Daemon Hunt has found his home away from home with the Wild

Daemon Hunt can finally make his own meals.

Earlier this month, the Wild defenseman moved into a Minneapolis apartment after he’d gotten used to living out of a suitcase at a hotel.

“My girlfriend’s here, and [Shaye] loves to cook, too,” Hunt said. “So, I think we’re both looking forward to that. I usually tend to stick to the barbecue, steak and chicken, [and] pasta. But she likes to mix it up.”

Stability like this was once the norm for Hunt.

After growing up in Moosomin, Saskatchewan, a town near the Manitoba border, Hunt played his junior hockey career for the same Western Hockey League team after his dad coached him and his mom was on the ice as he honed his signature skill.

Since turning pro, though, he’s been on the move — between the minors and NHL while also coming and going from the Wild, who reacquired Hunt before the season after trading him last November.

His spot in the lineup has also been in flux, with Hunt in a support role as the team’s seventh defensemen: He sat when the blue line was healthy and stepped into action when it wasn’t — his addition seamless as he helped the Wild’s 9-1-1 turnaround after a terrible October.

But whether in hockey where he overcame a near career-ending injury or his interest in fashion outside the game, Hunt has long been defined by more than his circumstances.

“I know some guys have a hard time with not playing and showing up to the rink every day and your name is not in the lineup, and absolutely mentally that’s pretty tough,” he said. “But I think you just gotta stick with it [with a] glass half-full mentality. That’s kind of how I did it.”

Hunt has always been around the rink.

His dad Doug played AAA hockey, and his mom Renee was a figure skater before becoming a skating coach.

“I remember seeing photos of me and my mom,” Hunt said. “She’s holding me up. I couldn’t even walk yet, and they had me on skates.”

From the time he was 4 years old until about 10 or 11, Hunt took power skating lessons alongside figure skaters. He’d have two sessions a week, two hockey practices the other weekdays and games on the weekends.

“He was literally in that until it was time to start doing waltz jumps,” Renee said.

When he began his junior hockey career, Hunt stayed close to home, suiting up for Moose Jaw for parts of five seasons.

He thought he could be drafted to the NHL after he saw his older friends get picked.

But Hunt didn’t play much during the lead-up to the 2020 draft — and not just because of the pandemic.

During a December 2019 game at Edmonton, Hunt was cut on the right forearm by the skate of an opposing player.

He was stitched up at the rink before eventually having surgery. Renee was told if an incident like this was going to happen somewhere, Edmonton was the place for it because some of the best surgeons for that injury in Canada were there.

The surgeon who repaired Hunt’s arm couldn’t believe the nerve wasn’t severed.

His rehab included squeezing Play-Doh to regain the dexterity in his hand.

“We asked [how many stitches],” Renee said. “I think they ended up not counting or stopped counting because they had to do stitches on the inside and the outside.”

But he was determined to recover and returned for five games before everyone’s season came to a halt in March.

Hunt started a fashion brand during the pandemic, coming up with his own designs and even having the logo tattooed on his arm.

Sketching is more of an offseason hobby for Hunt, but he plans to get more involved with the brand.

“I have way too many clothes, like way too many,” Hunt said. “Every spring I’m like giving away clothes to Value Village.”

The NHL held the draft virtually in October, and Hunt was one of the last players Judd Brackett, the Wild’s director of amateur scouting, saw before the shutdown, and the Wild felt they knew where Hunt was trending.

“With all that happening,” Renee said, “Minnesota, they still took a chance on him.”

After Hunt was called up from the minors three years later, Renee and Doug followed the Wild on the road, waiting for Hunt to make his NHL debut.

He did Oct. 27, 2023, at Washington as the seventh defenseman, and went on to appear in another 11 games with the Wild that season. Mostly, he was with Iowa in the American Hockey League.

Hunt was actually going out for warmups ahead of an Iowa game last season when he found out he’d been traded to Columbus along with four draft picks, including a first-rounder, for another defensive prospect in David Jiricek.

“It was a shock,” said Hunt, who now considers the change a life lesson.

“But that’s just part of the game, the business side of it.”

Hunt grew up watching his second cousin Matt Calvert, who was in the NHL with Columbus and Colorado for more than 500 games before retiring, and Calvert’s message to Hunt has always reminded him all he can do is be his best.

“Whether he was in the minors or the NHL, not in the lineup, in the lineup, he just always was so even-keel with it and believes in himself,” said Calvert, who’s now Hunt’s agent. “That’s one thing I’ve admired about him a lot.”

The Blue Jackets never played Hunt, instead keeping him on their AHL team.

He was put on waivers before the start of the season to get assigned to the minors, but the Wild claimed him — a full-circle moment for Hunt.

Hunt didn’t make his season debut until Nov. 6 at Carolina and has since been praised by coach John Hynes for his skating and defending style.

“He’s a very, very good skater,” goaltender Jesper Wallstedt said. “That’s what makes him so good at being in the right position at the right time.”

The longer he’s been a pro, the more Hunt realized he wasn’t much of an offensive catalyst; he’s still seeking his first NHL goal. But he was effective in his own zone and on the penalty kill and he might as well hone in on those specialties.

“That’s what’s got me here,” he said. “That’s why I’m in the NHL.”

In his seven games, including two alongside Jiricek after getting traded for him (“It’s kind of funny,” Hunt said. “We joke about it now.”), the Wild gave up only one five-on-five goal while Hunt was on the ice — this after he was scratched the first 14 games.

Calvert credits Hunt’s attitude to his parents, and Hunt traced his motivation back to them, too.

“The sacrifice my parents put in for me, all the money and time, all the travel,” Hunt said. “They did so much for me.”

But Renee has a different perspective.