ST. PAUL — Minnesota Wild development camp started Tuesday, June 25 with a familiar face.

Former Wild forward Matt Hendricks was at the team’s development camp, but it wasn’t to prepare for the upcoming season. Instead, he announced his retirement from playing in the NHL.

“You get to the point in your career where it starts trickling into your mind,” Hendricks said. “What’s next?”

Hendricks knows what’s next, as he starts a new role as the assistant director of player development for the Wild. Hendricks was back on the ice before the position was announced, running drills with the players in the two sessions of the camp.

Hendricks spent much of the first day for development camp running those drills alongside Wild coaches and trainers, trying to help the next wave of prospects get ready for the upcoming season.

“It becomes more of a seamless transition (to my new role),” Hendricks said. “This is where I think I have been in my career, the last three years. I think one of the best stories about this position for me is that I spent a long time in the minors.”

Hendricks will work with director of player development Brad Bombardir. Much of that job includes the annual development camp held in St. Paul that started Tuesday and will end Friday with a 3-on-3 scrimmage between two teams of prospects.

Overall, his job will consist of figuring out how to develop the younger players with Bombardir.

“Helping the young guys,” Hendricks said. “The prospects, keeping an eye on Iowa, in the American (Hockey) League and taking a little off of (Bombardir’s) plate.”

Hendricks is quite familiar with Minnesota, having played at Blaine High School and later at St. Cloud State in the early 2000s before an 11-year NHL career that saw stops at Colorado, Washington, Nashville and before joining the Wild for the 2018-19 season.

“I wanted to be around my family a little more,” Hendricks said. “The last three years or so have been hard being away a lot. Obviously, there’s still quite a bit of travel in this role and in this job, but I still don’t know which direction I want to go whether it’s going to be coaching (or) in management.”

Hendricks played just 22 games in his only season with the Wild before being traded at the 2019 deadline to the Winnipeg Jets to finish out the season. He played four games in the regular season for the playoff-bound Jets.

For now, Hendricks’ duties will be focused on the rest of the Wild’s development camp through the end of the week.

“It was a lot of fun (on Tuesday),” Hendricks said. “Something new for me that was a different experience. Back in 2000 in Blaine we didn’t have any of (the training equipment). I was real proud and excited for them at this time in their career.”