If you came across Minnesota Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian in a dimly lit alleyway, or on a hunting trail in the north woods, or especially on the ice of a NHL rink, your first instinct would be to turn and run the other way.

Standing well over 6 feet tall before he puts his skates on, with a hulking upper body and featuring a shaggy jet-black beard that gives him a strong resemblance to Popeye’s arch-nemesis Bluto, Bogosian is one of the more intimidating-looking players in pro sports.

But unless you have the misfortune of wearing a hockey jersey with a logo other than that of the Wild, you are safe, and likely to see a smile poking out from that facial hair.

“He’s just scary. That’s the way he looks. But he’s a big teddy bear once you get to know him,” Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm said. “He’s funny, always laughing and always has a smile on his face around the rink. But if you don’t know him, he looks mean.”

Bogosian, who is the product of an Armenian-American family from a small town on the Canadian border in upstate New York, has officially been a member of the Wild for just over a year, arriving via a trade from the Tampa Bay Lightning in early November 2023. He won a Stanley Cup in 2020 with the Lightning, but even before that the Bogosian family – Zach; his wife, Bianca; and their four children – had chosen Minnesota as their home. So the trade to the Wild was a homecoming of sorts.

Now 34, he admits that the outdoors are what excites him when away from the ice, and the Bogosians found a perfect home in the State of Hockey.

Minnesota Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian. (John Autey / Pioneer Press).

“It’s always been a real passion of mine, and there are a lot of like-minded people that I meet who are into golfing and hunting and fishing here,” Bogosian said. “A lot of friends that I’ve made in Minnesota outside of hockey, and I’ve been here now for eight years, a lot of them are outdoorsmen, a lot of them are golfers, a lot of them do all three things that I love. Golf definitely falls third in that category. It goes hunting, fishing and then golf.”

The Wild are Bogosian’s sixth NHL team, in a career that goes all the way back to 2008, when the since-relocated Atlanta Thrashers picked him third overall (after Tampa Bay took Steven Stamkos and Los Angeles grabbed Drew Doughty) in that summer’s Entry Draft. He had been a prep hockey standout in Massachusetts and logged impressive hours in Peterborough of the Ontario major junior league before making the jump to the NHL after just five minor league games.

The Thrashers were born in 1999, as a part of the same expansion class that included Nashville, Columbus and the Wild. Playing in downtown Atlanta, the franchise never really got off the ground, playing sub-.500 hockey and failing to win a playoff game during their decade-plus in Georgia, before the franchise relocated to Winnipeg in 2011 and was reborn as the second incarnation of the Jets. Today, Bogosian is one of just three players still in hockey who played for the Thrashers, and the only one still playing on an everynight basis, as Evander Kane and Blake Wheeler are both shelved because of injury.

“I’m at the point in my career where my former teammates are coaching,” Bogosian joked. “The hockey world is such a small world that you make a lot of lifelong friends throughout the years and it’s one of those things where the odds are on any given night I’m playing against someone I know or have played with, or have some sort of past with.”

The Thrashers – named after Georgia’s state bird – were the NHL’s second try, and second failure, in Atlanta. The original expansion team there, the Flames, moved to Calgary in 1980. Still, Atlanta remains a vibrant and growing TV market as the unofficial capital of the American South. A decade-plus after the NHL’s most recent flame-out there, talk of a new team and a new arena in the city’s suburbs is heating up again.

“I feel like half the league today doesn’t even know what the Thrashers were because everyone is so young, but I think it could be great,” Bogosian said, fondly recalling the community that welcomed him as a young adult, fresh out of Canadian junior hockey. “I’ve got lots of love for that city. It’s where I started my career and they drafted me so I’ll always have fond memories of that place. It was definitely a cool place to start your career, and I kind of wish they still had a team.”

On Minnesota’s blue line, he brings experience and that intimidation factor that can be so helpful to a defensive unit blessed with young talent like Chisholm and Brock Faber.

“He brings great experience number one, and he’s a great personality for the team. He’s a great guy and has got tons of energy and tons of life, whether it’s practice or games on the bench. In the locker room he’s the ultimate team guy,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “He plays his role when he’s called upon to do more or play more for certain situations. He’s worked his way onto the penalty kill and he’s done a really good job of that. He’s one of those guys that does all the thankless jobs, sticking up for his teammates. He’s physical and hard when he needs to be. He’s willing to fight at times if the game calls for it, so kind of one of those identity, glue type of players with great experience.”

Never one to shy away from contact, and willing to make “a play without the gloves” when needed. It’s a part of that scary look, which Bogosian admits is vastly different from the person he is in street clothes.

“I’m a completely different person on the ice and off the ice. It’s fun. It’s almost like you play a different character when you’re on,” Bogosian admitted. “You play hard and compete hard and I’ve always been that way as far as the compete level. Then you go home and I’ve got a beautiful family with two daughters and two boys and a beautiful, loving wife and I’m just dad at home. It’s fun to play both roles. I’ve been doing it for quite a while now.”

Family and the outdoors make him smile that toothy grin that pokes through that scraggly black beard. Over more than a decade, from Atlanta to Winnipeg to Buffalo to Tampa Bay to Toronto back to Tampa Bay and now to Minnesota, NHL opponents have learned that making Bogosian angry is a bad idea.

“He’s a great leader for the back end, and he’s there to stick up for anyone too, so that’s huge,” Chisholm said. “He’s been there for us all year, and is someone you can look up to.”

He means that quite literally.

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