Alex Goligoski Signs One-Year Deal with Hometown Wild Over Multi-Year Offers Elsewhere
Alex Goligoski is a Minnesota native from the proud hockey city of Grand Rapids and he showed his love for his home state by signing a one-year, $5 million dollar deal with the Wild. According to Michael Russo (The Athletic), Alex chose the Minnesota Wild on a shorter term, over other offers with future security elsewhere. It all happened very quickly. The NHL Free Agency period started at 11 AM CDT and neither Guerin nor Goligoski hesitated.
Alex Goligoski has multiple multi-year offers already, but sounds like he's leaning toward a very lucrative one-year deal with the #mnwild.
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) July 28, 2021
#mnwild have signed free-agent defenseman Alex Goligoski to a 1-year, $5 million contract. Full no-trade clause
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) July 28, 2021
Goligoski is expected to slide right in to Ryan Suter’s spot in the top-4 on the Wild defense. The irony is there if you look for it. Suter is now a Dallas Star and that’s where Alex spent a large chunk of his career while Ryan was in Minnesota. At 36, Goligoski still brings a lot to this team, even if he’s not the same defenseman he once was. And on just a one year deal, the move makes perfect sense for Guerin.
No love for the hometown Wild (until today)
Alex is a former Golden Gopher and currently lives in Minneapolis but he’s never been a fan of the Wild. I found this quote he gave Russo in a piece that dropped this morning, fascinating. Not only was he not a Wild fan… but in his time as a pro, he grew to dislike them. Alex was in Minnesota (Grand Rapids and the U of M) for the first seven years of the Wild’s existence but it’s hard to care when they become a rival NHL team. Remember, Goligoski spent six of his 14-year pro career in Dallas.
“I mean, I’ve never really liked them, to be honest,” the free-agent defenseman, who hails from Grand Rapids, Minn., told The Athletic lightheartedly earlier this week. “Of course, I’ll never forget (Andrew) Brunette scored the goal in Game 7 (against Colorado in 2003). I think I was a sophomore in high school. Me and my buddies were watching that.
“But maybe it’s just because I’ve been a pro for so long. And in the pros, I really just didn’t like them at all, but, no, I’ve never been a fan. I mean, being in Dallas and Arizona for so long, I feel like I probably played them more than any other team I’ve ever played. So it’s just natural. I just grew to dislike them and all the guys on their team and everything.”
“To be honest,” Goligoski added, “I think they’ve had a lot of success against me. So probably just me being petty and just disliking them because they have beaten me … a lot.”
Alex Goligoski (via Michael Russo – The Athletic)
Well, hopefully he makes his friends, family, and now fellow Minnesota Wild fans, happy in 2021-22. Because this state needs some success from our major-four teams in a major way. Hockey would be a good start.
Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan
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