Benoit not getting ahead of himself
Mount senior not thinking about NHL Draft, focused on USA Hockey Nationals
WOONSOCKET — Mount St. Charles senior Nate Benoit personifies what Academy U18 coach Matt Plante is trying to build at Adelard Arena.
While Plante and the Academy’s U16, 15U and U14 coaches have certainly brought in kids who are already elite players with a legitimate chance of hearing their name called in the NHL Draft one day, Benoit came to Woonsocket prior to last season as a raw, relatively unknown left-shot defenseman who played his club hockey for the Northern Cyclones in Hudson, N.H.
“He was very raw with huge upside,” Plante said. “We thought he had pro upside back then and still thought his game checked a lot of boxes to be considered a pro prospect over time. We felt then that he really needed to mature mentally and be consistent with his focus, but always felt he could turn into the prospect that he is today with time, polish and maturity.”
Playing on a U18 team that featured five Division I college commits – including three he played with on the blue line – Benoit blossomed quickly into the team’s best defenseman and one the most influential players thanks to his ability to not only control the game in his own end of the ice, but also
his work in the offensive zone, as he led all Saints defensemen in goals (13), assists (38), points (51) and penalty minutes (123).
Benoit improved so rapidly and in such a short amount of time that lower-tier Division I programs never had the chance to recruit him because by the time college coaches realized his potential, the elite schools were already texting and calling Plante to inquire about the 6-foot-1, 181-pound all-around dynamo.
“I don’t know where this all came from,” Benoit said earlier this week. “There’s been a lot of hard work over the last two summers and when I’m back at Mount, it’s been a grind to improve. I’m really lucky and fortunate that I’m able to improve and develop every day with the coaches, staff and trainers – I’m fortunate to have that. I try to take advantage of it and make sure I’m holding myself accountable and putting in the work.
“Development is 100 percent on the person because even if you’re in a bad situation, you can make the most of it. I’m lucky I’ve been here to develop as I have.”
Benoit’s play at last season’s New England District tournament and in the True Prep Cup wins over Shattuck St. Mary’s and St. Andrew’s drew the attention of the country’s best NCAA programs, including reigning NCHC champion North Dakota. Even though Benoit couldn’t take an official visit to the Grand Forks campus – the NCAA recruiting dead period won’t end until June 1 – he was so impressed by the pitch from coach Brad Berry that he committed to the school over Thanksgiving weekend.
“It’s been a dream school of mine for a couple of years and I heard all about how they run their program and the environment and culture that they’ve built,” Benoit said. “That got me really excited. I talked to the coaches and I realized how good a people they were and the standard they hold all their players to, I was overwhelmed with excitement. That’s the environment I want to compete in because I think that’s where my development is going to take off even more.”
Making his college decision was a lot like the decision Benoit had to make at the onset of the pandemic last March. Because he was only a junior at Mount who wasn’t draft eligible until 2021, Benoit had a difficult choice to make; stay at Mount and play another season of midget hockey or jump right to the Tri-City Storm in the USHL.
Benoit decided his best path of continued development was to stay in Woonsocket where he could spend another season with Plante, while getting significant ice time for a team that was chasing a national title. It’s the same decision current Mount juniors and members of the U18 team Zach Aben and Ryan O’Connell have to make in the coming weeks.
“The first thing is your parents will never hate you finishing high school and graduating from an actual high school,” Benoit said. “The biggest pro to coming back here was last year I was good on the team, but I wasn’t a dominant player. That team was so good and we had a lot of guys contributing, that it was good to come back and take the next step. The summer was also a good chance to develop and get bigger physically.
“It’s not that you come back and you do all the same things again. Coach Plante has been super great about working on things that will help you at the [USHL]. That’s why the transition is easier. The other thing is the trust that I’ve built with [Plante] because we’ve been together for two years. I thought my best chance for development was here, but if those guys don’t think that, then they shouldn’t come back. You have to do what’s best for your future.”
Benoit and the Saints have only played 28 games headed into USA Hockey Nationals at the end of the month in suburban St. Louis, but he played well enough in a small sample this season to impress NHL Central Scouting. Benoit, and U18 teammate Owen McLaughlin, earned a C grade on the preliminary watch list, which means they’re in line to be drafted anywhere from the fourth round to the sixth round in this July’s draft.
While being drafted is the dream of every kid who laces up skates the first time, Benoit isn’t focused on potentially hearing his named called by one of the league’s 32 teams in three months.
“It’s cool to see, but at the end of the day, until something is concrete, I don’t think it’s anything special,” said Benoit, who leads the team’s defensemen with nine goals and 19 assists. “You look at the fact that we were ranked third in the country, but it didn’t mean anything until we won this weekend to go to Nationals. So, seeing my name on a draft board is cool, but until I’ve put in the work and been drafted, it doesn’t matter. I have to keep working every day.”
Prior to last weekend’s district tournament victory, the Saints hadn’t played a game since beating the Philadelphia Jr. Flyers, 6-1, on March 7. Benoit, however, was busy at the beginning of April because he was called up by the Storm to play three road games. After recovering from COVID in late March, Benoit flew out to Dubuque and joined former Mount standouts Victor Czerneckianair and Guillaume Richard with the Storm.
Benoit, who also spent some time with the team in December, was a plus-1 in three games for a team he will join full time next season. He didn’t score a point and was called for a penalty.
“It was cool seeing a bunch of Mount guys in the [USHL], including Mike Citara [with Sioux City],” Benoit said. “They’re bigger, faster and stronger at the junior level and it was a really big learning period. It was like ‘Wow, this is cool hockey and what it’s all about.’ Every player at that level is unreal. By the third game I was pretty settled into my role because of all the people around me helping me get better. That’s all going to set me up well for next year.”
There’s no question Benoit is the face of the fledgling program and his goal is to leave Mount St. Charles not only as a high school graduate but also a national champion.
“It kind of sucked that we didn’t have that shot to win the title last year because we were built to do it, but we have that shot now and we have to take advantage of it,” Benoit said. “We just need to polish up our systems and make sure we have everything in order.”