When the Wild’s original coaching staff visited St. Paul recently as part of the team’s 25th anniversary celebration, to a man they commented on TRIA Rink, the downtown St. Paul practice facility that now houses the Wild most of the time, save for when they make the journey of a few blocks to Grand Casino Arena for home games.
When the franchise was born in 2000, their home arena – then known as Xcel Energy Center – was brand new, but they were a bit nomadic when it came to practice rinks. Much of the team’s time away from St. Paul was spent without a permanent locker room at Parade Ice Arena in Minneapolis. And at least one Wild star of that era didn’t mind it.
While he admitted that the current facilities are amazing, Marian Gaborik – the team’s first-ever draft pick and the first Minnesota star player in the state’s second NHL foray – lived in uptown Minneapolis in the early days of his professional career, and didn’t mind the relatively short commute to practice.
Before a recent Wild home game versus Winnipeg, Gaborik handled ceremonial first puck drop duties along with former teammates Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Brian Rolston and Stephane Veilluex. Speaking with reporters before they headed to the rink, the early-era Wild veterans said having an experienced coach like Jacques Lemaire behind their bench was the biggest advantage afforded a team of rookies and players unprotected in the expansion draft.
“Everybody started on the same page. We didn’t have any superstars. It was an expansion team, so a lot of guys had to work for the job, including me,” said Gaborik, who is 43 and retired, living back in his native Slovakia where he owns a rink and runs hockey schools.
“It was amazing what Jacques did with the team,” he said, noting that the payroll in 2000 was peanuts compared to the NHL coffers of 2025. “I was the highest-paid guy as a rookie, so it was not like these days, but it was incredible. When someone asks me who was my favorite coach and the best coach I’ve ever had, I always say it was Jacques, because he knew how to get the team ready and out-coach the other team late in the third period.”
For most Wild veterans of the early 2000s, no mention of Lemaire’s coaching magic can exclude the 2003 playoffs, when Minnesota made its first postseason appearance. The Wild trailed Colorado 3-1 in the first round and won. They trailed Vancouver 3-1 in the second round and won, making an unexpected trip to the Western Conference Final. There, the magic ended, as Minnesota managed just one goal versus Anaheim, bowing out in a four-game sweep at the hands of the Ducks.
To this day, Andrew Brunette’s overtime goal versus Avalanche legend Patrick Roy to win Game 7 in Denver remains the biggest on-ice moment in the franchise’s history.
Bouchard, now 41 and living back in his native Quebec, was a rookie that season and watched from the pressbox that night as the underdog band of cast-offs shocked the hockey world.
“I will remember that all my life. The atmosphere at the rink, outside the rink, was unbelievable,” he said. “That Colorado Avalanche team was pretty stacked, with (Joe) Sakic, (Peter) Forsberg, Roy in nets. So I was pretty speechless. Man, it was a great goal.”
Not long after St. Paul hosted the 2004 NHL All-Star Game and the World Cup of Hockey in the fall of that year, a league lockout wiped out all of the 2004-05 season. That delayed Rolston’s debut in Minnesota. He signed with the team as a free agent in the summer of 2004, but due to the labor strife, did not first appear in green and red until October 2005. But a one-of-a-kind shootout move made the Michigan native a fan favorite right from the start.
Facing Roberto Luongo, who always struggled in Minnesota, Rolston took a few strides, crossed the blue line, then ripped a slap shot from the high slot that beat the goalie and sent Wild fans into a frenzy. Like so many of the Wild’s first decade highlights, he gives credit to the coach.
“Jacques Lemaire came up to me one time in a pregame skate or something and said, ‘You know, you should try that in the shootout,’” recalled Rolston, 52, who now lives in suburban Detroit. “The first time I did it, I got tripped down. It was on a penalty kill and I was exhausted. So I was like, ‘I’m going to just try it here.’ And I did and it worked out, so I used it a few more times after that.”
Rolston played three full seasons in Minnesota, earning the title of team captain for 2007-08, when the Wild won what is to date their only division title – a banner that hangs from the arena rafters. Rolston, who played for Lemaire and was a teammate of current Wild general manager Bill Guerin on the 1995 New Jersey Devils team that won the Stanley Cup, retired in 2013.
Gaborik signed with the Rangers in 2009 and helped Los Angeles win the Stanley Cup in 2014 before retiring in 2021.
Bouchard spent 11 seasons in the Wild organization and played briefly for the New York Islanders before finishing his on-ice career in Europe in 2016.
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