The Minnesota Wild’s off-season has been pretty quiet, but one trade with the Boston Bruins has brought a new, quirky player into the fold. Jakub Lauko was well-known during his stint in Boston for consistently talking about two things: green grapes and the Lord of the Rings series.
People have interviewed Lauko many times about his love of green grapes. He explained that when he started playing in Providence, R.I., he found that they didn’t provide fruit he enjoyed in the rinks back home, so he started to bring his own. Oranges and peaches were too sticky, but grapes were clean and plentiful, the perfect combination for a pre-game snack.
excited for 2 more years of being obsessed by grapes in New England🐻🍇 pic.twitter.com/56Rvem9HcT
— Jakub Lauko (@jakub_lauko) July 6, 2023
Now, he’s so synonymous with the fruit that he was called “Grapes” in the Bruins locker room. He even brings his bags of fruit to games just to make sure that there’s enough for him to munch on pre-game.
And while some players might resent being linked with something as silly as grapes, Lauko has shown his fun personality by leaning into it instead. Besides posing with bowls of grapes when he re-signed with Boston, he even dressed up as a bunch of grapes for Halloween last year.
Lord of the Rings
Even just a quick scroll through Lauko’s Twitter profile shows that he is a dedicated Lord of the Rings fan. It’s nice to have a hockey player be so open about a nerdy hobby, and we haven’t seen that in Minnesota since Brandon Duhaime showed off his Lego hobby during his injury-filled 2022-23 season. Lauko even has multiple Lord of the Rings-inspired tattoos.
At the beginning of the 2023-24 season, Lauko took a skate to the face and was lucky that it just missed his eye. He hilariously posted a picture of an Orc from one of the Lord of the Rings movies and claimed it was him. An actual picture of him didn’t look much better a few days later!
And don’t make the mistake of thinking that he’s simply a surface-level J.R.R. Tolkien fan. Judging by the tweet below, he’s even read deeper than just the original trilogy. The Silmarillion is a connected work to the Lord of the Rings stories that tells more of the history and mythology of Middle-Earth. Meaning it takes a dedicated fan to delve all the way into this book.
Anything Else?
There are a few more things about Lauko that Minnesota fans should know. Besides his Lord of the Rings tattoos, he’s also got tattoos inspired by Game of Thrones and a lovely tattoo dedicated to a fellow hockey-playing friend who died young from cancer.
…now you will play with me forever…🕊♥️ pic.twitter.com/QY2GLjtNP9
— Jakub Lauko (@jakub_lauko) July 25, 2020
And in case a fan would see these nerdy hobbies and love of fruit as a bad thing, know that Lauko is an incredibly physical player and isn’t afraid to drop the mitts. In fact, he fought former Wild players Brandon Duhaime and Connor Dewar just four days apart last season.
Overall, Lauko is bringing more identity to the Wild that they need. The Wild play a gritty, physically dominating game and Lauko should fit in well next season, both on and off the ice.
