It was Nov. 3, 2004, about two months into the NHL lockout, and forward Darby Hendrickson was taping his hockey stick before a game in Minsk, Belarus, almost 5,000 miles from home.
Hendrickson, a Minnesota native and veteran of nine NHL seasons, had been recruited by an old Minnesota Wild teammate to suit up for a Latvian side called Riga 2000. That teammate, local icon Sergei Zholtok, was now urging him to pay attention to how a local team was practicing.
At the glass, Zholtok gushed over how clubs from that region of the world ran practices. He and Hendrickson chatted for a while about the finer details of the sport they loved - as they often did. At one point, Zholtok turned to Hendrickson and said, "You're going to be a coach one day."
"We'll see," Hendrickson replied.
A few hours later, Zholtok was fighting for his life. The 31-year-old collapsed outside the Riga 2000 dressing room after pulling himself from the game during the third period. While players and coaches filed into the room, Hendrickson stayed by Zholtok's side in the hallway.
Zholtok had missed seven Wild games the year prior due to an irregular heartbeat diagnosis, but he'd been cleared to return to action. Hendrickson accompanied his teammate to the hospital during that first health scare.
Now, as someone retrieved Hendrickson's cell phone from the team bus so he could relay information from the Wild's team doctor, paramedics were trying to revive Zholtok with chest compressions.
Zholtok soon took his last breath. An autopsy revealed the father of two died of heart failure.
"You walk into the arena with your friend, but you don't walk out without him," Hendrickson recalled in a recent interview.
"It was devastating to lose him. It was really, really hard."
It turns out Zholtok was right about Hendrickson being coach material; he's been an assistant with the Wild since 2010. Nearly 19 years later, Hendrickson says he still thinks about his friend every day. Thursday will be an especially reflective moment: Hendrickson and his wife Dana's third of four kids, Beckett, is set to be picked by an NHL team sometime on Day 2 of the draft, which is being held in Nashville, the last NHL city Zholtok called home.
Beckett Hendrickson, born seven months and 21 days after Zholtok's death, has two middle names. One is George - a popular first name on Dana's side of the family. The other is Sergei - after his dad's late friend.
"You lose someone special to you, then you gain your son," Darby said. "There's definitely a connection between the two, with what happened over such a short period."
"It's an honor," Beckett said of the name, before adding: "You try to carry on the legacy."
Beckett's middle name isn't so much a tribute to Zholtok's 258 points in 588 games for the Wild, Predators, Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, and Edmonton Oilers. It honors the person who connected with his dad on a deep, personal level; somebody who truly loved his family, his friends, his country, and his sport; somebody who was seemingly always optimistic.
"Sergei was awesome," Darby said of the man teammates jokingly nicknamed the "Latvian Lover." "You talk to anyone who played with him and you'll find out quickly that everyone loved him. He had contagious energy. He wasn't selfish. He was a good teammate. So passionate."
Darby and Zholtok carpooled to and from the rink and gym during their three years together on the Wild. The stint overseas solidified rumors: Zholtok was a soccer-level celebrity in Latvia.
"My dad tells me about how much people looked up to Sergei in Latvia," Beckett said. "They'd be walking through the streets together and it was like he was the mayor. People are yelling, 'Sergei!' 'Sergei!'"
Beckett's middle name might come up in conversation if he's flashing a piece of ID at the doctor's office or airport. But that's about it. Over the years, though, he's heard stories about Zholtok. He walks past a framed white "Zholtok 33" Wild jersey in the basement of the family's home in Minnetonka, Minnesota. There was once a tribute at the family's property a few hours north, too.
The last time Zholtok visited the Hendrickson cabin, he forgot his wet underwear in the sauna - and they weren't moved for a decade. "'Why would you have a pair of Calvin Klein boxers right there?'" Darby said, imitating guests. "We'd say, 'Well, they're Sergei's.' We had fun with that."
Darby was a pallbearer at the funeral. He grieved alongside Zholtok's loved ones, including his wife, Anna, and the couple's boys, Edgar and Nikita, who were 14 and 4. The Hendricksons also helped the other family organize its finances. During those last days abroad in 2004, Darby felt a "great peace," and upon returning home, he kept leaning on his Christian faith and support from his own family.
"Maybe it's Sergei who tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'I'm glad you're here.' I really don't know," he said. "But there was just this weird, strange peace at the end of my time there."
Zholtok, a right-handed center with a bullet of a shot, remains a legend in the small but mighty hockey nation of Latvia. He's second all time in points and fourth in games played among the country's NHLers, according to the database Quant Hockey. The now-defunct Riga 2000 franchise, which claimed the Latvian Hockey League title in 2004-05, retired Zholtok's No. 33, while a Riga high school was posthumously named in his honor in 2005.
Both of Zholtok's kids are doing well, Darby says. He's always kept up with the family - "I'd want the same from him, so that's what I've tried to do" - and even attended Nikita's wedding in May. Darby hopes to one day return to Riga to visit Zholtok's gravesite with his wife and kids.
"The everyday love Sergei had for the game, you want Beckett to have part of that. If he does, he's got a chance to be very successful," Darby said of his son, a 6-foot-1 forward for the USHL's Sioux Falls Stampede who's committed to the University of Minnesota for the 2024-25 season.
Losing his friend and teammate was horrible. Seeing Zholtok go the way he did was traumatic. It's something that will stay with Darby - and by association, Beckett - for a very long time.
"Sergei left our world as Beckett was coming in," Darby said. "He will be honored forever."
John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email ([email protected]).
