Training helps Gaustad realize dreams

Ex-Winter Hawk keeps his edge with offseason workouts

By Jason Vondersmith

The Portland Tribune, Jul 27, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

DAVE SANFORD / Getty Images

Paul Gaustad has made it to the NHL Eastern Conference finals with the Buffalo Sabres the past two seasons.

Paul Gaustad flops down on the floor to do some core exercises and allows himself to reflect briefly on his days playing hockey for the Portland Winter Hawks and living at home in Beaverton.

“Man, was I broke back then,” he says. “I was a kid, just grinding. It was fun, though. Living the dream.”

Gaustad departed the Winter Hawks in 2002 for pro hockey and now makes an NHL salary with Buffalo. He’s not hurting for money. And he’s not hurting much anymore physically, after dealing with a near career-ending injury during his second season with the Sabres.

Gaustad suffered a torn tendon in his left ankle from his own skate in a Feb. 7 game against Ottawa. The injury kept him out for three months.

He returned to help the Sabres dispose of the New York Rangers in the NHL playoffs, but Ottawa beat Buffalo in five games in the Eastern Conference finals – the second year in a row Buffalo came up one step short of playing in the Stanley Cup finals.

The ankle won’t be completely healed for another seven months, he says.

“It’s a 12-month injury and rehabilitation,” says Gaustad, who played in seven playoff games, notching one assist. “It’s tight, and I can feel it stretch on the tendon.”

Gaustad says doctors had never seen an injury like it before. Usually, he says, the tendon only tears when the ankle breaks. But it could have been worse. A lot worse. Had the skate hit at a slightly different spot, Gaustad’s career could have been over.

“It missed the blood vessel and the main nerve and sliced the tendon,” he says, showing off the S-shaped scar.

Gym helps build athleticism

Gaustad, a 25-year-old Beaverton High grad, returns to the Portland area every summer.

He owns a condominium in Beaverton – although he plans to sell it and buy another one in downtown Portland – and he owns a home in Buffalo. His brother, B.J. Gaustad, a pro player himself, lives close to him. Their parents have moved and live in Vancouver, Wash. The boys each plan to settle here after their hockey careers end.

The Gaustads and several former Winter Hawks train at Going Vertical, a sports-specific gym in Tigard. Gaustad credits the work under trainer Kyle Lunde the past five years with helping him improve his skating ability, speed, quickness and agility.

Gaustad wakes up at 4:30 a.m., goes through a skate session and then does a Going Vertical workout. He powers through on the 40-degree monster treadmill, does exercises with resistance cords, hops over 42-inch hurdles and works the core incessantly.

These days, it’s about injury prevention, too.

“We’re doing basic ankle strengthening and balance stuff,” Lunde says. “He’s actually doing really well. He came out here at about 90 percent (healthy), and now he’s 98 percent or so.”

As for Gaustad’s athleticism, “I see a big difference,” Lunde adds. “He’s a lot more in control of his body. He’s much more aware of what his body can do. He has better balance. And what’s gone through the roof is his speed.”

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