Kyle Rau has been around the block. He’s a nine year AHL veteran, a six year NHL veteran, and has played in San Antonio, Florida, Portland, Springfield, Minnesota, Iowa and Abbotsford before coming to San Jose mid-season. With six points in his first ten games with the Barracuda, he seems to be fitting in well. I sat down with Rau over Zoom to discuss his long career, why he made the move to the Bay Area, and what it’s like being in your thirties and playing on a young team.
State Of Hockey
Rau’s scouting report on himself is much like his style of play: simple. He wants Barracuda fans who aren’t familiar with him to see “someone who works hard, cares, tries to win, and makes his teammates better.” In a team filled with players under 25, Rau’s bringing leadership to Tech CU Arena.
Rau is Minnesota born and bred, playing high school hockey in Eden Prairie before spending four years with the Golden Gophers at the University of Minnesota. He was drafted by Florida, but was lucky enough to play for the Wild organisation later in his career for five seasons.
I always wanted to play there. Once they offered me a spot, it was an easy decision. I toured around a little bit to make sure I was making the right choice, but I always went back to Minnesota.
Rau on his decision to play college hockey at the University of Minnesota
Rau is 18th all time in Gophers history for scoring, with 164 points, and is one of three players in the prestigious “150 Club” to play his full college career after the year 2000. Since he graduated, no player has come close to beating his points total. In addition, he wore the C for both his junior and senior years, before turning pro in 2015.
Journeyman
Rau was a relatively late bloomer to realising the NHL was a serious option for him, not considering it until his final years of high school. He talks about noticing the NHL scouts coming to watch his games, and before he knew it, he was talking to teams and attending the draft, where he went 91st overall to the Florida Panthers. College flew by, and then he was making his debut for the San Antonio Rampage, Florida’s AHL affiliate.
Since then, it’s been nine years and eight cities, including his home town, before landing in San Jose in December of last year. So where was his favourite?
They all have things that make them awesome, but playing at home [Minnesota] is really hard to beat. I really like it here [San Jose] though.
Rau on his favourite city to play in
Last season, Rau was with the Abbotsford Canucks. Before that, he spent five winters between Minnesota and Des Moines, Iowa. Needless to say, he’s enjoying the milder weather in San Jose, where winters rarely drop below fifty degrees.
Abbotsford [last year] was rainy and cloudy, so to be in San Jose, where it’s 60 and sunny in January is pretty fantastic.
Rau is enjoying the Bay Area weather
Rau has only recently had his car driven to him, so he hasn’t been able to explore much, but with Santa Cruz only thirty minutes away, and San Francisco less than an hour, he’s looking forward to exploring more on his days off, and especially getting to see the ocean.
Why San Jose?
But the weather and the scenery weren’t why Rau decided to come to San Jose. On paper, it doesn’t seem like an ideal landing place. The Barracuda are second to last in their division, and at the time of writing this article, are in the middle of losing their third straight game to the Ontario Reign. But after talks with Joe Will [Barracuda GM], and mulling it over, it seemed like a good fit for Rau, who wasn’t ready to be done playing professional hockey.
It just seemed like a good fit. Great group of guys. Happy with my choice so far.
Rau on signing with the Barracuda
The nature of the AHL is that lines rarely stay together. Rau has been playing exclusively in the top six, but his linemates have been different sometimes every game. He’s mostly been playing with the young guns; Danil Gushchin, Tristen Robins, Thomas Bordeleau and Ozzy Wiesblatt, and rather than them making him feel old (Rau is almost a decade older than some of them), they seem to be keeping him young at heart.
It’s been fun. They’re obviously all really good players, they’re fun to play with. They think the game in really different ways. Now I’m just trying to build chemistry with them.
Rau on his young linemates
Rau doesn’t have any specific goals for the rest of this season; he’s just trying to have fun: “The older you get, the more you appreciate the little things, like getting to go to the rink every day”. He’s currently on pace for a thirty-plus point season, and though he’s still waiting for his first goal in steel and teal, he’s already making an impact on the ice.
