Anaheim Ducks Fan Stories: Meeting Francois Beauchemin

This week at Pucks of A Feather, Anaheim Ducks fan stories are back! As we continue the series, the staff will be recounting their personal favorite Anaheim Ducks memories. Jacob Robles takes you back to the day he met his favorite Duck, Francois Beauchemin.

Today, I have a story about when I met former Anaheim Ducks defensemen, Francois Beauchemin, last season and what it meant to me as a big fan of his.

For some context, I started watching hockey again back in 2015. My friends took me to the Honda Center the day of, or the day before (my memory is a tad foggy), Teemu’s number was retired. After walking around the team store for a few hours, I vowed to myself that I was going to go home and start watching from then on out.

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Fast forward a little bit. There was just something I liked about the way Beauch played. He was physical, had a heavy shot, and off the ice, he’s just a great guy. My fondness for him continued to grow, even when he went to Colorado. I was still trying to keep up with how he was doing, and I tried my hardest to meet him on my trip to Denver the last season he was with the Avs.

Fast forward to last season when we brought him back; this is where the story begins. It was late January, and I had the day off. I figured I would head down to the Honda Center and try and get my newly sewn, Mighty Ducks alternate (the gorgeous script one) signed. I got down there, sat for about an hour, watched some of the players speed out of the parking lot and then it happened.

A Bittersweet Moment with Beauch

I was too busy tweeting about something and the guy next to me starts pulling on my sleeve saying, “He’s here! He’s here! C’mon!” So, we run over and he asked Francois if he’d sign some stuff. He obliged with a smile on his face and I felt so bad honestly. He had all kinds of stuff with him and you could tell he just wanted to leave. However, he signed with a smile on his face and I couldn’t have been happier! Then things got really sad.

The stuff Beauch had with him was memorabilia. He had just announced his retirement a few days prior if my memory serves me right. It took me a few minutes to finally realize it, but once my dense self came to, my heart sank completely. The guy I had been standing with all morning asked him if he was serious. Francois put his head down and slowly shook his head yes.

After that, we said goodbye, good luck, thanked him for stopping, and I headed back to my car. I remember sitting there excited, hands shaking that my favorite player signed arguably my favorite jersey of all time! Then the thought crept back in. There’s only so much time left in the year and with how things were looking with a mangled roster, time was getting shorter and shorter.

It was bittersweet but looking back on it today, I’m so grateful to have been able to meet Beauch. Regardless of how much his age showed last year, Francois Beauchemin will forever be my favorite Duck. He’s one of the nicest athletes I’ve ever met and I’m eternally grateful for the short amount of time I did get to see him play.

If the video tribute the Ducks did for him is an indicator of what I missed in my childhood, I missed out on a guy who gave it his all for the sake of his team. I mean, he fought Jarome Iginla, that’s pretty dope.