Sergei Zholtok

On Saturday night, the Minnesota Wild organization will honor the memory of Sergei Zholtok shortly before the team hosts the Nashville Predators. The ceremony was scheduled for this game because it features the last two National Hockey League teams that Zholtok played for prior to his passing away just over one year ago.
As a Wild employee who has been with the organization since 2001, I have never looked forward to a game more than this upcoming contest with the Predators. I was an intern the same year that Zholtok arrived, and I didn’t have extensive contact with him. I won’t pretend that I knew him well or shared any profound moments with him like many of his teammates did. But I did talk to him on a number of occasions for various work projects, including feature stories for the Minnesota Wild game program.…