’s tired. But generally he likes to be silly and is full of the whimsy that is suitable to someone raised by Moose.

He doesn’t believe in aliens for some reason and has passionate opinions about it. But he also has strong opinions about any goofy ass question you ask him. He will think about it seriously and give it an answer. Whether it’s what liquids would you have coming out of your fingers or the team’s performance in last night’s games. He won’t waste your time with not answering. He thinks he doesn’t call his mother enough. He doesn’t care for Matt’s silly superstitions. He plays golf but he’s sick of it but he’s so competitive he wants to be better at it. He loves dogs and is scared of cats.

He will lie diabolically to win a rock paper scissors game and not think twice about it. Because like all hockey players he is, to quote Quinn Hughes, ULTRA competitive. He wants to fucking win.

During the season and during work he is intensely locked in and deadly serious about his work and what he does. And from a very young age, like a lot of young sports guys whose family discovers they’re pretty good at what they do, had a lot of pressure on him. Especially prominent for Brock when he had a dad who was intensely sports dad about his son. He became The One for the family and the breadwinner. And he went through the notorious NTDP which I don’t think we need to go into but he had the same experiences that everyone who went through it did and came out of it with that same cult like intensity about the national hockey program (and a best friend). The belief of playing for his country is deeply ingrained in him like it is for all those guys, for better or worse. He thrives under the big lights and is a playoffs guy. Those are the big moments he wants.

Brock has always held leadership positions in pretty much every area of his life. He has a natural leadership quality about him. He puts an intense amount of pressure on himself when the team fails and never takes any credit when the team does well. He had that mentality in high school, in the program, at college, and now with the Wild. He takes it upon himself to volunteer when the team loses to talk to the press (and notoriously October fell on the sword for the team’s bad start) so much so that it’s pretty obvious when he doesn’t speak it’s because someone else (usually Zuccy) stepped up first or someone stopped him from doing it. He’s so hard on himself as a player that our hard ass GM had to come out and say “hey no one in the organization is as hard on Brock as he is on himself. We love him.” He feels an intense level of responsibility to the team and the fans especially as one of the most recognizable sports faces in the state and a hometown kid. He knows the lore, he knows the reputation, he knows the drought, he cares so much about it.

He also has somewhat of a self deprecating, lower view of himself that comes out sometimes. Notoriously when he was told the Kings traded him he was actually devastated. He called his dad extremely upset near tears because he couldn’t understand why they didn’t want him. It was only until it was explains what Minnesota gave up to get him that he figured out oh, they actually want me more than the Kings wants to let me go. But you can see this attitude too in the way he talks about his game. When he scores two goals in a loss vs. Dallas it doesn’t matter because they didn’t win. When he took huge strides this year it was more because he was playing with Quinn than it was about what he was doing.

He takes reporters and interviews very seriously which is also why they love to talk to him and is frequently cited as a good interview. He always tries to give very thoughtful responses even though it might be exhausting or overwhelming. He thinks through things and gives answers that are wise beyond his years and yes, very captain like. He knows when he needs to call the team out or when he needs to call himself out and which situation is the best.

He will do anything for kids, he does anything for disability charities and events, he donates whatever and wherever is asked of him. He generally stays off the grid in the off season and you rarely hear from him, he’s not one for events and prefers to stay close to home. But if there’s a party he will be there.

BEARING