Grimaldi Excels In New Role With Gulls
Nov 10, 2022By Paige Burnell/SanDiegoGulls.com
When Rocco Grimaldi signed a one-year contract with San Diego Gulls on Oct. 15, there was no ambiguity on either side about what his role would entail.
The Gulls and Grimaldi knew his priority in San Diego - contribute on both ends of the ice. Through the his first 10 games of the season, the right wing continues to hold up his end of the bargain. In the team’s most recent game against the Henderson Silver Knights on Nov. 8, he helped San Diego to a 7-0 victory with a four-point effort (1-3=4).
The Rossmoor, California native is averaging over point-per-game with 4-9=13 points in his eighth professional season so far, while ranking first on the Gulls in points, tying for the team lead in goals and ranking second in assists.
"I mean, that’s just kind of what I expect out of myself," Grimaldi said. "It’s what the team expects from me, they expect me to produce and that’s kind of what my role is supposed to be. I’m supposed to score big goals and make plays and be good defensively."
However, Grimaldi’s role evolved into something more the minute he stepped into a young Gulls locker room filled with 18 players aged 25-years-old or younger.
The 29-year-old is the second oldest player on the team (one year younger than center Sam Carrick) and after seven full professional seasons of gaining years of experience at both the American Hockey League and National Hockey League levels, Grimaldi has the ability to be a multi-dimensional player who can lead on and off the ice.
"This is the youngest team I’ve ever been on, for sure," Grimaldi said. "When I was a rookie, we had five guys that were 34, so this is very unique. We had a lot of 30-year-olds on the team last year, so this is definitely a different role for me, but it’s nice to help some guys."
Grimaldi recently reached two significant professional milestones, playing in his 500th professional game on Oct. 29 against the Abbotsford Canucks and his 300th AHL game on Nov. 5 against the Milwaukee Admirals.
He collected 30-37=67 points in 203 NHL games split over seven seasons with the Florida Panthers (2014-16), Colorado Avalanche (2016-18) and Nashville Predators (2018-22). The veteran also recorded 106-118=224 points in 291 games while with the AHL affiliates of those clubs, which included the San Antonio Rampage, Portland Pirates and Admirals over those years.
"I’ve probably been through a lot of different things that some guys haven’t," Grimaldi said. "I’ve played in both leagues (AHL and NHL) quite a bit so I have some experience and I want to show those guys that. I think the biggest things for me is when you come from college and juniors is that you don’t realize how long the season is.
"Sometimes, you kind of get stuck in a five-or-10-game segment if you’re playing really good or really bad, you can get too high or too low and you’ve got to realize that that’s only like an eighth of the season, there’s still a lot more. It doesn’t matter how you played last game, it just matters about the next game so it’s just about having a short memory."
Grimaldi’s short memory and his wisdom will be even more important to the Gulls as the team works to establish sustainable success early in the season.
"We haven’t gone on a streak either way," Grimaldi said. "I think we had three losses in a row, but a couple of those losses we played well. I wouldn’t say that I’m extremely happy with where we’re at yet because I haven’t seen it consistently from one, two, three, four games in a row - whether you win or not - so that’s something we’ve got to work on for sure."
From Grimaldi’s perspective, this concept applies evenly to every player and situation, whether it be a losing streak or a shutout.
"I’ve been doing my job thus far and obviously, I had other chances that I haven’t scored and maybe that could’ve changed once of the games that we could’ve won or at least made it to overtime," Grimaldi said. "I still have work to do, I still have to get better and obviously, always hungry for more.
"We’re still trying to figure out some stuff and hopefully, we can just keep getting better as we go."
Lightning Round of Questions:
Favorite color: Black
Favorite movie: Never Back Down
Actor that would play him in a movie: Mark Wahlberg- he’s short. Actually, probably Nick Jonas. He’s an actor now, right? My wife will like that.
Favorite holiday: Christmas
Favorite food: pasta
Favorite candy: Not a big candy guy.
If he could only have one meal for the rest of his life: Bread, bread and butter. You’d get sick of everything else.
Favorite animal: Monkey
If he were an animal, which one would he be: I’d be a monkey. I’m a clown so that’s for sure me.
Most embarrassing song on his playlist: I’m actually not embarrassed by it- I like Harry Styles, I like the Jonas Brothers and I could care less. That’s just me. I have them play it in the locker room too.
Three emojis he uses the most frequently: The laughing, crying thing, the dude that just has the big smile and thumbs up.
Biggest irrational fear: I don’t like snakes
Celebrity crush: Gal Gadot
Biggest pet peeve: Honestly, I’m very routine and very organized, and I hate when people mess with my routine. Here’s one: Say a meeting supposed to be at a certain time and they bump it up 15 minutes, it drives me nuts.