With every stoic stare over the course of his NHL career, Wild captain Mikko Koivu has developed an unrivaled hard exterior as the unquestioned father of the franchise.
That hasn’t always worked in his favor.
Taken in the first round of just the Wild’s second NHL draft, Koivu doesn’t exactly wear his heart on his sleeve, so he isn’t the most relatable player for fans. He also rarely changes his demeanor, win or lose, so some question how much he actually cares.
“I know a lot of times people say I’m too serious,” Koivu said. “That’s just the way I am.”
It’s not the way he is all the time, though, particularly when he’s away from the rink with his wife, Helena, and the couple’s three children. Koivu will curl up next to a cliche when talking hockey but ask him about actual fatherhood and his guard slowly starts to come down.
“It’s the toughest job in the world,” he said. “I believe in what we had when I was a kid; that was always lots of love. I try to hug them as much as I can and kiss them as much as I can, just be there for them.”
Koivu, 36, gushes about 6-year-old Sofie, 4-year-old Kasper and 11-month-old Oscar, sharing some of the things they like to do while showcasing some raw emotion as he talks about how much they have changed his life for the better.
“They teach me more than I realize,” Koivu said. “You can’t prepare for something like that. You’re always learning on the fly. There’s nobody that can really say what’s going to happen next.”
There’s some beauty in that for Koivu, who has lived a regimented lifestyle for as long as he can remember. He quickly realized it doesn’t work that way for parents, and for the first time in his life he’s OK with that.
“You can always do better at it,” Koivu said. “But if we’re trying to do our best, like really trying, a lot of times, that’s enough.”
‘I WANT TO BE HERE’
There’s not much Koivu hates more than hypotheticals. As far as he concerned, there’s no reason for them. At the end of the day, it’s not his reality.
Still, he allowed himself to go there a couple of weeks ago, if only for a moment, when talking about one decision made way back when he was 18 years old.
As he reminisced about the 2001 NHL Draft, Koivu shook his head, falling into a momentary state of disbelief as he thought about the potential butterfly effect had the Wild not selected him with the No. 6 overall pick.
“You sometimes think about that stuff,” Koivu said, snapping back to reality. “I don’t know if it’s ‘destiny’ or whatever they call it in English. It just felt right as soon as I got here.”
Though grateful, for Koivu, there was some apprehension that came with being drafted by an expansion team. In a league filled with so many storied franchises, most of which had Stanley Cups to their names, the Wild had no history whatsoever.
The Wild wanted Koivu to be the foundational piece of what they were trying to build.
“I never really thought of it like that,” he said. “I just remember the draft and once it happened I talked to the people close to me and the first thing they said was, ‘That’s a hockey state.’ ”
After playing a few more seasons in his native Finland, Koivu got to see that for himself during the 2004-05 NHL lockout. He spent the entire season with the Houston Aeros — the organization’s minor league affiliate at the time — and vividly remembers playing one game at Xcel Energy Center.
“I just remember thinking, ‘I want to be here,’ ” Koivu said. “It felt like home, or at least closer to home. Just everything about it. That hit me right away, and ever since I’ve got here it’s really felt good.”
He made his Wild debut the following season, moving to the Twin Cities while trying his best to figure out where he fit. He leaned on his older brother, Saku, a star in Montreal, as well as veteran Wild players like Marian Gaborik, Brian Rolston, and Wes Walz. He also developed friendships with fellow up-and-comers like Pierre Marc Bouchard and Stephane Veilleux that continue to this day.
“Just being away from home was hard,” Koivu said. “I learned a lot and it made me a stronger person facing those challenges.”
‘THIS PLACE RAISED ME’
Koivu has outlasted nearly every other member of the franchise along the way, from the ice to the front office. He’s the franchise’s all-time leader in games played (973), points (688), assists (487) and faceoff wins (9,923) and is in line to join a select club of players in NHL history that have played 1,000 games with a single franchise.
If everything goes according to plan, he will hit that milestone Dec. 1 against the Dallas Stars. Fittingly, it will be at home — and against the franchise that paved the way for the Wild by leaving Minnesota in 1993.
But nothing quite encapsulates Koivu’s impact quite like the fact that he’s the only permanent captain in franchise history. He earned that honor nearly 10 years ago and has remained more or less the lifeblood of the Wild even since the arrival of superstars like Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.
“That’s probably something I’ll realize when I’m done playing,” Koivu said. “You just don’t really think about that stuff when it’s going on. You’re just doing it.”
He also has planted roots in the Twin Cities, creating a life that still leaves him at a loss for words when he tries to sum it up. When asked about his affinity for Minnesota, he says, “I don’t know how to describe that and say what I actually mean.”
“I’ve spent the majority of my adult life here,” he said. “This place raised me. It really has become home — and obviously more so now that I have my own family. It’ll always have a place in my life and my family’s life.”
Although becoming a father has had by far the biggest impact on Koivu’s life, he mentioned how, in some ways, wearing the ‘C’ on his chest gave him a peek into some of the responsibilities that come with it. Being captain forced him to step outside of his comfort zone when, for instance, initiating tough conversations while trying to remain fair and level-headed.
His captaincy has also become a lightning rod for criticism along the way — trolls regularly implore the Wild to strip the ‘C’ from him — though Koivu has always taken it with a grain of salt.
“I’ve tried to do the best job that I can,” he said. “You kind of grow into it; you learn from mistakes and do things differently. There are things I would’ve done differently in my first year as a captain knowing what I know now; that probably goes with everyone. You just have to learn from the experiences and constantly try to get better at it.”
‘TRYING TO DO THE BEST I CAN’
As much as Koivu raves about his kids, he is equally as ecstatic to talk about his wife, Helena, affectionately referring to her as the backbone of the family, especially when he’s consumed by the grind of an 82-game season.
“I try to give her credit always, and I probably don’t do it enough,” he said. “I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
They met in Finland eight years ago during the 2012–13 NHL lockout. Eventually, Koivu convinced her to come to the Twin Cities.
That meant leaving everything she knew behind in Finland and coming to a completely foreign land without much of a support system. As much as she gravitated to the surroundings, like Koivu did when he was starting his NHL career, there were still a lot of hard days early on.
“You’re taking a big risk coming over,” Koivu said. “I always had my teammates when we come to the rink. And of course she has the connection with other wives and girlfriends. It’s just not the same. It’s a big adjustment.”
It got easier as time progressed and the arrival of Sofie, then Kasper, and finally Oscar certainly helped.
“It’s kind of just become our life,” Koivu said. “It goes so fast. Everyone says the same thing. You just don’t realize it until it actually happens. And now the kids are getting older and every year seems to go faster and faster.”
There are still milestone moments that remind Koivu that he has a lot to learn. Like earlier this year when he and Helena dropped Sofie off at kindergarten without much of a second thought.
“We didn’t really even think about it at the time and then it was kind of like, ‘Wow. This was probably bigger than we thought,’ ” Koivu said. “It goes back to not being able to prepare for that stuff.”
Compared to being a father, captaincy is a piece of cake.
“It’s not even close,” Koivu said with a laugh. “You can’t compare that. I’m just trying to do the best I can. I guess it’s kind of the same thing with being a captain; you’re learning from mistakes along the way and trying to get better.”
Koivu paused, allowing himself to rewind once more about everything that’s led him to this point. The stoic stares and common cliches will return; for the moment, though, his guard is completely down.
“Sometimes it’s good to look back,” he said. “There are ups and downs and good days and bad days. That’s life, right?”
