November 29, 2010, not only marked the 21st birthday for Jared Spurgeon, but his NHL debut against the Calgary Flames. As he embarks on his 1,000th career NHL game, a milestone the Wild Captain never envisioned, he is just thankful to be here. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe first game was more of a shock than anything with the way I got into the Wild organization,\u201d\u00a0said Spurgeon. <\/p>\n
Selected by the New York Islanders in the sixth round of the 2008 NHL Draft, Spurgeon wound up in the Wild organization through a tryout after being released by the Islanders. The rest is history. The 5-foot-9, Edmonton native, ranks first all-time among Wild defenseman in points (123-311=434), goals, power-play goals (36) and games played. No one has spent more time on ice in a Wild sweater than Spurgeon, who sits at 21,932:14 entering his 1,000th game.<\/p>\n
As great as he has been throughout his career on the ice, some might say he has been more impactful off it. Named\u00a0the second team captain in Wild history on January 3,\u00a02021, it\u2019s an honor he doesn\u2019t take lightly. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge honor. It\u2019s a pride thing to put that logo on your chest and play for the teammates you have and the organization,\u201d said Spurgeon.\u00a0\u201cIt meant a lot for Bill (Guerin) to put that trust in me.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the more soft-spoken guys in the NHL, Spurgeon leads more by example than by direction\u2014but he often finds the right time to say what the team needs to hear. After a 4-6-3 start to the season, it was Spurgeon who called for a closed door, players only meeting in early November. Since then, the Wild owns a 35-10-9 record and is widely considered a Stanley Cup contender.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you talk about Spurgeon, you think of a perfect person. His professionalism is the biggest thing with him\u2014he\u2019s one of the nicest guys you\u2019ll ever meet,\u201d said alternate captain Marcus Foligno, who has been a teammate of Spurgeon\u2019s for nine seasons. \u201cHe\u2019s a great friend, that\u2019s what special about him\u2014how great of a father he is and husband. How much he includes people since he took over as captain, he\u2019s been a guy that\u2019s so inclusive with everyone. The culture starts with him.\u201d <\/p>\n
Whether a guy has played 1,200 games or 12, Spurgeon treats them all the same\u2014that\u2019s the kind of teammate he is. He and his wife, Danielle, will often host holiday parties at their home where every guy is invited, but especially those who may be away from their families during the season. He is the perfect leader, not just for this team, but for his family and this community.<\/p>\n
To play 1,000 games in the NHL is a massive accomplishment, to do it on one team is\u00a0even more\u00a0meaningful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very special place. All but one of my kids were born here, but Zach (Spurgeon\u2019s oldest son) was raised here since he was two. We love it here, the people here and the organization. To be able to do it all one place is special.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he\u2019s proud of this milestone and admits it\u2019s special, he\u2019s motivated to accomplish the goal every team sets to achieve, win a Stanley Cup. For a guy who has seemingly done it all for this organization, hoisting that trophy is what he really wants.<\/p>\n
Wild Head Equipment Manager, Tony DaCosta, had one white sweater made for Spurgeon when he arrived in Minnesota thinking he\u2019d never see Spurgeon again. Now, here we sit, the \u201cundersized defenseman\u201d as DaCosta labeled him, has not only stuck around, but has helped transform this organization into a serious contender with his leadership and his play. For an organization that only has one jersey number retired, there is a very good chance we will one day see Spurgeon\u2019s 46 hanging from the Grand Casino Arena rafters. 1,000 games, a special honor for a special player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"November 29, 2010, not only marked the 21st birthday for Jared Spurgeon, but his NHL debut against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-538494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}