It’s difficult to play one game in the NHL, Minnesota Wild forward Nico Sturm said. To play 1,000 of them, the milestone that will be celebrated by Wild captain Jared Spurgeon on Saturday night in St. Paul, is mind-boggling.
“I don’t know how some guys do it,” Sturm said. “I know how my body feels, and I’m closing in on 400 games, so it’s so impressive. He has been on the penalty kill, he has been blocking shots, he has played the game the right way his whole career. He has contributed offensively, he has been on the power play, he has been a great leader off the ice.
Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon, front, upends Philadelphia Flyers right wing Nikita Grebenkin, behind, during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, March 12, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)
“There’s a lot more to him beyond just a thousand games, which is impressive enough.”
Spurgeon, 36, made his NHL debut with the Wild on Nov. 29, 2010, in Calgary. Originally from Edmonton, he was a sixth-round pick of the New York Islanders in 2008, but they never signed the undersized defenseman. Minnesota snapped him up as a free agent after Spurgeon played parts of five seasons of major junior hockey in Spokane, Wash.
After fewer than two dozen games with the Wild’s AHL affiliate, then based in Houston, Spurgeon got the call to “the show” and has never looked back, playing the game with a style not befitting a player who is listed at 5-foot-9, 165 pounds.
Those closest to Spurgeon, who has indeed missed significant time with injuries over the course of 16 NHL seasons, marvel at the grit and the determination to take everything thrown his way in reaching the 1,000-games milestone.
“You have the celebration of one thousand games in the NHL, but when you really think how many games that is, and the ability and the wherewithal to be able to have the ability, the talent, you do have to stay healthy over a long career,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “But those guys that play a thousand games, they’re playing a lot of games through injury, hurt, sickness, whatever it may be.”
Spurgeon was named the Wild’s captain at the start of the 2020-21 season and has fully embodied that leadership role on and off the ice. With his wife, Danielle, and their four children, the Spurgeons are widely known for hosting team dinners on holidays at their home in the Minneapolis suburbs, giving any player without family nearby a place they can call home.
Spurgeon is soft-spoken, but also knows when the stick is needed as much as the carrot. As he did in late October, when he called a team meeting to successfully re-focus a Wild bunch that had won just three of its first dozen games.
“Leadership can show in a lot of ways. Spurge is certainly not the loudest person you’ll ever meet, but he just leads by example,” Sturm said. “He knows the right time and place, when to address the team, when to say something.
“Obviously, we had a big meeting at the start of the year, Sturm said. “And even that meeting, he doesn’t come in and throw stuff, throw the trash can into the corner and start screaming at guys. It’s just, bring guys into the huddle, bring guys in, making everybody feel like a part of it.”
The Wild will hold an on-ice ceremony prior to their March 21 home game versus Dallas to honor Spurgeon, who joins Mikko Koivu as the only players in franchise history to play their first 1,000 NHL games with the Wild. He becomes the 12th player to hit the 1,000-game milestone while playing for Minnesota, the most recent being forward Marcus Johansson this season.