The Wild's Jared Spurgeon: Big in stature if not in size

Around midnight on an ice-cold evening in Calgary four years ago, two Wild television announcers walked into the Westin Hotel after a late-night movie. As they headed for the elevator, they spotted a kid carrying a Houston Aeros equipment bag into the lobby.

"We joked, 'Oh, they must have called somebody up,' " Kevin Gorg remembers joking to FSN colleague Dan Terhaar, thinking the bag-toter must be somebody's son or a teenage equipment assistant.

The next morning Gorg and Terhaar walked into the Saddledome's visiting locker room and saw that kid, who didn't look to be more than 15, sitting in a stall.

"I'll never forget it. We had no idea," Gorg said, laughing. "Now you see him play, and it blows you away how good he is."

That innocent-looking youngster was Jared Spurgeon, who four years later has played more games in a Wild sweater than any other defenseman on the team's current blue line. He'll skate in No. 234 on Thursday night against Arizona.

That's quite impressive since Spurgeon, listed at 5-9, 176 pounds, jokes he's "probably really 5-8 and a whopping 167 pounds — 170 on a good day."

Four years later, Spurgeon still doesn't look a day older than 16. OK, maybe 18.

It caught everybody off-guard, even then-coach Todd Richards. Reporters thought Houston General Manager Jim Mill was kidding when he sent a heads-up text. After all, a few months earlier, Spurgeon was brought to training camp on a tryout after not being signed by the Islanders — the team that drafted him 156th overall in 2008 — a few months before that. When the Wild signed him to a two-way NHL deal Sept. 23, 2010, it was barely a footnote in the newspaper.

How caught off-guard were the Wild's equipment guys? On the road, they bring a bunch of extra preprinted jerseys of minor leaguers who might be called up.

Spurgeon's sweater wasn't in the bin.

Why would it be? His training camp jersey number was 78! Assistant equipment manager Rick Bronwell grabbed a No. 46 jersey, his lettering kit and sewed Spurgeon's name above the number.

Why 46?

Six months earlier, Spurgeon was cut loose by the Islanders, which made him eligible again for the 2010 draft. After not being drafted, Spurgeon contemplated offers in Europe before agreeing to come to the Wild's summer development camp on a tryout. If all went well there, he would take part in a rookie tournament in Michigan, then join the team's main training camp.

"My agent had to talk me into coming," Spurgeon said. "I was a little nervous coming to a new place."

How long did it take the little guy to attract the attention of then-Aeros head coach Mike Yeo and assistant coach Darryl Sydor, who now have the same jobs with the Wild?

"About a half practice into development camp," Yeo said. "We were introducing retrievals and how we wanted our defensemen playing the puck, and it took him one time and he did it perfect every time."

In the tournament, Spurgeon was paired with 2008 second-round pick Marco Scandella, Spurgeon's current defense partner, "so we built chemistry from Day 1."

Spurgeon caught Wild GM Chuck Fletcher's eye because he had eight points in his previous eight games, including the shootout winner the night before his promotion. The Wild needed a defenseman, so Fletcher called Yeo.

"Chuck said, 'Can Spurge play in the NHL?' " Yeo said. "We had a lot of different guys maybe worthy of a call-up, but I just remember saying, 'You're never going to know unless you try.' I mean, he was our best player every single night, so how can you not root for a guy like that?"

Spurgeon woke on the morning of Nov. 28 to a phone call from Mill, who told him to pack his bags for Calgary.

"I'll never forget me, [Sydor] and [assistant coach] Brian Wiseman watching the Calgary game and cheering like we were huge fans just because Spurge did everything right to get that opportunity," Yeo said.

Their glee lasted a few moments until Sydor said, "We're not getting him back."

The Wild missed the playoffs, so the team sent Spurgeon, a former Memorial Cup winner with Spokane, back to Houston for playoff experience. The Aeros went all the way to the league finals and were up 2-1 until Spurgeon sustained a high ankle sprain in Game 4. Maybe not a coincidence, the Binghamton Senators roared back to win the Calder Cup.

"We lost a big piece," Scandella said.

Spurgeon is full of surprises; "the kid" has two kids himself.

Spurgeon and his high school sweetheart, wife Danielle, have a 4-year-old named Zach and 4-month-old Colbie. Zach, who loves to skate, looks like a mini-Jared.

"Spurge is such a quiet, nice kid, he was in the organization a year before I even realized he had a kid," Sydor said. "I was like, 'What?' "

"It's kind of why I don't go out much. I look younger than probably half the high school students in Minnesota," Spurgeon, 24, said. "It's exciting being a dad. It was obviously a bit different being younger, but it gives you something much more to live for off the ice."

The knock on Spurgeon, of course, has long been his size.

When he was drafted in the 10th round in the Western Hockey League as a 14-year-old, Spurgeon stood 5 feet tall and weighed "a whopping 145."

"Me and [best friend] Tyler Ennis [now of the Buffalo Sabres] would always have bets about who'd weigh the most going into camp," Spurgeon said. "Luckily, quickness has always been part of my game."

And smarts. Hockey sense is how Spurgeon survives on a nightly basis. He's rarely blown up with a big hit. He impressively goes into the corner with bigger forwards and often is the one coming out with the puck.

Spurgeon says, "I've been small my entire life. I've never been the big guy playing against small guys. I'm not sure what it is here, but in Alberta, you start hitting about 12. So you learn to keep your head up."

Scandella, who has a more typical 6-1, 205-pound frame, says, "I don't know how he does it. I watch him every night. He's just so good tactically going in, reading the forechecker, taking angles, spinning off things — and he's gone."

Fletcher says Spurgeon's consistency is remarkable. He scored a career-high 26 points last season, tied for a team-best plus-15, and had three goals and three assists in the playoffs, including a late tying goal to send Game 7 of the first-round series against Colorado to overtime. In four games this season, he has a goal, assist and is plus-4.

Two summers ago, Spurgeon was at ex-teammate Clayton Stoner's wedding in Mexico when he signed a new three-year, $8 million contract. He left the pool to call his parents, Debi and Barry.

"Three years before, you get word that the team that drafted you was giving up on you," Spurgeon said. "I was a bit down on myself. I've always been cut from teams before, but that one really hurt, and after it sunk in, you really want to prove people wrong. Even today when I wake up, I always want to make that mark where I stick because I never want to have that feeling again. It's motivation every day.

And this is why Yeo so respects Spurgeon.

"It's been a long, hard battle for him to get to the NHL, but we've seen his game continually get better," Yeo said. "That's the kind of people we want around here. People who aren't satisfied. It's not just enough to get here and do enough just to stay here. He fits perfectly with our goal. He wants to win a Stanley Cup and he pushes himself to get better every year. We see his progress year after year."

Even though Spurgeon doesn't seem to age … year after year.

"Well, he's starting to look a little older," Yeo joked. "He's got a little something growing on his upper lip."