NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Dave Stramel wasn’t your typical hockey dad.
He was a former lineman at the University of Nebraska, a “gentle giant” who didn’t really get into hockey until he moved to Minnesota.
He had no choice.
“He was automatically a Wild fan,” his wife, Gretchen, said Wednesday.
Same for their son Charlie. The 6-foot-3 center grew up in the St. Paul area, starred at Rosemount High and idolized Zach Parise. The family went to a few Wild games a year, with Charlie never forgetting Mikael Granlund’s series-saving goal against Colorado in 2014.
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So when the Wild picked Stramel in the first round (No. 21) in Wednesday’s NHL Draft, it wasn’t just a storybook moment.
It was a sentimental one.
Dave Stramel died March 19, 2021, at age 46, so he wasn’t at Bridgestone Arena for his son’s milestone moment. But Charlie’s father’s presence was felt, and not just because the player out of the University of Wisconsin has a tribute tattoo on his left thigh with the date 3-19-21 on it.
“The only professional game they probably have ever seen together was a Wild game,” said Gretchen, her eyes welling. “Everything that he knew was Minnesota Wild.”
Gretchen can see a lot of her late husband in Charlie. The determination. The work ethic. How he views the world. How much he cares. Those were some of the many qualities the Wild loved about Stramel, who they feel fills a real need in their prospect pool: a center with size, skill and grit. Director of amateur scouting Judd Brackett said Stramel was a consensus top-10 pick heading into this past year, dropping likely because of an admitted tough transition to college hockey.
There were many mitigating factors. The Badgers struggled all around, leading to a coaching staff change. And it’s been a little over two years since his father passed.
“He was a big part of my life,” Stramel said. “To see him pass at a young age is tough. That’s why I got the tattoo. He’s always with me. I know he’s looking down on me from above.”
The first time Stramel set foot on the Xcel Energy ice was when he was in squirts.
He was about 6 years old, and his team was given the chance to take a twirl where their heroes played.
The only problem? Charlie still had a skate guard on.
“He faceplanted right on the ice,” Gretchen said with a chuckle. “There’s still video.”
Stramel rose through the ranks, with his father taking him on a lot of his hockey trips out east.
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What his dad taught him was less about hockey X’s and O’s or skill work.
“He wasn’t very hard on me about certain hockey things because he learned as I learned,” Charlie said. “The biggest thing he preached to me is, ‘You don’t have to be the best on the ice, but you’ve got to be the hardest working. That’s how you’re going to get to the highest level.'”
Stramel left Rosemount after his freshman year to play for the star-studded U.S. National Team Development Program. It was a decision that helped his game mature and evolve. “As a player, you’ve got to be smart,” he said. “You have to have puck management. You can’t do anything crazy.”
Mark Osiecki, the longtime and now former University of Wisconsin associate coach, has been watching Stramel play since he was in the eighth grade, and the Badgers started recruiting him right after. He’s known the family for a long time.
“I think he’s going to be really, really solid,” Osiecki said. “A coach is going to love him. He wants to get pushed so hard. His dad really demanded things out of him. And he responds to it. No one has to coach him and be an ass to him. You can tell him and he wants it and he takes it in. I’m old school, and I look at him like a Joel Otto-type player, but he skates better. He has the ability to be a super dependable center. The dependability part of it is incredible.”
What we're hearing about the Wild: Latest on Reaves, Duhaime, Gustavsson, draft targets and more
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— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) June 28, 2023
So what happened last year?
“It was a transition,” Stramel said. “Not the season I wanted to have.”
He wasn’t the only one, though, as the Badgers went 13-23 overall and 6-18 in the Big Ten, leading to Tony Granato’s getting fired. Stramel had just five goals and seven assists in 33 games.
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“If you go back in time, and you start to consider that as a 16-, 17-year-old, he was a dominant offensive player,” said TSN director of scouting Craig Button, a former NHL general manager. “He had some injuries, and he had to work through some of those injuries, but he’s got a real power to his game. I think his offense suffered, partly because of the (back) injury in the past, but also now this year on a team where you weren’t able to generate any type of thrust offensively, it’s going to impact you.
“What I would say about Charlie is he’s an excellent skater, plays with some real vigor. He’s going to come in and play hard and competitively. He’s going to impose his will on you. At the very least, he can be a really good, strong third-line center, even a winger, that’ll play hard on the wall, can make his opponents uncomfortable. And if he finds that offensive game he showed when he was younger, it could be a great pick.”
Osiecki thinks the struggles of this past season will help him in his career. There were the high expectations, which some would call distractions, with the draft coming. “And he had to handle all of that — obviously his mom’s terrific — but he’s doing it without his dad around too,” Osiecki said. “The way he handled it, the way he handles his teammates, speaks volumes for what he’s going to be down the road.”
Gretchen coached soccer at Rosemount High, leading the team to a state title this past season before retiring. She’s still working but wanted to spend more time with her two other kids, Sophie and Cooper. When asked how Dave’s passing affected Charlie, Gretchen put it this way:
“Dave and Charlie were very, very close,” Gretchen said. “They did a lot of hockey trips together. But, because of that, there’s so much of Dave instilled in Charlie that I see. It’s fun to see it and it’s good for us to talk about Dave and see how he’s there in all aspects of the kids.”
Wild GM Bill Guerin noted that with a deep prospect pool, he had the opportunity this year to make a pick more based on positional need. And that was part of the driving force in taking the 6-3, 222-pound center. Guerin said they made some calls about potentially moving up but were pleased when Stramel was available at No. 21. “There were a few other players we could have taken, but to fill the need was pretty important this year,” Guerin said.
Stramel: “No better feeling than being picked to the hometown team.” pic.twitter.com/ovas53iqnA
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) June 29, 2023
“It’s so hard to find a center with his size, skating ability — the grit, the jam,” Brackett said. “He fits a lot of our identity.”
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Brackett said the team believes the “sky is the limit” for Stramel, noting he’s not the only player to have a dip in their first college season. Stramel “owned” those struggles in his pre-draft interviews with the Wild, who also asked him how he’d handle the attention of being a hometown kid in the Wild’s system.
“Is this going to be an overwhelming challenge for you to be in Minnesota, the pressure to have friends and family want to see you succeed?” Brackett said. “He’s got a good head on his shoulders. We think he’s someone who can handle that extra pressure of being a local product and all eyes on him all the time.”
Stramel embraces it.
“I think it’s an honor growing up in the state, to have that level of support as a young kid, how good hockey is in Minnesota. I think I’ll like it,” he said.”Maybe it’ll be added pressure, but I think it’ll be a blessing.”
Gretchen was in the stands with her son as the first round reached its second hour. They had been told by his advisers that he’d likely go in the first round or maybe early in the second. Charlie hoped all along that the Wild would pick him, but the two didn’t really talk about it as the week went. Then came the “dream come true” moment, as Charlie put it, when Guerin called his name.
“I actually turned to (Charlie) and said, ‘Who from Wisconsin is being drafted?'” Gretchen said. “He looks at me, like, ‘Oh, God, it’s me.’ It’s the perfect storybook ending to this whole process. Obviously a lot of his buddies that he’s played with for years got drafted last year. So he’s been second fiddle to it. To do it a year later is earth-shattering. And to go to the Wild is even better.”
Dave Stramel, #mnwild prospect Charlie’s dad, died in 2021 at the age of 46. He started working at CH Robinson in Eden Prairie in 2001 and was a popular figure. This is what hangs on the wall there, courtesy of @SuperStatsDave
Story by @JoeSmithNHL & mehttps://t.co/SIdbQx9p72 pic.twitter.com/LAFQWunhVv
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) June 29, 2023
(Top photo courtesy of Gretchen Stramel)
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