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M A R C H 2 0 2 1 | M H J ON L I N E . C O M 29 Photos / Getty Images, Tom Sellwood prospect Kirill Kaprizov well in advance of him even signing with the Wild. "I think a big part of leadership is how you treat other people," Guerin said. "Good treatment of other people is when you natural- ly morph into a good teammate. A nd to me, that 's leadership. You care about the other person. "It's not all about big speeches or talking a lot. A lot of it has to do with being selfless and putting the team in front of yourself." That 's exactly what Guerin is expecting from Spurgeon. Consistent & Reliable The soft-spoken, undersized defenseman doesn't need to give rah-rah speeches in the locker room. He simply needs to show up every practice and every game and lead by example. Be relied upon. Work hard. Support every other player on a consistent basis. "I was a talkative guy. That was just my personality, but what I tell guys is, 'We have you here for who you are, so be what you are,'" Guerin said. "I don't want you to change. If you're not a rah-rah guy, don't be a rah-rah guy. Let your actions speak. If you've got something to say and you're com- fortable, say it. "Chris Chelios, Brian Leetch, Doug y Weight, Scotty Stevens, Scott Niedermayer. These are guys that they all had their own style, but they just got it done. You look at Scotty Stevens and Scott Niedermayer. They didn't really say much, but their play, their consistency, their presence, you could get behind all of that. "Kelly Buchberger wasn't a high point producer, but he would realize when our team was down and do almost anything to turn the tide of a game. And he sacri- ficed his body all the time for that. Chris Chelios, he was just fearless. Anything, on or off the ice, for his team. Anything. Consistency, too. I think that's the biggest thing. These guys are like that every single day. It wasn't like, 'Oh, OK, I was there two out of five games or three out of five games.' No. They're there every night doing this stuff." Be Yourself Mikko Koiv u captained the Wild full-time since 2009, and obvi- ously the stoic Finn has a differ- ent leadership style than, say, the quieter Spurgeon or even Parise. Spurgeon stresses inclusivity. "We want everyone to have a voice, whether you're 21 years old and played five games, to a veteran, and we're all going to bounce ideas off each other," Spurgeon said. But he won't be silent—that 's for sure. "I feel like when I see some- thing that has to be said that I definitely do speak up," Spurgeon said. "But everyone leads in their own way, and if you try and change, then I think guys can see right through you, and there are guys that are more vocal, and we have plenty of those guys as well. We have tons of leaders in that room, and we're all going to work together to get to that end goal that we all want so badly." Parise, who captained the New Jersey Devils to the 2012 Stanley Cup Final and the United States in the 2014 Winter Olympics, says he has learned to be a sponge around good leaders. But, he always tries to be himself. "The most important thing about leaders is to say and do the right thing because young players P R E S E N T E D B Y Bill Guerin and Zach Parise have played in a combined five Olympics for Team USA.