GABRIEL GROWING INTO NHL PLAYER
Dec 14, 2015By Tom Witosky | Follow @toskyAHLWild
Kurtis Gabriel returned to Des Moines after playing his first three National Hockey League games knowing two things: He can play in the NHL and has every intention of getting back there as soon as possible.
“I’d go through a brick wall to get back there, if that would help,” the 22-year-old Iowa Wild winger said with a laugh. “It was just that awesome.”
Gabriel is one of several players off the AHL Wild roster who has received their first time call-up to the parent club and played at least one game before returning to Iowa. Defenseman Gustav Olofsson and forward Christoph Bertschy are among players who have made their NHL debuts this year. Rookie defenseman Mike Reilly recently returned to Iowa from Minnesota, but didn’t make it to the ice.
John Torchetti, Iowa’s head coach, said that the call-ups of all four players has been partially to expose the young players to the NHL, but also out of necessity because of injuries and Minnesota’s lack of space under the NHL spending cap.
“It’s an awesome experience,” Gabriel said, remembering his warm-up skate prior to Minnesota’s 5-3 win over Winnipeg on Nov. 10. “I had a friend and his dad on one side of the ice and my family on the other. It was pretty cool standing there on the ice smiling, sticking my tongue out like ‘Oh my god is this cool’.”
Gabriel described his moment on the ice before the match was “incredible.”
“They have that train horn that goes off that just sends a shock through your whole body,” he said. “The crowd and noise is so loud you can’t feel your body.”
Gabriel also had a special moment the morning after the game when he found a note from his mother, Kim, who had slipped it under his hotel door prior to catching an early flight back home where she is an elementary school teacher. It read simply: “Dream. Work Hard, Believe, Achieve, Reflect, Repeat.”
“It was really cool. She knew it was going to happen and had made that note when I was drafted,” he said. “It was pretty nice to have it there when I got up.”
In his three games, Gabriel compiled 13:29 of total ice time during which he had three hits, one shot on goal, and two fights resulting each in five minute penalties. Gabriel said he understood going into each game that he would have to establish a reputation as being willing to drop the gloves if necessary.
“Right now, I have a specific role to play,” he said. It’s going to be fourth line and that I will be on the ice for 10 minutes or less for the entire game.”
When he squared off with Winnipeg’s tough guy Anthony Peluso, Gabriel thought he showed he could take a punch and deliver a few.
“I showed I have a pretty good chin on me and I am not going to go down,” he said. “We both got some pretty good punches in. He got the better of me but he is the top heavy in the league so I thought I did well for a 22-year old going up there and squaring off with him.”
Since returning to Iowa, Minnesota’s third round draft choice in 2013 said that he has used his experience in Minnesota as an incentive to improve his overall game not just his ability to be a tough guy.
“I just don’t want to be always in the eight-minute tough guy role,” the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Newmarket Ont. native. said. ”They’ve told me multiple times up there that they want me to be the guy who can take a regular fourth line shift for 10 to 12 minutes and be impactful and if there are injuries and I am playing better they will move me up.”
Torchetti said that Gabriel has returned to Iowa with an excellent attitude that isn’t always the case when a young player is sent down.
“Gabs has been fine with it.” Torchetti said. “A couple of the guys have come back and have been just average. The way to get back up there is to make sure you stay in the top two groups for the call-ups.”
Torchetti said that Gabriel is likely to be an option for an immediate call-up list as long as Minnesota has only 12 forwards on the roster as long as he continues to make progress. He said Gabriel already has improved his skating skills – something he emphasized in the offseason – and is playing confidently.
“We still want him to be physical, we want him to finish checks, we want him to attack the net low,” Torchetti said. “We want him to shoot off the rush and be detailed because that is his role when he goes up there.”
Gabriel found the biggest difference in playing in the NHL and the AHL is more mental than physical.
“Everyone’s mental game is way more dialed in than it is down here,” he said. “That is what separates us. All of us can skate, shoot, play the game down here, but up there it is the mental game that separates us.”
He added that actually simplifies the game for any player.
“In some ways it actually easier for a younger guy going up there,” he said. “You just worry about yourself and doing your job.”
But his return to Iowa also gives him the opportunity to improve the level of his game so that at some point playing in the bright lights of the Excel Center in St. Paul becomes permanent – a challenge that he believes strongly he can accomplish.
“I was surprised with how comfortable I felt there and that was the most encouraging thing that came from the whole experience. I realized that I could be play there,” he said. “The next time I want to go up and show that I can play just like everybody else and show how my style fits into the Minnesota style.“