Baggot: Weissbach pauses journey to NHL for full Badger experience
May 06, 2021 | Men's Hockey, Andy Baggot
UW senior will celebrate graduation this week before starting professional career
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BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Linus Weissbach has spent his entire adult life furiously chasing a singular dream, so why would he tap the brakes just as he was pulling up alongside it?
What could be so important that Weissbach would purposely slow his journey to the NHL?
The answer says a lot about Weissbach and the priorities he's come to embrace during his time as a student-athlete with the Wisconsin men's hockey program.
When the Badgers lost to Bemidji State in the opening round of the NCAA tournament, a 6-3 decision March 26 that brought his decorated four-year college career to an end, Weissbach signed an entry-level contract with the Buffalo Sabres, the NHL club that selected him in the seventh round of the 2017 entry draft.
But instead of leaving Madison immediately to play with one of Buffalo's minor-league affiliates, a common route for many of his peers because of the exposure it provides, Weissbach did something out of the ordinary. He stayed in town to finish up all his academic commitments, spend leisure time with his teammates and friends, and take part in commencement exercises.
In other words, he hit the proverbial tape on another phase of his career that began in his native Sweden, continued through an important stop in Nebraska, and will end May 8 with him donning mortarboard and gown, clutching a diploma certifying his degrees in communication arts and Scandinavian studies as well as a certificate in sports communications.
"This was a big decision for me," Weissbach said. "Obviously the NHL is my dream. That's what I'm going to chase the next however many years.
"But, for me, I just couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that I was going to leave this place knowing that I'd not done the whole experience, just finishing it out. Because I knew that if I looked back at this experience in 10 years and said, 'Hey, we had a great year of hockey here and then I went and played — I didn't go to graduation, I didn't enjoy the last month (of school) with the guys, I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to all my friends and family that I've built here — then I didn't finish what I started."
Weissbach, a 23-year-old winger from Gothenburg, Sweden, was part of the first recruiting class assembled by UW coach Tony Granato and his staff for 2017-18.
After cutting his teeth in Sweden's junior program, Weissbach came to the United States as a 17-year-old to play juniors for the Tri-City Storm in the U.S. Hockey League. He got his high school diploma from Kearney (Neb.) High in 2017.
Weissbach, a tremendous skater and gifted playmaker, began his time with the Badgers being named to the Big Ten Conference all-freshman team and ended it as a second-team All-American after emerging as the No. 3 scorer in the nation with 41 points (12 goals, 29 assists) in 31 outings.
Weissbach finished with 114 career points (34 goals, 80 assists) in 127 games overall, ranking among the top 70 in scoring and the top 60 in assists all-time at UW.
Wisconsin was 62-67-12 overall during Weissbach's tenure, but it ended with the Badgers winning the Big Ten regular-season title — their first conference crown since 1999-2000 — and qualifying for the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2013-14.
"Just knowing that everything I put in the last four years to be able to graduate, to be able to get a chance to pursue my dream, I think it was a decision that I wanted to make sure that (Buffalo officials) understood as well as myself that I was comfortable enough to say what I wanted to do, which is to finish my career as a Badger," Weissbach said.
Sitting in an empty team meeting room at the Kohl Center, Weissbach became philosophical.
"It's going to hit you one day that you're not coming back to this place," he said. "I wanted to make sure I had my last fair share of fun — to enjoy this moment — because I put all my blood, sweat and tears into this school the last four years. It's going to mean a lot to me to stand there during the (commencement) ceremony and call myself a Badger graduate."
Weissbach was one of seven seniors on the UW roster this season. Two, center Ty Pelton-Byce and goaltender Robbie Beydoun, turned pro as undrafted free agents shortly after the season ended and joined their respective minor-league teams. Three others, center Tarek Baker and defensemen Josh Ess and Tyler Inamoto, elected to return for a fifth college season as part of a pandemic protocol outlined by the NCAA. The other, winger Jason Dhooghe, also graduated, telling Granato he planned to move on.
Granato appreciates the choice Weissbach made to delay his pro career. Granato played four years for the Badgers in the 1980s, but left to play for Team USA in the 1988 Winter Olympics and then turned pro for what would be a decorated 13-year career in the NHL. He left UW needing 16 credits for a degree.
When Granato was hired as Wisconsin coach in 2016, his contract stipulated that he obtain his degree by 2017. He succeeded, putting himself in position to embrace the path Weissbach has taken.
"He didn't want to run away from some of the most rewarding things with being a student-athlete," Granato said. "That's being here with your teammates as the school year winds down. Being here for graduation. Celebrating each other's accomplishments. That part of him is why he's special."
Granato said Weissbach became noticeably emotional as the season, and his college career, moved closer and closer to the finish line.
"He's fallen in love with being on this campus," Granato said. "He's a wonderful kid who gets what being a student-athlete is all about."
Weissbach was an academic All-Big Ten selection as a junior and senior. He admits it took him a while to buckle down with his school work.
"I was probably one of those guys that, the first two years, I was more taking it easy, taking the minimum number of required credits and trying to ease my way around it," he said.
Weissbach said academics became more important to him after he met with former academic advisor Mary Weaver-Klees after his sophomore year.
"She pretty much laid it out for me what I needed to do," he said. "At that time, it felt like a lot of work to do. But I realized that if I wanted to graduate from here, I was going to do it. The last two years I've been a lot more focused with school, making sure I get that part done."
One of the best parts about being a student-athlete at UW is that you instantly have a pool of great friends — teammates — to draw from. Not only do you practice, train, celebrate, agonize and travel together, you find yourself sharing classes and, in some cases, majors.
Weissbach took a broader approach. He said he made a point of cultivating relationships with civilian classmates — striking up conversations, sitting with them in lectures, sharing contact info — who had absolutely no idea this 5-foot-9, 170-pound kid with a ready, personable smile was an athlete. Those bonds endured through a pandemic that hindered one's ability to make new friends.
"I'm a much more open person today than I was four years ago," Weissbach said. "I've learned that there's so many other things to life than just being a hockey player at the rink.
"I've formed all these relationships and learned so much about myself and life in general."
If Weissbach could give one nugget of advice to new student-athletes, it would involve a sense of humanity.
"All through my career here, it's been important for me to have people treat me not based on the fact that I'm a hockey player, but that I'm a person and a student," he said.
"It's been important for me to explore, to socialize, to create relationships outside the rink. I'd tell the freshman to reach out, to not be afraid to go outside your comfort zone. Once you go outside your comfort zone at a school like this, there's so many opportunities and relationships that present themselves.
"That's the awesome part about being at a school like this. You form relationships that go beyond hockey and academics. It's one thing I've been cherishing a lot."
Weissbach grew up in a family of athletes. His father, Patric Nilsson, played pro soccer; his mother, Marie Weissbach, was a standout basketball player growing up; his younger brother, Oskar, plays pro floorball, a stick-and-ball sport similar to hockey that was invented and popularized in Sweden starting in the late 1960s.
Linus said he got a chance to go home every summer of his college career and that his mother and brother were able to visit him in Madison.
"I think my family would have liked to be here at some point this year, to experience it one last time and celebrate these things with me," he said wistfully, noting one of the harsher aspects of the global pandemic.
What do family and friends back home think about Weissbach's six-year odyssey in the United States? Are they curious? Are they enamored? What?
"I'd say more amazed," he said. "People back home always ask me what it's like and how does it look and how does it feel. It's so hard to put into words for people that haven't been here and seen what Wisconsin is all about. I try to show them videos and pictures, but I think it's one of those things that I value so highly for myself and what I've gotten here as an experience and as a hockey player. There's going to be endless stories for me to tell family and friends for the rest of my life."
Weissbach claims he's not a very emotional person, but that stance might be under siege.
"There's a lot of feelings once you get closer to graduation, closer to your last day as a Badger," he said. "It hasn't really hit me yet, but I'm just enjoying the last time.
"There's going to be some moment in the next couple weeks here where I'm going to feel like, 'Wow, this is really it.'
"I'm not the most emotional kind of guy, but once this all hits, it's definitely going to be emotional."
Regardless if Weissbach makes it to the NHL, Granato believes this "phenomenal kid" will cherish this journey.
"A proud moment for sure," he said.
