Russo’s Rants: Growing
From the outdoor rinks of Grand Rapids, Alex Goligoski has developed into one of the game’s best blue liners
By: Michael Russo
Alex Goligoski doesn’t look like a typical hockey player.
He’s this unassuming, always smiling, friendly (proof he’s Minnesotan, at least) and super skinny, 5-foot-11 guy that looks like he’s maybe 170 pounds dripping wet.
Back in 2007, when Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ray Shero and assistant GM Chuck Fletcher flew to Minnesota to meet with agent Ben Hankinson about signing the Penguins’ second-round pick after his sophomore season at the University of Minnesota, Shero walked into Hankinson’s office and asked Fletcher, “Who’s that?” when he saw this lanky kid with his arm extended after shoulder surgery talking in a hallway with Hankinson.
Fletcher looked at Shero and chuckled because he thought Shero was kidding.
He wasn’t.
Fletcher said, “That’s Goligoski, you know, the kid we’re here to sign!”
Shero’s jaw dropped because Goligoski just did not look like a typical hockey player.
“Plus, he looked like he literally came right out of the operating room,” Shero said, laughing. “He looked so uncomfortable.”
Goligoski opted to return to school for his junior year before signing in Pittsburgh.
Fast forward 14 years, and the now-grizzly, bearded Goligoski is 36 years old and that 5-foot11, generously-listed 185-pound, once-upon-a-time kid that never looked like a typical hockey player to the Penguins’ head honcho is entering this season 76 games from 1,000 during a terrific National Hockey League career.
It’s another great example for young hockey players who may not be the biggest at the youth or high school level.
You don’t have to be as big as Blake Wheeler to fulfill your hockey dreams.
WELCOME HOME
Goligoski, the poised, offensive-minded but so defensively-smart defenseman, is now a veteran and a $5 million player and newest mainstay on the top defense pair with captain Jared Spurgeon on his hometown Wild.
The Grand Rapids native was the No. 1 free-agent target of Wild GM Bill Guerin this past offseason in his effort to replace Ryan Suter on the Minnesota blue line.
And in a cool storyline, Guerin landed not only a player he wholeheartedly respects, but his former Penguins teammate from 12 years earlier. Guerin arrived in Pittsburgh in 2009 as a big shot from the New York Islanders whose job would be to help push the Penguins over the top in their aspiration toward winning a Stanley Cup.
“The first thing I did when I arrived was take Goose’s number,” Guerin said, roaring with laughter, about Goligoski. “I’m not kidding. Goose wore No. 13 in Pittsburgh, but I showed up and said, ‘Thanks very much kid, but that’s my number.’”
Now, 12 years after the two won that Cup together, Guerin is Goligoski’s boss and couldn’t be happier about the impact Goligoski has a chance to make on the new-look Wild back end.
Not only is he a steady, reliable blue liner, he’s the type of veteran that could be a huge influence on not only up and coming young defensemen like Calen Addison, but all the bright, promising young forwards the Wild plan to eventually insert into their lineup like Marco Rossi, Matt Boldy, Adam Beckman and Brandon Duhaime.
He’s your typical pro’s pro, somebody who was willing to sign in Minnesota for one year but somebody expected to sign a lower-salaried extension in 2022.
“Man, Goosey’s the best,” Goligoski’s young defense partner for much of the past five seasons, Arizona Coyotes budding star Jakob Chychrun, said in a phone interview. “We really had a special relationship. He’s a guy that I’m going to miss like crazy. Our whole team’s going to miss him. He brings so much value to any roster. He’s a guy that taught me a lot. He’s a guy that’s won. He’s a guy that just takes such good care of himself.
“Me personally, he was a big part of my growth in this league.”
Goligoski is coming off a strong season with Arizona where he scored 20 points in his final 24 games. He’s a left-shot, but he can easily play the right side in a pinch since he’s always played the right side next to Chychrun.
“Well, Goosey does everything,” Chychrun said. “He can play the off-side. He can kill, he can run a power play. He really can play in all situations. That’s what you need today—a defenseman that is there for any situation you need him in. He’s just such a reliable guy. He takes such great care of himself. He looks like he can play another 10 years.
“I can’t tell you how much I’m going to miss him. They’d split us up once in a while when we were looking for a change or something, but it always seemed that we were the first pair they wanted back together. We had such a great chemistry and a great thing going. I think it just started with our relationship and everything from there just kind of took off. He was so big for my development, and I know Minnesota has some young guys, and there’s nobody better to mentor them.”
IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM
Goligoski will wear No. 47 in Minnesota.
He used to wear No. 13, but the classy Goligoski thought it would be a bad look to take Nick Bonino’s number on the day Bonino wasn’t re-signed by the Wild.
Cam Talbot wore his old No. 33. He thought about No. 27, then realized fellow former Gopher Nick Bjugstad wears that for the Wild. Coincidentally, Goligoski wore No. 13 in Pittsburgh… until Guerin arrived. Goligoski said there’s no significance to No. 47.
“I’ve always kind of liked 47,” said Goligoski, although the number will create one weird-looking defense pair with Goligoski and Spurgeon, who wears No. 46 because he’s got zero ego and kept the training camp number assigned to him in 2010.
Rick Tocchet, the former Coyotes coach now a studio analyst with Wayne Gretzky on TNT, said Wild fans will love him.
“He’s steady as she goes,” Tocchet said. “I had a couple conversations with Billy Guerin this summer. He asked me about him and I told Billy, ‘He’s a guy that if you have an assignment for him, especially within your division, if you need the shutdown guy who will welcome that role, he’s that guy.’ He’s still got really good mobility. He’s got a really good hockey IQ. And he’ll accept his role.
“And he’s not scared about playing at home in Minnesota.”
What’s kinda cool about this Goligoski homecoming is this wasn’t like a lot of Minnesotans coming home. There was no teary-eyed press conference, no “this is a dream come true” comments that are so characteristic of Minnesota NHLers being acquired or drafted by the Wild.
In fact, Goligoski has played against the Wild so much in his career between Pittsburgh, Dallas and Arizona and frankly lost so much in his career to the Wild that he grew to dislike the team.
But with Suter, Zach Parise and so many others that he played so much against now on to the next chapters of their careers elsewhere, Goligoski felt this was also the next chapter of the Wild and wanted to be part of it.
PROUD, SUPPORTIVE PARENTS
Goligoski’s got two young kids and very proud parents up in Grand Rapids that will get to watch him play in person a heckuva lot more now.
“We were so excited when he picked the Wild,” said Dan Goligoski, Alex’s father. “He was sick and tired of always losing to the Wild in Arizona. So it’s like, if you can’t beat them, join them. We kind of kid about that. But let me tell you, he really likes the makeup of the team and how good they can be.”
Alex’s mom, Paula, ran a daycare center out of the Goligoski household for 30 years and is a former gymnast and gymnastics coach. Dan says, “Alex got all of his ability from his mom.”
“I’m just so excited to watch him,” said Paula. “He is not the biggest guy, but he is agile and he can get out of situations and he’s really got a smart brain. I mean, he can think the game really well. He knows what’s coming, usually, and he gets out of situations where other guys might be in trouble. It’s amazing to me in one sense, but not surprising in another because he’s just really an athletic guy.”
Goligoski is just overjoyed he’ll get to have his parents in the stands. “They’re amazing. They’re so supportive, both of them,” said Goligoski, who stayed for his senior year of high school at Grand Rapids. “Growing up, especially in northern Minnesota, you see a lot of crazy hockey parents and stuff, and they were not close to that. I loved playing hockey. They were supportive of that.
“They buzzed me up to the outdoor rink whenever I wanted and let me do whatever I wanted, and got me everything I needed to play hockey. And other than that, they just kind of sat back and let me do my thing and just really were very, very supportive the whole way through and never, never put me in uncomfortable positions to make decisions or stuff, whether it was going to juniors or staying in high school.
“It was always just, ‘Do what you want to do.’ So in a way, I’m proud I get to pay them back by maybe ending my career here in Minnesota.”
And hopefully that includes a Stanley Cup parade back in Grand Rapids