NARRAGANSETT — His grandfather played goalie for both the Bruins and the old Providence Reds.

His father played for Brown and in the International Hockey League.

He has three uncles who played in the NHL.

So how old was Mac Bennett when he first realized hockey was the family game?

"I guess I've always known it," he says. "Even now I always hear something about them, or some story they have. They've got a billion of them. I know a lot of my family's history, but there's always more to learn."

That's the legacy, the one that sits squarely on the shoulders of 18-year-old Mac Bennett, who was drafted in the third round two weeks ago by the Montreal Canadiens. It's the legacy that comes with being part of what's been Rhode Island's first hockey for over 40 years now, back to when Curt Bennett came skating out of Cranston East and into Brown in the late '60s, with his brothers with their own hockey dreams coming right behind him, the second wave of Bennetts making their imprint on hockey in Rhode Island.

It's a story that begins around here in the '50's when Harvey Bennett, who had come of age in Saskatchewan and had spent a year as the Bruins' goaltender, was the longtime goaltender for the Reds.

Mac Bennett is the third generation of hockey Bennetts, and he carries the family name on his back whether he wants to or not.

"I was at the NHL Combine in Toronto in late May and interviewed with 17 teams," he says, "and virtually every guy I interviewed with said, 'I played against your uncle,' or 'I knew your grandfather,' or I know your father.' It happens all the time."

He is sitting in the living room of his house that sits across the street from the north end of Narragansett Town beach, sitting here in dark shorts and a gray T-shirt that says Rhode Island hockey in blue letters on it, sitting here with his blond hair and surfer looks, looking like any other kid home on summer break.

But Mac Bennett is not just any other kid home on summer break.

In the fall, he will go to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He will finish his senior year of high school in the mornings and play in the United States Hockey League at night. Then next year he will go to the University of Michigan, one more step on the road he hopes will eventually take him to the NHL.

In short, his hockey journey now gets serious.

Until recently, it was just about playing hockey, the family game.

He began skating when he was about three at a rink in Cranston, and truth be told, in the beginning he hated it. It was too cold. Too something.

But by the time he was about 12, he was immersed in the Rhode Island youth hockey culture world of leagues and early morning ice time, and the increasing awareness that everyone who is serious about it around here has begun to know each other. He was on a Rhode Island all-star team that played in a New England tournament, the first time all the best young players in the state were brought together.

He went to La Salle as a freshman, but left the next year to go to Hotchkiss, a prep school in western Connecticut where the competition was appreciably better than the R.I. Interscholastic League. For he already knew that playing hockey at La Salle wasn't going to challenge him enough, and that was just the way it was. He knew that to go somewhere in hockey, he had to go away.

He repeated his freshman year at Hotchkiss and the first few weeks he was homesick. But he soon learned to love it.

"Going to Hotchkiss was the best decision I ever made," he says. "Without Hotchkiss, there is no Michigan, no Canadiens. Without Hotchkiss, there is none of it."

But in the beginning, the goal never was to one day be a professional hockey player, even if hockey always has been the family game, and he grew up well aware of his family's place in the game.

"The goal was to use hockey to get into the best college possible, to maybe get into an Ivy League school," says his father, Jim, who played for Brown and then in the International Hockey League. "It was never to be a pro."

Nor was it Mac Bennett's dream, not really, except in the dreamy way it is for any little kid who is serious about lacing up skates.

He remembers being about 14 or so at the National Festival, one of about 180 kids invited, and one of the speakers told the group, "You have a better chance of getting hit by lightning twice than you do of playing hockey in the NHL."

So he knows the odds. Knows that hockey is more of a world-wide game than it was a generation ago. Knows that it's tougher to make it to the NHL than it was a generation ago, and that, ultimately, whether he makes it or not will have nothing to do with the success his uncles once had.

He also knows that being the third pick of the Canadiens two weeks ago changes things. He knows that having hockey great Bobby Orr as your agent changes things.

This summer is about trying to get stronger, for at roughly 6-foot, 170 pounds and playing defenseman, he knows he has to get bigger. So he works out in Wakefield with trainer Dennis Vaske, plays in two summer leagues, one on the same team with his uncle, Billy. Then in the fall he'll go to Iowa, the next step in chasing his future.

"I feel I have to do this," he says.

And does he feel pressure, the next generation of Bennetts in this family game?

"Not really," says Mac Bennett. "I think I've already surpassed any expectations I ever had. To be able to go to Michigan. To be drafted by the Canadiens. It's all unbelievable."

Yes, it is.

So, in a sense, this is all gravy, 18 years old and smooth ice in front of him.

Mac Bennett, the next generation, hoping to add his own chapters to this incredible family story.

breynold@projo.com