Minnesota Wild: Long road home for South St. Paul's Stalock

ST. PAUL-Alex Stalock barely remembers his first trip to watch the Wild at Xcel Energy Center. He grew up in South St. Paul, about 15 minutes from the rink, and saw so many games there that they start to blend together.

Stalock, however, remembers his first trip to the Xcel Energy Center to play the Wild like it was yesterday.

It was Jan. 6, 2015. He was starting in net for the San Jose Sharks, and not even the brutal freezing temperatures could keep the South St. Paul faithful away from the rink. Alex Stalock jerseys could be seen around St. Paul in the hours before the puck dropped, and fans showed up in droves to support the local boy from right down the road.

"I would bet there were 150 people or so that I talked who were there," Stalock's brother Nick said. "Then he gives up two goals right away. You're thinking, 'Oh no. He's playing at home and he's going to get shelled.'"

Stalock settled in, however, and thanks to an overtime goal from Marc-Edouard Vlasic, secured the 4-3 win, recording 28 saves in the process.

"Getting the start at home was pretty special," he said. "That was a night I'll remember for a long time."

Stalock's career with the Sharks spanned the rest of that season and part of last season before was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the worst team in the NHL. So, when when Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher reached out, it was a relatively easy decision.

He signed a one-year, two-way deal, knowing that likely meant he'll be spending time with the Iowa Wild in the American Hockey League this season. He's behind Devan Dubnyk and Darcy Kuemper on the depth chart.

"I don't have the personality where, 'If it's not the NHL, I'm not going to do it,'" Stalock said. "I want to play. That's the way I am. ... It was about finding a good fit in a place where they'd say, 'Go in and get games.'"

His family is certainly happy those games will come much closer to home.

"We wanted him to have an offer more than anything," his mother, Cindy, said. "It was frosting on the cake to have it in Minnesota. We are certainly happy to have him back."

So is the rest of South St. Paul.

'One of us'

Stalock's former high school coach, Jeff Lagoo, remembers the buzz when news broke that Stalock was coming home.

"The text messages were flying around," he said. "We have always felt like he is one of us. So, it was exciting to see him get picked up by the hometown team."

Stalock gravitated to hockey while growing up in South St. Paul, although he never had much of a choice in the matter. It was in his blood. His grandfather was a member of the Packers' first ever hockey team in the 1950s, and his uncles wore the South St. Paul sweater in the state tournament.

"It was always street hockey in the summer ... and we would freeze our backyard so we could play in the winter," Nick Stalock said. "It always seemed like Al ended up in net."

That wasn't always by choice, Alex noted.

"I had an older brother," he said. "He always needed someone to shoot on."

Stalock played various positions before settling in between the pipes at the pee-wee level, realizing it was the best position for him.

"We knew he was going to be special player," Lagoo said. "As soon as he stepped out on the ice for us, he was our guy, no question."

Stalock played two seasons for South St. Paul, leading the team to the state tournament as a junior. He started every game that season, as the Packers made a Cinderella run of sorts before losing to a talented Breck team, led by Blake Wheeler, in the semifinals.

For the record, Stalock kept Wheeler off the stat sheet.

"That was his coming-out game," said Nick, who also played on that team. "We literally got outshot by like 30 or something and ended up losing 3-2 on a fluky goal. That was when I realized he was going to be something special."

'I'm not doing this'

Stalock decided to forego his senior year at South St. Paul in favor of some experience in the United States Hockey League. "A no-brainer hockey-wise," he said, but "a really tough decision friends-wise."

So much so that Stalock remembers wanting to go home as soon as he arrived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, after signing with the RoughRiders.

"I remember calling my parents like, 'I'm coming home. I'm not doing this,'" he said.

His parents agreed to bring him home, but only for the weekend.

"We told him to tell his coach there was a big family birthday party so he had to be home. It was a big white lie," his mother said. "When we brought him home, we sat him down and told him he had to finish what he started. I'm not sure it was the answer he wanted to hear. We sent him back, though, and he stuck with it."

As the weeks passed, Stalock started to find his niche, but it wasn't easy. While his friends back in South St. Paul were at football games, he was at practice. While they were celebrating Homecoming, he was playing games.

Still, Stalock said he wouldn't trade his USHL experience for anything.

"Those two seasons in Cedar Rapids were the biggest step for me," he said "Not only moving away and not having the parents around, the game itself was a huge step. I was 16 or 17 and there were some guys that were 21 or 22. It was kind of like, 'Wow. These kids can play. Now I have to catch up.' You play there and succeed and go to college, and it's kind of the same process there."

Stalock was selected by the San Jose Sharks in the 2005 NHL Draft and moved on to Minnesota-Duluth, where he played three seasons before turning pro and becoming a prized prospect. He spent two seasons with the AHL affiliate in Worcester, Mass., before getting the call up to the NHL. He made his official NHL debut on Feb. 1, 2011, earning the win after relieving Antti Niemi midway through the game.

After that game he was back to Worcester with plans to rejoining the team a few days later.

If only it had been that simple.

'When can I get back on the ice?'

A few days after recording his first NHL win, Stalock routinely covered up a puck near the crease. In that moment, a player tried to jump over a pile of players and landed on the back of Stalock's left knee with his skate.

Stalock couldn't get up. The nerve that controls movement and feeling in the lower leg had been severed. Stalock missed the remainder of that season, and the entire next season while waiting for the nerve to grow back.

"There were doctors telling him not to think about playing again, and he kept asking, 'When can I get back on the ice?'" his mother Cindy recalled.

"I remember even when he still had to wear a walking boot and he couldn't sit still," his brother added. "I think he even wanted to ski with that thing on. He was never going to let that hold him back. So, as cliche as it sounds, I knew he was going to come back from it."

Though he basically had to learn how to walk again, Stalock worked his way through the East Coast Hockey League and the AHL, yet again, before finally making it back to the NHL.

"To make a stop at every level was good for me," he said. "I think it makes me appreciate it a little more."

Wearing the Wild sweater

Stalock started in net for the preseason opener against the Buffalo Sabres earlier this week, a moment he had been looking forward to since he signed his contract in the offseason.

"It was a cool experience wearing that Wild sweater," he said. "I've watched this team so many times. And played against them. To play for the Wild was a whole other feeling."

And while Stalock knows he's likely to wear the Iowa Wild sweater more often than not this season, he's OK with it.

"It was about getting a fresh start somewhere," he said. "It was about going somewhere I can get back playing consecutively. That was the main thing for me."

"At the end of the day it's good to have him close home after like 10 years or so," Nick said. "I'm sure if he ever plays at the X, they'll sell a lot of jerseys for that game. Not even joking about that."

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