When Noel Acciari absorbed a ferocious hit from the Ottawa Senators’ Tyler Kleven on Dec. 14, Blake Lizotte took exception.
The 6-foot-5, 221-pound Kleven had more than a leg up on the Penguins’ Lizotte — who is listed at just 5-foot-9, 173 pounds — but still readied himself for a rumble. Lizotte held his own in the scuffle yet was ultimately charged with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty as a result of standing up for Acciari.
Lizotte, a left-shot forward, later chipped in his seventh goal of the season in a contest the Penguins lost in overtime. The sequence — and the game — perfectly encapsulated the value of Lizotte, whom the Penguins brought aboard in July on a two-year contract.
It’s the only way Lizotte, who recently joked to the Post-Gazette that he’s still waiting for his growth spurt, knows how to play. Relative to the rest of the Penguins’ roster, it’s also rather unique.
“Being a smaller guy, since I’ve always been small, you have to compete maybe a little harder to win battles than other guys,” Lizotte said. “I think I learned at a young age if you want to be a good player and make a difference, you have to compete.
“So, yeah, I’ve always kind of had that aggressive, in-your-face style.”
That approach to the game has worked out quite well for Lizotte. The odds were never in his favor to make it this far, after all.
Lizotte, 27, wasn’t raised in the biggest city, didn’t attend the most prestigious high school and was never mistaken for the tallest player on any team he played for. Despite hardships on and off the ice, Lizotte has achieved his lifelong dream of not only making it to the NHL, but sticking.
Born in a small town
Lizotte was born in Lindstrom, Minn., a small town of less than 5,000 people about 30 miles northeast of the state’s capital, St. Paul. Lindstrom is best known for having a water tower shaped like a coffee pot, and, as Lizotte described, it’s the kind of town where everyone at least knows of one another.
Hockey was the sport Lizotte gravitated toward the most as a kid, and for good reason. His father, Mike, was a youth hockey coach in the Lindstrom area in addition to a school teacher, which was also the occupation of Lizotte’s mother, Lisa.
Corey McKinnon — one of Lizotte’s youth coaches — met Mike for the first time after taking over the hockey program at Chisago Lakes High School (Minn.) in 2004. Lizotte was only seven or eight at the time, but the coach’s kid immediately impressed McKinnon, even in grade school.
“There are always talented kids who separate themselves in hockey…but at such a young age, you wonder, ‘OK, how much of this is truly just because the kid’s a little more talented, or might fizzle out later on in life?’” McKinnon said. “Blake not only had the offensive ability, but one of the greatest intangibles that he had early and all throughout his life was his compete level.
“Everything he did, he did it to the highest degree that he possibly could. He tried to do it better than everybody else.”
Because he ran the high school program at the time, McKinnon worked out with Lizotte most frequently during the summer. Lizotte, who was also slighter than many of his teammates at the youth levels, was a willing participant for the most redundant of tasks.
Lizotte would bend his knees lower on defense than any other kid simply because a coach told him to. And whenever Lizotte’s workouts with McKinnon wrapped up, he’d head back home for further instruction.
“Hockey was always on at their house,” McKinnon said. “It’s kind of a staple that we have in our own home, too, that when you’re around the game so much, and you love it so much that if you’re not playing it, you’re watching it. If you’re not watching it, you’re talking about it.”
Lizotte played the sport plenty, though, and spent two years brilliantly doing so for Chisago Lakes High School while being homeschooled. After a couple of seasons averaging over a point per game at the prep level and playing bigger than his build, Lizotte’s career was on the verge of catapulting.
Trying time
Between his sophomore and junior years of high school, Lizotte came across Marty Murray’s radar. Murray was and remains both the head coach and general manager of the Minot Minotauros, a junior hockey team of the North American Hockey League based in the northwest corner of North Dakota.
Murray invited Lizotte to a tryout in Minot that summer, an offer the former eagerly accepted, considering he usually put his hockey gear away for the warm months.
“I was just thinking ‘Here’s a great summer hockey tournament, I get to play some games in the summer, this will be great,’” Lizotte recalled.
Lizotte impressed enough with his enthusiastic demeanor and play to crack the Minotauros’ team, and he decided to leave home. It was an especially tough choice considering what had transpired only a few years prior.
Lizotte’s father, Mike, died at just 45 years old in August 2012 from complications of epilepsy. His death was unexpected, and it left a 14-year-old Lizotte without one of the most influential presences in his life.
“Looking back, it was obviously one of the biggest surprises you can get,” Lizotte said. “Something happened overnight [and] your life flips upside down.”
As he does today, Lizotte leaned on his faith and friends to continue on in Mike’s absence. Meanwhile, his mom, Lisa, suddenly became a single mom to three boys while continuing to work at the school. She set an example for her kids by demonstrating that they would all be OK — together as a family.
“Her navigating life without my dad was tough, but she did an unbelievable job giving us all the love and support we needed,” Lizotte said. “Any opportunities that she could give us, she did everything she could to make that happen.
“I’m forever grateful [to] my mom for the sacrifices she made to give us — me and my two brothers — everything we needed.”
Today, Lizotte doesn’t shy away from both talking about and honoring Mike, whose death gave him a further appreciation for his family members and loved ones.
Lizotte has served as a mentor for McKinnon’s kids, a gesture that hasn’t been lost on the latter, considering his close relationship with Mike. At the time of Mike’s death, McKinnon considered him his best friend in life, as close as any family member.
“The impact that Mike has had stretches so far beyond the game,” McKinnon said, “that the game has only been a tool by which Blake has been able to allow that legacy to live on.”
Roughly two years after his father’s death, Lizotte took those initial steps to advance his hockey career and didn’t avoid the inevitable challenges accompanying his small stature. During that season with the Minotauros, Lizotte estimated he was only about 5-foot-3 and a “soaking wet” 130 pounds while playing against 21-year-old men.
“When he first got to Minot, the thought there was he might do a before-and-after and come home for high school. And Blake had other plans,” McKinnon said. “He got up, and he didn’t just go up there to kind of learn the ropes and play a role.
“Blake asserted his game in the NAHL.”
Collegiate climb
Instead of returning to Chisago Lakes High, Lizotte spent the next two seasons with the Fargo Force, another junior team in the United States Hockey League. Prior to his first of two campaigns with the Force, Lizotte was recruited by St. Cloud State, one of the many collegiate powerhouses in Minnesota.
Despite standing out with his abilities to compete with full-on adults for pucks and never backing down from physical opponents, Lizotte went undrafted following each season of junior hockey. Not hearing his name called was out of Lizotte’s control, and after losing his dad as a teenager, he wasn’t going to let that roadblock trip him up too much.
“At the end of the day, really, [the] only important things are your family and who’s around you and who you love,” Lizotte said. “I think it really changes your mindset going through something like that.”
So, Lizotte made good on his commitment and enrolled at St. Cloud State in the fall of 2017. He expected to be with the Huskies for at least the next three years, possibly four, as a high-energy guy who hoped to improve steadily on the offensive end.
But under coaches Bob Motzko’s and then Brett Larson’s direction, Lizotte’s skills evolved quicker than he could have anticipated while retaining his trademark competitive fire across myriad roles.
“I think it’s a school that allows you to become the player you want to be,” Lizotte said of St. Cloud State. “With all of their training staff — and it sounds corny — but you basically have the key to the rink, go skate when you want.
“So, I spent a lot of time on the ice and in the weight room there and really perfected my craft.”
After helping the Huskies to back-to-back conference titles in the regular season, the undrafted Lizotte had a good deal of leverage and had become a somewhat desirable commodity. Unlike many of his peers, Lizotte wasn’t beholden to a team with his draft rights, so he had the freedom to sign with whichever team he preferred once St. Cloud State’s 2018-19 season ended.
The Los Angeles Kings were in the midst of a rebuild of sorts, and general manager Rob Blake was interested in bringing aboard lively players with an edge. Lizotte fit the bill, and Blake offered him an opportunity to promptly see playing time.
“He was always the kid who was going to play bigger than who he was,” McKinnon said, “and then bring it every single time he touched the ice.”
Sufficiently convinced, Lizotte signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Kings on Apr. 2 — just three days after his final game with the Huskies.
Four more days after inking that inaugural pro deal, Lizotte made his NHL debut with Los Angeles and bypassed the American Hockey League entirely. Lizotte recognizes that, externally, his ascent may have appeared quite rapid given his path — but he had an abundance of confidence in himself internally.
“I knew I could play at that level, and I worked so hard that I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way,” Lizotte said. “You do have to get bounces. There’s so many good players around the world that you have to be really good, and you have to get lucky to kind of get your foot in the door at the right time and get someone to believe in you.
“So, I think the GM in L.A., Rob Blake, saw something, and [I] will forever be grateful for him, for the opportunity he gave me to kind of grow and mature as a player in the organization.”
Finally settling in
Lizotte solidified himself as an NHL regular while the Kings were in transition as a franchise, appearing in the majority of Los Angeles’ games over the next five seasons. He twice earned contract extensions but couldn’t secure a third.
Lizotte was a pending restricted free agent last summer, and the Kings opted not to extend him a qualifying offer.
“It’s a mixed bag of emotions. Obviously, spending that much time there, I loved it,” Lizotte said. “It’s a great organization. It was a mixed bag. Sad leaving some good people, good friends in the organization.
“On the other hand, it was an opportunity to come to a place like Pittsburgh and maybe get some more [opportunities] and have a different scene. That can do a lot for players sometimes.”
Settling in wasn’t in store for Lizotte initially, though. Instead, he was twice sidelined for extended stints with concussions due to errant pucks striking him in the face, including one courtesy of Kris Letang in the preseason while Lizotte was sitting on the bench.
Lizotte made his Penguins debut on Halloween, only to go down with another concussion two weeks later.
“That definitely was not something you can foresee,” Lizotte said, “but at the end of the day, that’s life, and things happen. You got to stay positive.”
It’s a motto of Lizotte’s life due in part to his family’s tragedy and one that’s paid dividends. Since returning to coach Mike Sullivan’s lineup for good on Nov. 27, Lizotte has centered and shored up the Penguins’ fourth line alongside wings Noel Acciari and Matt Nieto.
His style of play has quickly earned the respect of teammates like Cody Glass, who frequently squared off against Lizotte when he was with the Vegas Golden Knights and Nashville Predators. Glazz called Lizotte both a “rat” and a “waterbug,” each a nod to the pesky style that’s made him a quick locker room favorite.
“It’s funny just watching him before games ‘cause he’s so chill, keeps it lowkey,” Glass said. “You’d never expect it. He’s so energetic on the ice. I think he saves it all for the game.”
Not to mention, Lizotte has demonstrated an offensive touch by chipping in six goals and four assists over his last 13 games. With eight goals on the season, Lizotte is on track to set a new career-high and has already exceeded his total from a year ago while providing some steady, and oftentimes feisty, defense.
Opponents have netted only seven goals at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick, whenever Lizotte’s been on the ice spending his time bruising teams’ top offensive players.
“I think he’s very much lived up to what our expectation is,” Sullivan said recently. “The offensive side of it has been a pleasant surprise for us. I don’t think we expected him to produce as much offensively as he has. And if he can continue to do that, that’s a huge bonus for us.”
Suffice to say, Lizotte has come a long way from being doubted because of his stature, where he was raised or who he played for. That path was littered with obstacles, too, the kind that would have prompted many others to throw in the towel much earlier.
Evidently, that’s not Blake Lizotte.
“Blake makes resilience look easy,” McKinnon said. “It’s not easy, but that’s how he’s really become so strong inside that the outside forces that work against you — size, smaller school, loss of a father — all those things, Blake has really internalized them to say OK, I’m going to continue to push forward.’”
First Published: December 26, 2024, 3:50 p.m.
