MINNEAPOLIS — It was last summer, a few months before Jimmy Snuggerud began his hockey career at the University of Minnesota. He knew only one player on the Golden Gophers’ roster at the time, junior defenseman Mike Koster. Koster asked him to play softball with the guys so he could get to know the rest of them.
“He was a really good baseball player growing up, I guess, is what some guys were saying,” Gophers captain Brock Faber recalls. “He kind of bounced around, played a lot in the outfield.”
Snuggerud only played five or six games because he was busy with the NHL combine, the draft, where he was taken No. 23 by the Blues, and later development camp with his new club. But when back in his hometown of Minneapolis, you could find him on the diamond.
“I started out as a ‘rover,’ kind of roving the outfield,” Snuggerud says. “But after a couple of games, I guess they realized I could play a better position than that, so I went to the infield.”
It’s been a theme in Snuggerud’s young career.
Once the college hockey season started, it wasn’t long before his teammates realized what Minnesota coach Bob Motzko had seen in Snuggerud since the ninth grade, and once the World Junior Championship began, it wasn’t long before the NHL world began picking up on the Team USA forward, who looks like quite a prospect for the Blues.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Snuggerud, who leads the Gophers with 28 points this season, was third in the world juniors with 13 points in seven games, trailing only Logan Cooley (14 points), the No. 3 pick in 2022, and Connor Bedard (23), the phenom teams are tanking to get a chance at drafting No. 1 in 2023. He was named one of Team USA’s top three players in the tournament, in which the country brought home the bronze medal.
“He was just lights out,” says Motzko, who watched back in Minneapolis. “We were like, ‘That’s the Jimmy we know!'”
Meet Blues first-rounder Jimmy Snuggerud: ‘All-around’ skill, ’24/7′ passion and ‘big shoes to fill’ https://t.co/ynKEjyHyLA
— The Athletic St. Louis (@TheAthleticSTL) July 8, 2022
Snuggerud, 18, is the son of Dave Snuggerud, a former Minnesota captain, Olympian (1988) and NHLer, and the grandson of James Westby, another ex-player for the Golden Gophers and Olympian (1964).
“The Snuggerud name is well known in this territory,” Motzko says, “But Jimmy, he just backs it up by being a tremendous young man and a leader who does everything right.”
With such a rich family history, it was important to Snuggerud that his new teammates did not have any preconceived opinion of him coming into college, and that’s why the summer softball league was a perfect introduction.
“That was huge, especially for a team that could be a national championship team,” he says.
What they saw was what Cooley, Snuggerud’s Minnesota and Team USA linemate, had witnessed since the two players spent a couple of seasons together at the US National Team Development Program in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
“He’s such a positive guy, such a driven guy,” Cooley says.
Cooley saw Snuggerud develop what he calls a “world-class shot” and also make massive improvements to his skating stride.
“I think that’s what makes playing with him so special,” he says. “He has everything: the shot, the IQ and now the skating.”
The first two games of his Gophers career, though, started off slowly.
“You could see that he demands a lot from himself, and I could see some frustration,” teammate Matthew Knies says.
Knies, a prospect for the Maple Leafs, mentioned something subtle to Snuggerud that made a difference.
He said, ‘We’ve got 32 games left in the season. I’m going to have a lot of time to improve every day,’” Snuggerud says. “The next weekend, I had a way better weekend.”
Jimmy Snuggerud leads the Gophers with 28 points this season.
Actually, it was the next game.
In a 4-1 win over Minnesota State-Mankato, in front of a crowd of 8,472 at Minnesota’s 3M Arena at Mariucci, Snuggerud had a hat trick.
“You’re a freshman, and the third game of the year, great crowd, playing in-state, and he gets a hat trick,” Motzko says. “That shakes all the nerves — like the lid is off. Your confidence level will never be shaken.
“You might go through what a normal athlete goes through, an off weekend. But when you have a game like that early in your career, that pressure is released and he can just move forward.”
A week later, the Gophers put Snuggerud, Cooley and Knies together, and two months later, many consider them to be the best line in college hockey.
“We’ve got Cooley up the middle, who can skate well and make plays, but once it ends up on Jimmy’s stick, the play is done and it’s in the back of the net,” Knies says. “He’s just got that shooting mentality of ‘put it through the goalie and rip it through the net.’ Once I put the puck on his stick, we know we have a good opportunity to score.”
Motzko calls Snuggerud’s shot a missile.
“It’s different; it’s just different,” Motzko says. “We’ve got film of a couple of goals where, when you break it down, how he’s getting it, there’s no way it should be getting off that way.
“It’s how he shoots, and where he shoots from. He doesn’t have to have it in the right spot. It’s just an uncanny, high-level, different shot than you’re going to see from most hockey players.”
Faber jokes that he’s jealous and says he should’ve known after watching him on the ball field.
“I know what Coach (Motzko) is saying and I feel like it has something to do with his athleticism,” he says. “He finds himself in quirky little spots where he’ll be below the goal line and ring one off the crossbar, and his one-timers come out of nowhere.
“He just has very good spatial awareness to know when he has time to make a play or get it off quickly. That’s probably the most special part about his game, that he’s always aware of his surroundings, and having a shot to add to that is a pretty lethal combo.”
Teammates say that Gophers forward Jimmy Snuggerud has a terrific shot.
Snuggerud was selected to play for Team USA at the World Junior Championship, and before he left, Motzko gave him and other participating Gophers some advice.
“It’s natural to be nervous if you’re a first-year guy,” says Motzko, who coached in three of the tournaments. “I said, ‘Go in there like you own it. Go in there and establish yourself from the moment you step in the rink that you’re here to play.’
“A lot of guys, they kind of take a backseat to the guys that have been there before. So the best advice I could give was just get after it from day one and make your presence felt that you belong there.”
Advice heeded.
Snuggerud had two goals in a 5-1 preliminary-round win over Switzerland.
“That was just a ‘Snuggerud game,'” Motzko says. “Like the puck is coming to him, and you know it’s in. You’re raising your hand before it even goes in. You’re not a coach anymore; you’re a fan. You’re waiting for him to get the puck to do his thing.”
Snuggerud added another in a 6-2 win over Finland in the second game of the tournament and was on his way to a five-goal, eight-assist performance at the world juniors.
“He took off from there and he was a big part of the reason we won bronze,” Cooley says.
In 16:17 of ice time per game, Snuggerud led Team USA and was fourth in the tournament in shots on goal, with 37 (5.3 per game). He was also a club-best plus-5, with the Americans outscoring their opponents 14-9 when he was on the ice.
“Snuggy is a great player,” says Team USA coach Rand Pecknold. “He’s so creative and deceptive with how he gets things done. High-character kid. Great work ethic. He’s got a great future ahead of him.”
An NHL scout, who was at the tournament and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he’s prohibited from discussing other teams’ players, concurred.
“Good size, decent skater with good skill and ability,” the scout told The Athletic. “Would like to see a bit more jam and stiffness out of him, like a power forward, but overall he is a solid, two-way player with some offensive upside and ability to score goals. He’s a real solid prospect.”
The feed from Cooley 👌
The @JSnuggerud finish 💪#WorldJuniors pic.twitter.com/APxLMQKeNU— USA Hockey (@usahockey) December 29, 2022
Snuggerud admits that he had struggled with his confidence earlier in his career, and he believes the world juniors will do wonders for him.
“I think it’s something that you need,” he says. “Like shooting in certain situations where you don’t think the puck might go in, but it squeaks in. Making dynamic, creative plays, that’s something that you have to have confidence to do because you need to learn from your mistakes. It’s something I’ve improved on.”
The Gophers say that Snuggerud may have improved his international stock, but it’s nothing they needed to see.
“He just keeps validating it,” Motzko says. “He’s not going to stop now. That’s the great thing about Jimmy is he’s got another level to hit. We’ve watched his skating go from one level to another. And then his strength, when his strength goes to another level, his game will as well.
“I can tell you this: I don’t think the Blues would second-guess their pick. But I have a feeling there’s a lot of teams above them that are second-guessing their pick. He makes other players better and has attributes that are just different.”
Cooley, one of Snuggerud’s best friends, is happy to see the recognition he’s getting after watching him so closely for years.
“For him to start getting this much attention, I think he should’ve been a higher pick,” Cooley says. “His game is going to continue to get better, and if I was a St. Louis Blues fan, I’d be super-pumped because you’re getting a player that will be a really good NHL player one day.”
When will that day come?
Will Snuggerud turn pro after his freshman season with Minnesota, or will he go back to the Gophers?
“I still have a ways to go, development to do,” he says. “I think no matter where the future holds, it’s going to be where it is. Playing against some AHL players and NHL players (at the world juniors), you kind of realize that you’re up to speed with them, but the NHL is a whole different wolf.
“I think just watching on TV, you realize how fast it is. So again, I think the future holds itself, and it’s going to happen when it’s going to happen, and I’m just not really sure of that yet.”
(Photo courtesy of University of Minnesota)
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