Dustin Wolf was such an active child while growing up in Gilroy that his mom, Michelle, decided that he needed to take skating lessons to help burn off some excess energy.
It was the perfect decision.
Wolf was enrolled in a learn-to-skate program at Sharks Ice in San Jose, then went on to play goalie for the Santa Clara Blackhawks youth hockey team. He would later star for the Jr. Kings in Los Angeles, the Everett Silvertips of the WHL, and both the Stockton Heat and Calgary Wranglers of the AHL after he became a full-time pro in 2021.
Wednesday night, Wolf made his NHL debut for the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome, playing against the team he grew up cheering for, the San Jose Sharks.
Wolf proceeded to make 23 saves for his first NHL win, as the Flames beat the Sharks 3-1.
“It’s rewarding,” Wolf said. “You know, you put the work in each and every day and you dream about that as a kid, to get that first game and first win.”
Wolf is just the 51st California-born player — and the third from Santa Clara County — to play a game in the NHL. Hunter McKown, now with the Columbus Blue Jackets, and John Emmons, who played with Ottawa, Toronto, and Boston from 2000 to 2002, are both from San Jose.
Perhaps there was some kismet involved as what led Wolf to debut Wednesday against his childhood team.
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The Flames had been eliminated from playoff contention Monday with their 3-2 shootout loss to the Nashville Predators. Had Calgary’s postseason hopes still been alive Wednesday, coach Darryl Sutter likely would have started No. 1 goalie Jacob Markstrom against San Jose.
Instead, with their playoff hopes dashed, the Flames recalled Wolf from the AHL on Tuesday to give him an opportunity to start the team’s regular-season finale. It just so happened, too, that the Sharks are finishing their season on a swing through Alberta.
“It’s pretty special to play against the team you grew up idolizing,” said Wolf, who loved Evgeny Nabokov as a kid.
Mike and Michelle Wolf used to be Sharks’ season ticket holders, and when they attended games while Michelle was pregnant with Dustin, she would usually feel him kicking inside the womb.
“During my pregnancy, the only time he would kick me was when we were at the Sharks games,” Michelle told the Calgary Sun before Wednesday’s game. “As soon as they stepped on the ice, he would be kicking the crap out of me, basically, and then he’d stop as soon as the game was over. So, this is kind of meant to be.
“Looking back now, you realize that this is the position he was meant to play.”
Things you love to see: @NHLFlames goalie prospect Dustin Wolf (@dwolf2332) grew up in Northern California and was a big @SanJoseSharks guy.
Tonight, he makes his much-anticipated NHL debut against—you guessed it—the Sharks. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/fJ8omgThoY
— NHL (@NHL) April 13, 2023
Dustin was born on April 16, 2001, when the Sharks, coached by Sutter, were in a first-round playoff series with the St. Louis Blues.
“And I think 10 minutes after he was born, we had the Sharks game on the TV in the hospital,” Michelle said.
Wolf played for the Jr. Kings from 2014 to 2017 before he made the jump to the WHL with Everett. Despite his size – he’s generously listed at 6-feet tall – he largely dominated the league, going 106-33-4 over four seasons. He was named the WHL’s top goalie twice, and a year after the Flames drafted him in the seventh round, he was named the CHL’s top goalie in 2019-2020.
San Jose, like 29 other NHL teams in 2019, passed him over in the draft several times.
After Wolf turned pro, he continued to play at an elite level, going 74-18-6 over two seasons in the AHL, and was named that league’s top goalie in 2021 after a season in which he went 33-9-5 with a .924 save percentage.
In his last season in Stockton, his goalie coach was Thomas Speer, now with the Sharks.
“He’s pretty much family to me now,” Wolf said of Speer. “He took me under his wing during COVID. I lived with him and his family and really got pretty close to them and obviously close with him last year in Stockton. Obviously, we were super excited for him to get a job with the Sharks, but disappointed at the same time. For us to cross paths again is pretty cool.”
In Wolf’s mind, there was never a doubt that he would reach this stage.
“He definitely, from the beginning, said, ‘I’m going to play in the NHL. Period,’ ” Michelle Wolf said. “He started skating in pre-school. This has sort of been his plan since at least mites, and he’s never strayed away from it. It’s just, this is what it was going to be. How many kids at that age pick what they’re going to do?”
Wolf wasn’t super busy for the first two periods Wednesday as the Sharks managed just 13 shots on net. He was superb in the third period, though, making 13 saves, and stopping a handful of shots from close range.
“He made some big saves. You can see why he’s the goalie everybody’s talked about, why he has the numbers he has,” Sharks coach David Quinn said of Wolf. “Obviously, Tom Speer feels really good about him and speaks very highly of him.
“He’s an elite goalie and he’s got a great future here in the National Hockey League, but we could have made his life a lot more difficult and we just didn’t do that tonight.”
Now Wolf figures to compete against the Sharks for years to come.
“It feels really awesome,” Wolf said of Wednesday’s win, “and obviously leaves me wanting more.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com