PALMQUIST'S MATURITY CONTINUES TO GROW
Nov 2, 2016By Tom Witosky | Follow @toskyAHLWild
Change is coming.
That’s the message defenseman Zach Palmquist wants Iowa Wild fans to hear as the club’s fourth season is now underway.
“The guys returning this year are hungry,” the 25-year-old St. Paul native said. “They are motivated to get this team on the right track.’
After three disappointing seasons, the Wild, under new head coach Derek Lalonde, have shown already that there is a different game being played – a game that is faster and higher scoring. In its first eight games, the club has scored 24 goals – the best in three seasons – and despite giving up 28 goals has one of its best opening season records in four seasons.
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In a two-game sweep of the Milwaukee Admirals, the Wild scored six goals – tying the second highest number of goals scored in a game in four years, 6, and then went on the road to take a hard fought 3-2 victory the next night. Those wins came after two one-sided losses that left Lalonde wondering a bit about the team’s defense.
“It’s a process, but sometimes it can be very frustrating,” Lalonde said. “What I like is the kind of commitment the team makes.”
Palmquist, already one of the club’s top scorers from the blueline, predicted the change would become evident soon. He has also been one of the key components to the Wild’s evident improvement.
“We have the components in the locker room to be a team that can put four, five, six wins together,” he said. “We may not have shown it yet, but I like our attitude, the way we prepare.”
Palmquist should know about preparation. He has spent most of his youth getting ready to have a National Hockey League career. Palmquist’s father, Dave, has been the head coach of the South St. Paul High School girls’ hockey team for 22 years and all four children, Zach is second oldest, are hockey players.
“We’ve always been a competitive family,” Zach Palmquist said. “I remember we would play ministicks in the basement and usually the loser ended up crying.”
Palmquist began playing hockey just after he started skating at the age of three. After getting used to skating, he wanted immediately to play hockey and joined his brother’s a four-year-old Mite team.
“The coaches didn’t think I could play but once they saw me play they said I could,” Palmquist said. “So I played when I was three and a half and when I was four and five.”
But then, Palmquist decided that there was something about hockey that he didn’t like, at least according to his mother.
“Mom says I took a year off from hockey because I didn’t like people watching me from the stands. She told me that I told her I didn’t like people watching me,” Palmquist said with a laugh. “I don’t have that problem anymore but I took a year off when I was six.”
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Since returning to the ice, Palmquist has built a solid reputation as a scoring defenseman. In high school, he was an All-Suburban Conference selection in his sophomore and junior year and Minnesota all-state selection his senior year.
With the Waterloo Black Hawks of the USHL, he was a top scoring defenseman with 9 goals and 27 assists in his first full season. The next season his scoring output dropped, but he began to show his toughness playing in 59 of 60 games his second year. “I really liked playing in Waterloo,” he remembered. “The fans were really great.”
At Minnesota State-Mankato, Palmquist led Maverick defensemen in scoring three of his four years while also earning a bachelor’s degree in sports management. Palmquist then signed a one-year free agent contract with his hometown NHL team and now finds himself in his second year with the Iowa Wild.
As he has climbed the ladder toward the NHL, the 5-foot, 11-inch Palmquist has always been confident that he can adapt his game and improve his skills to take the next step. “I’ve always been a pretty confident player. It’s about believing in yourself and sticking with what you can do best,” he said.
At the same time, Palmquist acknowledged, he had to improve his skills as a defenseman.
“There is more than just scoring,” Palmquist said. “You have to be a complete player so taking care of my own zone is very important. Putting up points looks good, but when you are blocking two or three shots a game, and being a plus player every night that’s just as valuable.”
David Cunniff, the Wild’s associate coach and defensive coordinator, said that Palmquist has made substantial strides on the defensive side.
“From where he was to where he is now, he is now top four d-man in AHL,” Cunniff said. “A year ago, he was close to getting sent down because he wasn’t getting games in.”
Cunniff said that Palmquist has accepted the fact that in the NHL being able to score goals and make assists isn’t enough for a defenseman.
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“You aren’t going to play in this league or the NHL if you don’t play defense well,” Cunniff said. “You have to be able to defend so they can play the minutes they need. So the question was whether he was willing to put in the time and work and do it every night and he is showing he is.”
Palmquist said that accepting a more complete role on the ice wasn’t a difficult adjustment to make.
“I don’t think it is changing my game so much as learning the game on both ends of the ice,” he said. “I still think I have the offensive ability to jump up and get scoring chances and create scoring chances. But, I’ve taken more pride in the past year or two in really defending my own end and being a plus player.”
As for this season and the future, Palmquist said that he understands the difficulty of trying to crack the defensive pairings in Minnesota, but accepts it as a challenge and opportunity.
“The only thing I can do is play and control what I do. I don’t make the decisions. Just intend to give my best every night,” he said.