A familiar former Wild skater is moving up in Minnesota’s hockey operations ranks.
On Monday, general manager Bill Guerin announced several staff changes, headlined by a new role for Alex Goligoski. The former NHL defenseman has been elevated from player development advisor to player development coach.
Goligoski’s path back into hockey has been a quick one. Minnesota brought him in before the 2025-26 season, and it was his first job in the sport after retiring from playing following the 2023-24 season. The Grand Rapids, Minn. native finished his career where it made the most sense for him to do it, spending his final three NHL seasons with the Wild.
During that stretch, Goligoski played in 152 regular-season games and posted four goals and 42 assists for 46 points. He also appeared in four games for Minnesota during the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
His NHL resume stretches far beyond his time in St. Paul.
Across 1,078 regular-season games over 17 seasons, Goligoski skated for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Dallas Stars and Arizona Coyotes, piling up 87 goals and 388 assists for 475 points. He added 21 points in 47 postseason games and was part of Pittsburgh’s Stanley Cup-winning team in 2009.
Minnesota also added Dan MacKinnon as assistant director of amateur scouting. MacKinnon spent the last 10 seasons with the New Jersey Devils, including the previous seven as senior VP of hockey operations and assistant general manager. Before that, he logged 10 years with the Penguins as a head professional scout, director of player personnel and director of professional scouting.
The Wild also brought in Jankik Biechier as a European amateur scout. He comes from Elite Prospects, where he was director of European scouting, and previously spent seven seasons as a European scout for the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League.
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