GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — For the fourth time in the history of the Green Bay Gamblers, the area’s USHL team, a former player has been named to an Olympic roster.
He will be the only hockey player at the college level to make it to the games in Milan.
“I wanted to be a goalie since I was two years old,” says Adam Gajan, a Slovakian hockey player with ties to Green Bay.
Gajan manned the pipes for the Green Bay Gamblers team for a few games in the 2022-23 season, then for the full 2023-24 season.
“The second year in Green Bay, I feel like I had a great start of the season,” Gajan says, thinking back to his time in the Frozen Tundra.
During both seasons with the Gamblers, Gajan was selected to play at the World Juniors tournament, representing his home country of Slovakia. The tournament is filled with top hockey prospects from around the world, all of them hoping to one day make a professional name for themselves.
In both 2023 and 2024, the Slovakian World Junior team finished in the quarterfinals of the tournament. Gajan made key saves during both tournaments
After the loss in 2024, Gajan admits that his return to the Gamblers wasn’t as smooth as he would have liked.
“I feel like I was kind of struggling, and maybe wasn’t always enjoying going to the rink, which was really new for me. So I feel like, yeah, for sure not my best year, but, you know, you can’t be great every year, right?”
Gajan wrapped up his time with the Gamblers with a record of 28 and 13. Although he feels he struggled, he’s grateful for the experience.
“I feel like that year I was dealing with a lot of stuff, maybe not always got help I needed, but I feel like it helped me prepare me for the next years,” he adds.
Now, Gajan is the starting goalie at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and is a prospect for the Chicago Blackhawks. But as just a sophomore in college, he’s set to be an Olympian, again representing Slovakia.
“I mean, it’s huge opportunity to represent my country at, you know, like, 21 years old, like it’s insane,” he says.
In the NHL, there are no Slovakian-born goalies. Gajan’s skills as a junior league and collegiate athlete earned him a spot on the Olympic roster with two other professional goalies, one in the European league and one in the AHL, a step below the NHL.
“I mean, if you told me four years ago when we won bronze medal at the Olympics that I [would] be there in four years, I mean, they’ll be probably crazy,” he says, remembering Slovakia’s key Olympic performance against Sweden in Beijing in 2022 to clinch their spot on the podium.
Whether he sees any ice time in Milan is yet to be seen, but he says he is prepared for any scenario. It’s an experience the former Gambler is ready to take in.
“Just being around those guys who’ve been playing professionally for so long will for sure help me a lot, and, you know, seeing the best players in the world play against each other. So yeah, I think it’ll be, you know, great experience for me. And I will learn so much from it.”
Although he’s reaching his Olympic dream earlier than most, he says he still has many goals and dreams as a hockey player.
Gajan hopes to bring home an NCAA championship with his team at Minnesota-Duluth, and is hopeful to play in the NHL. He was drafted by the Blackhawks in 2023.
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