Ex-Wild player Devin Setoguchi opens up about substance abuse, and redemption

Devin Setoguchi scored 32 goals and tallied 31 assists in his two seasons with the Minnesota Wild, including the playoffs-clinching goal on the final day of the 2013 regular season.

But in an eye-opening story by The Hockey News this week, it's what Setoguchi did off the ice that's coming to light.

Setoguchi has not played in the NHL since being held without a point in 12 games with the Flames early in the 2014-15 season. He was offered a professional tryout with the Kings this week.

It's remarkable he ever got this far.

Setoguchi entered a substance abuse program in April 2015. The events of what led to that stay are laid out in striking detail in the article, which is part of the annual Hockey News NHL preview.

It includes that Setoguchi already had a drinking problem when he was unexpectedly traded to the Wild during the 2011 NHL draft, but it was only the beginning. After leaving the Wild in 2013 his problems had risen to the levels of sleeping pills and cocaine while with the Jets.

"I just had a lot of resentment toward that trade," Setoguchi told The Hockey News of coming to the Wild. "I had a tough time cutting the cord a bit. I just wish it would've happened differently, but that's what business is."

[Setoguchi] hadn't trained much over the summer after the trade [to the Wild], and his drinking had started to increase. "It built up to where I could drink four or five beers and go play and score a goal and an assist," Setoguchi said. "Do it again, do it again, do it again."

For the most part, Setoguchi was able to keep his reputation for partying quiet. The one time it caught up with him was when the Sharks were in Minnesota for the first time since the trade from San Jose. Setoguchi was late for the morning meeting, and coach Mike Yeo made him a healthy scratch. Rumors spread that Setoguchi was out drinking the previous night with several of his former teammates. Not true, Setoguchi said. He had invited [Willie] Mitchell and Sharks defenseman Jason Demers to his home that night for dinner and to watch the college football championship. "I think maybe I had a glass of wine, and I was in bed at 11 o'clock," Setoguchi said. "I plugged my phone in, and the cord wasn't plugged into the brick. My phone just died. That was it.