The Minnesota Wild came into the NHL for the 2000-2001 season, and in those 22 years, they have never retired a player’s number. Until this weekend that is.
One of the team’s biggest stars over the years was Mikko Koivu, who the Wild drafted sixth overall in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft. Joining the team in 2005, the Finnish star spent 15 years in St. Paul and in 2009 was named the Wild’s first permanent captain.
Koivu, who retired in 2020 after a very brief stint with the Columbus Blue Jackets, will have his number nine retired by the team in a ceremony at Xcel Energy Center Sunday.
“I think it'll be obviously a special, special day and special night for myself and my family,” Koivu told Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News Thursday. “I'm sure it's going to be a lot of emotions. Like I've said before, a lot of great people throughout my journey will be there that night. So just to be able to share that with my loved ones and close people to me, I think that's very special to me.”
When Sawkar asked Koivu what he remembers most about his time with the Wild, he had an quick response.
“The fans at the Xcel Energy Center,” Koivu said. “I think that was always something special, especially the playoffs, playoff games, the atmosphere.
You just can't find that anywhere else. Then, like you mentioned, the people. I think that made my teammates, the trainers, coaches, everyone that that's been around myself and my teammates for all these years.”
During his time with the Wild, Koivu was a model of consistency and leadership for the team. He played over 1,000 games, scored over 200 goals and put up over 700 points in his time with the franchise along with being considered one of the league’s best defensive centers. Koivu attributes his success simply to enjoying the game.
“Going to the rink and putting the work in, it becomes like a lifestyle, if you want to say something that I would try to do,” Koivu explains. Obviously, once you establish yourself on the team and then you get more years under the belt, I think you become the veteran player on the team and you want to kind of show the way like I was taught when I first got into the league. For the younger players you want to keep that tradition, that culture going on and that's the challenge in the league, to be able to, not just as a team but also as an individual to prepare for each and every night. I'm trying to give the best you can for each game, each practice. And that's something that I took a lot of pride in.”
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The Wild has pushed back the start time for the game Sunday to approximately 6:20 p.m. following the ceremony. They’re requesting fans be in their seats at 5:00 p.m. for the actual ceremony. Gates will open at 3:45 p.m. and they’re offering a special happy hour until 5:00 to get fans to show up early.
The ceremony will feature speeches from Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold and Koivu, with Bally Sports North play-by-play announcer Anthony LaPanta serving as emcee. Special guests scheduled to attend include Mikko's parents Jukka and Tuire, brother Saku and his family, former Wild General Manager Doug Risebrough, Blue Jackets General Manager Jarmo Kekalainen and a number of Koivu's former Wild teammates.
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