Born To Boogie

Meet the Boogie Man, Derek Boogaard

By Glen Andresen • photos by jim rosvold

Derek Boogaard of the Minnesota Wild has developed a thick skin. Not literally, although the behemoth enforcer probably could have developed it because of how many punches he’s absorbed on his face, and how many helmets, chin straps and cheekbones he’s hit with his knuckles.

Boogaard has the proverbial thick skin of someone who has dealt with a lot of doubters and scrutiny in his 25-year life.

As the biggest player on the ice, and known more for his physical play than his playmaking, Boogaard is often the target for trash talk from opposing players and coaches. There was the video footage from rookie camp now on Youtube that shows him trying to throw a check along the boards, only to launch himself through the plexiglass and onto the cement on the other side.

The referees target him for penalties because of his size and reputation. Even management from his former teams used “The Boogeyman” as their own sideshow for the fans, and not as an actual asset to the team in the quest for winning hockey games.

“I’ve been doing the tough guy role since I was 16 years old in Major Junior hockey camp,” recalled Boogaard. “They pulled me aside and said ‘This is what you’re going to do.’ I just looked at them and said, ‘All right. Let’s get at it.’”

And he did. Never considered a hot prospect, the 6-foot-7-inch, 258-pounder worked his way from the bottom up. After junior hockey in Canada, he moved on to the Louisiana Ice Gators of the East Coast Hockey League, where he racked up 240 penalty minutes in just 33 games. From there, he was promoted to Houston of the American Hockey League and two seasons later, Boogaard realized his NHL dreams to the surprise of nearly everyone but himself, and the people who have been with him his whole life — his family.

Since he was a kid, Boogaard never stayed in one place too long. His father was a Canadian police officer, who moved to a different town every three or four years for a job opportunity.

Derek, his two brothers, one sister and mother followed along. In getting used to new cities, new people and new hockey teams, he could always turn to his family for support.

“We’ve always been close since we were younger,” said the three-year veteran. “My family always stuck together. My parents were really busy, but they drove us all around the province every winter when it was cold. It was a lot of fun and I still look up to them a lot.”

That’s not to say that there weren’t some scrums in the Boogaard household. In fact, there were many, which could explain Boogaard’s successful climb to the National Hockey League.

“The only problem was we were so big, and when we got stuff going, it could be pretty hectic,” he said with a laugh.

Boogaard’s younger brother, Aaron, is also a tough guy playing in the Pittsburgh Penguins system. When they were younger, the two would pound on each other in the basement with their mother hollering at them to stop.

These days, the two continue to pound the daylights out of each other, but the protests from mom are gone. Joanne Boogaard actually watches and cheers them on from the sidelines. Each summer, the Boogaard boys train together, and that means strapping on the boxing gloves and going at it in the ring.

“We get pretty serious,” he admits. “We’ll do a warm-up and hit the bags for awhile. Then we spar, and we actually tee off on each other for the last half hour.”

It would seem as though Boogaard’s life is filled with high-intensity fights and collisions. He even ran a daylong fight camp with his brother this past summer, in which he showed younger kids the art of on-ice pugilism. That led to even more scrutiny from media and outraged parents, who thought Boogaard was teaching kids how to hurt others.

Boogaard says the camp was designed to teach kids to defend themselves, and learn how not to get hurt.

“We taught them the little things they can do to protect themselves,” said Derek of the camp, “rather than them just learning as it happens and getting hurt by someone who may be bigger than them.”

While the camp had its critics, Boogaard can take comfort in the fact that he is one of the Wild’s most popular players. Over the summer, he participated in the Wells Fargo Wild Road Tour and traveled through cities in southern Minnesota. The lines stretched down blocks and around buildings with fans in number 24 sweaters.

“With all of the people that come out and watch us, I think they deserve to have us come out and thank them,” he said.

The fans saw a big, gentle and friendly giant, who had no problem holding babies and posing for photos with a big smile and a pair of glasses that made him look more preppie than tough. He never got annoyed with people asking him about past fights and he showcased proper manners as if he went to charm school.

In interactions, Boogaard is relaxed and humorous. He loves to tease his teammates like Marian Gaborik’s unkempt hair, or Brent Burns’ missing front tooth. He even admits his fears — Burns’ basement, which is filled with creatures from around the animal kingdom. And, he says, there is one player out there who intimidates him — his 5-foot-10-inch, 171-pound teammate Pierre-Marc Bouchard.

He knows he’s not going to score more than a few goals in a season, and he probably won’t ever see the ice in overtime.

“Everyone wants to be a Gretzky or Lemieux, but that’s not how it works for everybody,” he explained. “You just have to find what you’re good at and work at it.”

Boogaard works hard and is good at maintaining order on the rink, and giving the fans something to cheer about every time he lines up an opponent for a huge check. He doesn’t take cheap shots on the ice, and he lives by the code of playing and fighting clean.

He is so loved and respected in the locker room that he would be the player that his teammates would rush to defend if someone was picking on him. Fortunately, that’s not needed, because Boogaard’s job is to defend his teammates, and he’s big enough to take care of himself. He’s done it his whole life.