Jonny Brodzinski spent seven years of his childhood working for his dad, Mike Brodzinski, at his hockey store, Hockey Zone, in Minnesota.
It was eventually renamed to Hockey Central until his dad was bought out by Pure Hockey just before the COVID-19 pandemic, and a young Brodzinski used to sharpen skates there.
They’ve been running the “Brodzinski Shooting School” out of the back for many, many years.
The store was going to get rid of an old Bauer training station with artificial boards and artificial ice until it dawned on Mike to offer it to Jonny, who figured his two young daughters — Lucy and Olivia — would love it.
Jonny Brodzinski skates during the Rangers’ training camp on Sept. 19.
Jonny Brodzinski attempts a shot during the Rangers’ preseason game against the Bruins on Sept. 26.
Mike told Jonny he had a surplus of kids who wanted to learn how to shoot, too, but not enough time to do it all himself.
“It just kind of snowballed from there,” Brodzinski told The Post on Sunday after practice in Tarrytown. “It went from me having 5-10 kids to, at the end of the summer, it was like 35-36 kids. It was great. It’s so much fun. Just teaching the kids what I know, just the small little things that can help them even at a young age, teaching them the small techniques that’ll help them down the road — if they learn the correct way now.
“Just to see their transformation from the first session to the last one, the smile it puts on their face is great.”
Thus began the Greenwich, Conn., chapter of the Brodzinski Shooting School — Garage Edition.
From girls going into their freshman year of college to one 5-year-old boy, Brodzinski taught hockey to all ages and all genders out of his own house this summer.
His dad gave him plenty of pointers for the camp, during which players shot 300-500 pucks per day and worked on their strength.
His eldest daughter, Lucy, would set up her little lawn chair next to the rest of the parents and watch.
She then would get in her toy Zamboni and clean the fake ice after each session.
While he has a decent-sized garage, the size of the area was one of the biggest obstacles for Coach Brodzinski.
Jonny Brodzinski celebrates scoring a goal during the Rangers’ game on March 17.
Jonny Brodzinski fights for the puck during the Rangers’ game on Feb. 7.
“Eventually, when I’m done playing hockey, that’s the goal,” Brodzinski said. “Just to buy a small piece of land and put up a big pole barn and run my own shooting school and hockey camps out of there.”
That should still be a ways away as Brodzinski enters his 10th professional hockey season, arguably at the pinnacle of his career.
Coming off a season in which he appeared in a career-high 57 NHL games, posting six goals and 13 assists, Brodzinski is days away from making the Rangers lineup out of training camp for the first time since he joined the organization in 2020-21.
Jonny Brodzinski attempts a shot during the Rangers’ game on March 26.
“It’s something that I’ve known I could do this whole time,” Brodzinski said. “Just getting that opportunity to be more of an everyday player than just kind of being plugged in when guys get injured, it was awesome. Kind of sucked going from my last year in LA, getting hurt that year and then getting bumped back down the totem pole, having to work back to it.
“It felt great. Especially playing on the power play again and getting those touches. It was awesome.”
The Blueshirts have long relied on Brodzinski as a depth piece, but as the team’s injury luck has worn off, the 31-year-old’s value within the organization has increased.
With Jimmy Vesey sidelined week-to-week with a lower-body injury, the left-wing spot on the fourth line is up for grabs.
Brodzinski has been the front-runner for the job, in addition to skating on the second power play unit, while rookie Adam Edstrom has played himself into the conversation as well.
Brodzinski comes into training camp every year with the expectation that he’ll have to earn his spot, approaching each day like he has nothing to lose and like it could be his last in the NHL.
Having to prove himself over and over again has worked well for him, but Brodzinski can’t help but look way back when crediting how he got here.
It’s what has shaped his dreams for the future.
“It’s been a very long road,” he said. “I owe a lot of it to when I first came out of college, Mike Stothers in LA, that whole management, Dean Lombardi, they were really big on development. Those first three years I think were the most important for my hockey career. Coming out of college, wasn’t the best defensive player, just the whole defensive mindset that I had was just very soft. I think they just ingrained the toughness and being hard to play against into my game. That was huge. After that, going to San Jose for that one year, I was only a right winger that year in San Jose I was in the American League. We had three centers get hurt, so I ended up going to center, played the rest of the year at center and then from then on I was a wing/center and could kind of play any position.
“It takes a long ways to get to where I’m at and a lot of hard work and stuff like that, but it takes a lot of really good coaching and opportunities is the biggest thing. Otherwise, you’re not really going to go anywhere in hockey.”
