Last Updated on Monday, 06 October 2014 16:38
By Kevin Hartzell
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
Stu Bickel is returning home. After spending parts of two seasons with the New York Rangers and playing in over 175 games in the AHL, Stu has signed with the Minnesota Wild. Stu is a native of Chanhassen and played his high school hockey at Eden Prairie. His route to the Xcel and the Minnesota Wild from Chanhassen was not the direct path one would first map out via MapQuest.
Stu was a forward, a big and strong forward at Eden Prairie High School. He showed a fair amount of skill for a big guy, scoring 41 points his senior season. At the end of his senior year in high school, Stu was off to the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers for a late year stint. The next year, his first full year of junior hockey, was to be Stu’s year to really make his mark.
But things weren’t working quite like he had hoped. He was played often in the role of enforcer. Unfortunately though, he was not an enforcer who also played on the top couple lines. When it became apparent things were not going to work out in Green Bay, Stu came back to Minnesota to finish the year and play for Owatanna of the NAHL. In Owatonna, the coaching staff made a move that would greatly help Stu’s career; they moved him to defense.
Stu played well on defense for Owatanna the remainder of the season and caught the eye of our head of scouting Craig Sarner (Chief Black-Cloud I like to call him for his ability to read the clouds and especially a brewing storm). Craig was about to put together a team in Sioux Falls that would win the franchise’s only Clark Cup championship. Craig was putting together a trade that would include the acquisition of Apple Valley native-goaltender Matt Lundin and future NHLer Brad Malone. The team would also have future NHL players Zach Redmond, Corey Tropp and Danny Sexton (Danny also a native of Apple Valley) among a very good cast of players. Adding Stu was to be a big piece of the final puzzle.
Craig saw great potential in Stu as a defenseman. He thought Stu could play a great role on our team and asked me to call Stu. When I first called to talk with him about joining our team in Sioux Falls, I remember him telling me, “Coach I don’t want to just be a fighter, I want to play the game.” I told him that was good to hear because we wanted and needed him to be a player, not just a fighter. It turned out he was both and one of only two real enforcers I have ever coached.
Stu was struggling with making a decision that day I called him. The previous couple of years didn’t generate much interest from the colleges. He was questioning where hockey was going to fit in his life. Lucky for us and for Stu, he decided to give it one more shot. He came to Sioux Falls to invest with us, his last year of eligibility in junior hockey.
With the help of Stampede assistant coach Andy Jones, Stu continued to progress as a defensemen. He brought great value to the team as a steady and strong, physically intimidating defensemen. He was a one of many reasons we won the Clark Cup. He did fight on occasion, but as a true tough guy, he fought only when needed which ended up being not as often as one might think for a guy who ended up leading the league in penalty minutes. Word gets around fast when you are physically intimidating and actually can fight, too.
I remember vividly a game in Des Moines when fellow Stampede defenseman Zach Hansen of White Bear Lake, a feisty but smallish player, was having a feud of his own with a Buccaneer player equal to his size. I would say Zach had taken a couple liberties with his Des Moines adversary during the game. Then in the second period, Zach hit his adversary with an impactful open ice hit, right in front of our benches. As their guy literally crawled to his bench, and Zach entered ours, their big guy immediately skated over to the front of our bench to call out Hansen. He was a lot bigger than Zach.
Without anyone needing to say a word, Stu was over the boards and on the ice ready to represent our team at the impromptu meeting being called by our opponents. Their big guy promptly vacated the area. No one needed to tell Stu that was his time to stand up for a teammate, nor did anyone in the league want to fight Stu. That’s often what tough guys do. They keep the game under control, though I suspect many people believe they do the opposite.
In the end, Stu played a lot and fought some, too. With all that said, he played the game most often with a calm efficiency. The colleges were slow to catch on to Stu’s value as if his past in Green Bay and in Owatanna had been written as his future. And for how big he was, his greatest attribute in my opinion was his consistency. Consistency, by nature, takes time for scouts to catch on to. It is easier to spot sparkle and glamour. Stu was steady and efficient and a great blue-line anchor for us. And he was always there to take care of the team in every way needed.
Finally, very near the end of the season, this 20-year-old who maybe was starting to wonder if a Division I college opportunity was going to happen, was made a scholarship offer by St. Lawrence University. I remember being so very happy for Stu and St. Lawrence. They were getting a very good player and even better person. When Stu called to confirm he had committed, I was shocked to hear it was TO MINNESOTA! I was honestly surprised. The Golden Gophers had snuck in there last minute. Stu was off to Minnesota.
At Minnesota, Stu had an excellent freshman year. He seemed to me to again be steady, which is often not easy to do as a freshman. I heard he was quickly becoming a leader in the room. It didn’t last long, however, as again Stu surprised us a bit again when he signed a pro contract after only one year of college. And we are talking about an excellent student here as well. Stu had a 4.0 GPA his freshman year, but when presented a professional opportunity, and considering he was already about to turn 22, he felt it was time to go. To be a good pro and with his age and clock ticking, he felt he needed to get his pro career started, and again he was off.
Stu first signed with Anaheim. He played mostly in the AHL and some in the ECHL. Then a trade to New York and his consistency and steady play paid off. He played the better parts of two seasons with the Rangers, mostly at D but also on occasion at forward. It is a nice luxury to be able to play both. Last season was an injury-riddled year cut short by surgery. This year brings again new life as Stu has signed as a free agent with his hometown Wild.
I asked Stu what he sees as the opportunity in Minnesota. In true professional form, he said, “I am just going to camp and doing the best I can and see where I end up. There is so much you cannot control in pro hockey, so you just go do your job the best you can each day, and what happens is what happens.”
That is exactly what Stu needs to do, go out and play the game like he knows how. Be consistent in his play and be tough-minded and allow what will be to be. I can see him helping this Wild team and be a great guy in the room as well. On top of it all, he is really a good human being with a great family who has instilled great values in him. You win with family in the room. Stu brought that to us in Sioux Falls and he can do it with the Wild, too!
Kevin Hartzell was most recently the head coach of Lillehammer in Norway’s GET-Ligaen. A St. Paul native and forward for the University of Minnesota from 1978-82, Hartzell coached in the USHL from 1983-89 with the St. Paul Vulcans and from 2005-12 with the Sioux Falls Stampede. His columns have appeared in Let’s Play Hockey since the late 1980s.
