Photo by Bruce Klockhohn, Courtesy of the Minnesota Wild
Expectations have never been higher for the Minnesota Wild. After winning a playoff series for the first time in more than a decade last season, fan—and the team—are pining for a deep playoff run. Wild captain Jared Spurgeon has led by example, starting one of the most important seasons of his career red hot with five points in his first six games.
We sat down with Spurgeon during training camp to discuss the upcoming season, as well as the 16-year NHL veteran’s time with the Minnesota Wild and his experience raising a family in Minnesota while playing for one of its most beloved teams.
How does it feel looking back on the last 16 years you’ve spent in Minnesota, changing from a young man with a young family looking to crack an NHL roster to playing more than 1000 NHL games and becoming the captain of the Minnesota Wild?
You hear it when you first start to cherish every moment and it goes fast, but it’s definitely true. So, I’m obviously very grateful for the organization for giving me a shot to begin with, and, throughout the years, with the changing coaching staffs and management and stuff like that, to be able to stay here that long. I don’t take it for granted to be able to put roots down here for kids and our family and see them grow up in one place as well is a very special place. The fans are great. People are great to you. They treat us with tons of respect outside the building as well when you’re watching your kids’ sports and stuff like that. We just have come to love it and call it our home.
Your son, Zach, recently signed a scholarship and development agreement with the Portland Winter Hawks of the WHL, the same league where you played junior hockey two decades ago now. What is it like to see your son follow in your footsteps?
Yeah, it’s awesome. I think you sort of go through it and you look back at your journey as well. And obviously, the roads to get there are a lot different now than when I went through it, with the new rule change and everything like that, with them being able to play major junior and still go to college as well. The opportunities to get to where you want are a lot more open than they were. But I’m just very proud of him. The last couple of years, he put in a ton of work—off the ice, on the ice. And you see that dedication come and just how he wants it as well. It’s awesome to see. So, very happy to see him get rewarded for it.
Youth hockey, high school hockey in particular, is a huge part of Minnesota culture. As someone who started playing Junior A as a teenager and whose son has played youth hockey in Edina, what do you think about youth hockey in Minnesota compared to what you experienced growing up in Canada?
Yeah, I think up until high school, they’re very similar. You play for the community you live in, and, from my standpoint in Edmonton, there were four different sort of areas you played for and not as many as around here, with the different suburbs and stuff like that, obviously. A bigger city here with the surrounding area to be able to have more teams, but you take pride in it for sure to play for your community. And obviously, from I would say to coming in, the 1st couple of years, you sort of hear all the rivalries all they have throughout the high school tournament. Sort of the hatred for certain spots.
Edina?
Edina, yeah, and we end up living there. It’s awesome to see, though, just to see the passion, the pride in your community, whether you’re from Stillwater, Edina, Maple Grove, just to see all the programs and how well they bring their kids up in all sports, actually, not just hockey is great to see. It gives every kid a chance to play a game and obviously try to make it enjoyable for them so that they grow up having fun and falling in love with it before they get into the older years of their life when they may have to move away and to get to chase that dream. But I just remember the first time watching the high school tournament on TV just to be able to see just the entire Xcel, at the time, filled up with fans. We have the student section going and everything like that is awesome to see.
Speaking of younger players, how do you as the captain support the young guys like Charlie Stramel looking to make the team?
I think, even just passing by, just saying hi to each other in the gym. Obviously, there’s different groups throughout the camp, so you’re not always with the same group throughout, but, even before—the week before, a couple weeks before—just out there skating together, whether it’s just leading by example out there, just a quick hello, and asking how the day is. Just try to make them feel as comfortable as possible, because whenever you have confidence and you’re feeling comfortable, you’re at your best. You feel a bit more, not at ease, but you feel more yourself. So, I’m just making sure they all feel that way and just be yourself around all of us.
Size and physicality are two of the things I’ve heard you criticized for most in your career, and it’s no secret you aren’t a huge dude at 5’7”, 175 lbs. However, you often are still finding ways to use your frame to impact the game, most notably is your tendency to disrupt passing lanes by lying flat on your stomach. As a smaller guy, how have you adapted to still make an impact with your body and develop these skills?
I never was the biggest guy. It wasn’t like I somehow grew and then stopped. So, for myself, it was always just trying to figure out how to play against bigger guys from a young age. Whether it was when you start hitting, just sort of finding leverage and ways to spin out of hits or use their momentum, when they hit you to help you get speed or little things like that. And then, just as you watch other players, I watched Brian Rafalski a lot, he was a smaller D-man, Dan Boyle as well. And then you just sort of adapt and take things from their game that you that you really like and that you see works for them. But I think now, obviously, with the game, how fast it is and everything like that, everyone can play. Obviously, there used to be more of a standard of you had to be big, but now you see a lot more smaller guys coming into the game and making a big impact on their teams, but I think the biggest thing is if you can think the game. That puts you ahead of the rest.
The Wild have an embarrassment of riches at defense right now. You were already one of the top D-Corps in the league before the acquisition of Quinn Hughes. A large part of that is you and Jonas Brodin making up that second pairing. What about your individual games do you think meshes so well together?
I think it’s mostly Brodes. He’s just such an underrated player, the way he can skate and defend and at the same time just break pucks out for the offensive side. There’s not many guys, can skate as fast as getting backwards. Within two steps, he’s keeping up with the top forwards skating forward in the league, and he just makes it look so effortless. But at the same time, his offensive side of the game, for breakouts, he doesn’t always have the points that you see the top end guys or the guys that get recognition do, but he does so many underrated things, whether it’s his stick or just his gap that he has on those top guys that frustrates them. Like I said, you have to be really watching the game and know the game to see how much he does.
Some might say similar things about your game being a bit underrated.
Ah, let’s talk about Brodes.
Photo by Bruce Klockhohn, Courtesy of the Minnesota Wild
You lost two important personalities in the locker room this offseason in Jacob Middleton and Mats Zuccarello. How has the room changed since their departure?
Yeah, they’re big parts of our room for the last bunch of years, but I think, it doesn’t make it easier, but throughout the summer, you’re not in it at the time. So, it’s not, I want to say, easier to lose people, but it’s a bit different than when a trade happens in season when you know you have a guy on your practice or you’re playing that day and the next day they’re not there. Those guys were great for us, just the way they both played. They were such huge parts of our team, and like you said, in the dressing room, they had some of those happy-go-lucky personalities that could really lighten the room when things were a little stressed or a little stagnant. They always brought life to a room and definitely will be missed, but I’m very excited about the guys that we brought in with them departing.
Last season was the first time you’ve won a playoff series in 11 years. There are a lot of expectations to improve on that this season. On top of that, the team has entered training camp with a franchise-altering extension hanging in the balance for the second year in a row. How do these factors impact the locker room heading into the season?
You go through playoffs last year and you get the taste of getting past that first round, and you just want more. Obviously, you want to get to the end there and be the last one standing, and that’s the goal here every year. But you get that taste for it last year, and it just drives you even more throughout the summer and camp. I think you can see in each practice we’ve had so far, the pace, the expectations we have, just the way guys are pushing each other, that that’s what we want here, and the standard is very high. We just obviously have a main focus for the end, what we all want.
But right now, we have to focus on where we’re at with training camp and then obviously starting the season off really well as well to put us in a good position going forward. And, as of Quinn’s extension, there’s not much talk within the room. I think that’s more for you guys. We know what Billy does, but it’s out of our control. We just play, and obviously we’d love to have Quinn here forever, but I’m sure it’ll happen when it happens.
Anything else you’re dying to tell Minnesota Monthly readers?
Maybe just let your kids play other sports in the summer, too. And don’t play hockey all year round. That’s the main thing.
What other sports your kids playing this summer?
They play soccer. We got volleyball. Our son, he plays soccer, too. Not the one that’s in Portland, so, a little bit of tennis. I think it’s good to let the kids have a break. Be excited to come back. I know it’s tough with so many other camps and different teams that are out there, and you feel like you’re missing the opportunity, but you gotta let kids be kids also. I think if you talk to pretty much everyone down there in the dressing room, they all play to different sport, or you take time away, and that gives you that excitement to come back and play the game you love as well. But you can have those summer sports that you play, let your body rest, let your mind rest, and come back and be excited for your season of hockey as well and still not lose a step on guys.
