Former Wild prospect Foucault saves 6-year-old girl from drowning

Kris Foucault
's favorite movie growing up was "The Guardian."

Selected by the Minnesota Wild in the fourth round (No. 103) of the 2009 NHL Draft, Foucault always thought that if hockey didn't work out, he'd join the Canadian Coast Guard, inspired by the film of a coast guard rescue swimmer teaching new recruits how to save lives.
Never did he imagine his life would imitate it.
A sunny day in Nassau, Bahamas, turned dreary when monstrous waves and a strong rip current threatened the life of a 6-year-old girl. Luckily, Foucault, an experienced swimmer, was there. Without hesitation, he put his life on the line to save her, relying on his hockey strength and conditioning training to do so.
"As hockey players, we do have to stay in tip-top shape," Foucault said. "For me, I'm a little bit of an older player -- I'm 31 -- staying in shape and being able to swim has kept my career going. I shout out my trainers for keeping me equipped for hockey and equipped for other situations as well."

Former Minnesota Wild prospect Kris Foucault (l.) pulls 6-year-old girl from ocean in the Bahamas after she was swept off the shore by a wave. Photo by Mike Melito
Foucault played one game for the Wild in the 2011-12 season, against the Anaheim Ducks on Feb. 14 and 58 games in the American Hockey League from 2010-2014. Since then, he's played in Europe, the past six in Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), the top pro league in Germany. He has 28 points (12 goals, 16 assists) in 24 games for Iserlohn this season.
On May 10 around 12 p.m., Foucault was having lunch with his wife and two children by a pool about 50 feet above Cabbage Beach, on the north shore of Nassau, when he heard people on the beach below screaming for help. At the same time, Foucault's mother-in-law and sister-in-law were coming back from a walk on the beach. Before they ascended the stairs to reach the pool, Foucault asked if what he saw out in the water was a shark or a body.
"It's a little girl," said Jackie Kirk, Focault's mother-in-law.
Foucault dropped his phone and food, sprinted toward the beach and dove in the water.
"As I got through the wave, I saw her lifeless body floating on the top about 50 feet in front of me," he said. "I actually thought I was just recovering a body."
When Foucault reached the girl, he said her lips were blue and there were brown and white fluids leaking from her mouth and nose. Only the whites of her eyes showed. She was completely unconscious. Swimming with a shoulder on which he had surgery two months earlier, Foucault lifted the girl above the water and saw her fingers and toes flutter. As he adjusted treading with the extra weight, another man trying to help reached them.
"Is she still alive?" the man asked Foucault.
"I think so," he said.
Foucault, propping the girl up out of the water from the back of her neck, swam toward the shore as the other man swam beside him. Their feet then touched the ground.
From there, Foucault picked the girl up with both arms and walked her to the shore, where a lifeguard who ran over from a nearby beach was waiting. Foucault said the lifeguard immediately put the girl down on her side where she threw up fluids. The lifeguard then started performing CPR and fully resuscitated the girl, who clung to her mom and cried.

She was taken to a hospital and has had no contact with Foucault since.
"I missed a bit of what happened when we got to shore because I kind of just laid down," Foucault said. "I was out of breath and needed a bit of a rest."
It was a scene from "The Guardian" he never hoped to live out.
"It didn't surprise me that Kris did that," Kirk said. "He was so fast to dive in there and definitely the right guy to be there. He would do anything to help anybody."
It was four minutes, but it felt like four years.
Foucault grew up in Calgary but considers the ocean a second home. He has spent weeks at a time in Hawaii and on the west coast of Canada. The Foucault family vacationed together in Hawaii for the first time about 18 years ago with Kris, his sister, Natasha, and their parents. Eventually, Foucault's wife and her family joined.
"Kris is so good in the ocean and I'm not as experienced as him, so he usually takes me along and I go snorkel and paddle board," Kirk said. "He shows me the ropes for all that."
Due to Hawaii's COVID-19 restrictions, the yearly family vacation was moved to the Bahamas. That's why Foucault was on Cabbage Beach that Tuesday, and how he was able to save the young girl's life.

Foucault had surgery in March to repair a labral tear he sustained playing for Iserlohn in the DEL. He didn't swim in the ocean since getting to the Bahamas on May 4 out of caution for his shoulder. The soreness eventually wore off, and Foucault said he feels good and will be ready to play next season.
On the ice, his goal, unsurprisingly, is to show up where he's needed.
"It's the team aspect of hockey," he said. "If your teammate is in trouble, you try to help. [On Cabbage Beach], someone was in trouble and I thought I could help."