Dave Snuggerud on playing for the Sabres, how he found Canisius College and on his son Jimmy's hockey career

FARGO, N.D. – Dave Snuggerud had a lot of time on his hands when he was a right winger with the Buffalo Sabres in the early 1990s. Being a professional athlete, he realized, was about serving others and about entertaining, but he also had an excitement for learning.

The love of learning led Snuggerud to Canisius College, where he met a nun who became his instructor in American Sign Language, and helped him transition to his life after hockey.

Snuggerud, who played for the Sabres from 1989-1992 as part of a six-season NHL career, is now a teacher and a hockey coach at Breakaway Academy, a hockey school he co-founded in Minnesota. His son, Jimmy, is a freshman forward with the Golden Gophers, who face Canisius in an NCAA Tournament game at 9 p.m. ET Thursday at Scheels Arena in Fargo.  

“To have a father like that, growing up, it was really cool,” Jimmy Snuggerud said. “Character traits are a lot of the things he taught me. Perseverance in tough times. Facing adversity, as a player, is something I had, a lot, and he was always helping me along the way. It was the way he showed his path and taught me to live in the present, and enjoy the moment."

Dave Snuggerud spoke with The Buffalo News this week about teaching, seeing his son evolve as a hockey player and his best memories of Buffalo. This interview has been edited for clarity.

The Buffalo News: What is it like to see your son play against a program from Buffalo this week?

Dave Snuggerud: It's funny, right when they announced the team, I knew Canisius was in the running. I didn’t know where they were going to fall, but when it was posted, I thought, ‘I know Canisius!’ I know them as a Jesuit school, but I went to their campus because I took sign language on their campus with one of the nuns. They weren’t a Division I hockey team, then, but over the years, I got to see the chance for them to evolve into a Division I program.

TBN: But sign language, why did you decide to study it here, in Buffalo?

Snuggerud: I was interested in doing it, and I was a person who would explore different things and try different things. I had some down time as a pro athlete, and there’s slow times during the days and years, and I went on to do that. I looked in the yellow pages and found it. It wasn't a class. I went over there one day and a nun at the front desk said, ‘We can teach you sign language,’ and it was one-on-one. I love education and I love learning. I pursued it because I was so curious on how it worked, and being able to sign with people. It was great experience. 

TBN: You’re a teacher and a hockey coach now. What did you take from your experiences as a hockey player in the NHL and in the Olympics, and apply to what you do now?

Snuggerud: It didn’t happen after my first year in Buffalo, but I learned, you're in the entertainment business. This happened to be the avenue of sports. Being in Buffalo, they have such great sports fans. ... At the time, the Bills were doing really good, and it was fun to see the following they had, and to see the loyal people with the Sabres. I saw a real passion in Buffalo, and that's what I learned: I'm serving people by trying to entertain them, every night. What I take from that is that I love serving. I serve kindergarten through eighth-grade kids now, and I’m trying to help them be the best person they can be, academically, athletically and socially. I see the loyalty. I see them wanting to root their team on, me serving them, and I want to continue that link.

TBN: How did you get into working with kindergarten through eighth-grade students?

Snuggerud: I started in high school (in Hopkins, Minn.). I went and worked in an elementary school. I thought, ‘Wait, I can get out of school for a little bit? Great!’ I worked in the special education room with autistic kids, and I immediately loved it. I liked the people who were involved in it. They were there to give and serve, and that's what got me into teaching.

TBN: You have personal stake in education, too, as a parent of a hockey player. What have you impressed on Jimmy as he follows his own path in the sport and in life?

Snuggerud: I'd talked to people in Buffalo when it looked like he almost was drafted by the Sabres, and during those conversations, I was kind of making it become more of, ‘Oh my God, he might get drafted in the NHL, and it might be with Buffalo, and I had such a great experience there.’ I thought, ‘Oh, I hope this could happen.’

As you reflect on it, you think, how is he getting the opportunity to do this? We have four kids, and Jim is our youngest. We’ve taught him: Work on being great in all areas of your life. It's rewarding when you walk your daily life and you're good in all situations. That’s what we try to impress upon Jim. He does really well academically, because he's worked hard in it. He does well in his nutrition, and he's learned to work at it. He's done well with friends because he's learned to work on it. The hockey is great, and we love it. He still has his baseball friends he invites to Gophers hockey games. He goes to youth games at home, and he's nice to the kids when they come out to the locker room. Social media isn't what drives him. He's disciplined.

TBN: What is your best memory as a Buffalo Sabre?

Snuggerud: The locker room. My best memories are the Dave Andreychuks, the Alex Mogilnys, the Mike Ramseys, the Clint Malarchuks. Those guys made my experience so great. I was a huge fan of Rick Dudley, the coach at the time, because he was so competitive. I loved that environment, and wanting to win was so important to me. When you step into sport, you're there to try to win. ... John Tortorella was an assistant, and he taught me, it's winning, and that made it really fun for me. It was the locker room, being around people of the same like-minded, who were very nice, but it when came to sport, they wanted to win.

TBN: Time to do some serious journalism here. What was your favorite place for wings in Buffalo?

Snuggerud: The Libation Station in Amherst, and Rootie's. And give me traditional buffalo wings with blue cheese. That was the best!