Marian Gaborik scored the first goal in Minnesota Wild history, put five past the Rangers in one night, and led the 2014 playoffs in goals on the way to the Stanley Cup with Los Angeles. He played his last NHL game in 2018 and went home to Slovakia. His life there has taken him onto stages most hockey players never stand on.
What is Marian Gaborik doing now?
Marian Gaborik runs a hockey business with his family in his hometown of Trencin and has become a familiar face on Slovak television and podcasts. The family’s MG Rink, which opened in 2005 and was paid for with his early NHL earnings, turned 20 in 2025, SME Sportnet reported. The complex now includes a hotel, a restaurant overlooking the ice and a gym, employs 24 people and is managed day-to-day by his older brother Branislav.
Gaborik himself takes part in the summer hockey school, which draws about 500 children a year from as far away as Australia, Mexico and Japan. One of them, in 2012, was a seven-year-old Dalibor Dvorsky, who has since reached the NHL with the St. Louis Blues.
| Marian Gaborik: then and now | |
|---|---|
| Known for | First goal in Wild history, 2014 Stanley Cup with Los Angeles |
| Position | Right wing, shoots left |
| Born | 14 February 1982, Trencin, Czechoslovakia |
| Drafted | 2000, first round, third overall, Minnesota Wild |
| NHL career | 17 seasons, 1,035 games, 407 goals, five teams |
| Last NHL season | 2017-18, Los Angeles Kings and Ottawa Senators |
| Current role | MG Rink and hockey school in Trencin, podcast host, as of 2025 |
| Slovak name | Marián Gáborík |
He also talks for a living. Since October 2019 he has co-hosted the Slovak podcast Boris a Brambor with former NHL defenceman Boris Valabik, “Brambor” being his own nickname. The show had passed 180 episodes by late 2025. He has worked as a television analyst during international tournaments, and the Slovak site Startitup lists a cameo in the medical drama Nemocnica.
Is Marian Gaborik married?
Yes. Marian Gaborik is married to Ivana Gaborik, a professional dancer, and the two competed together in season 8 of the Slovak version of Let’s Dance on the Markiza channel in spring 2023. He agreed to take part on one condition, he told Markiza before the season: that his partner would be his wife rather than a dancer he did not know. The couple was eliminated on 30 April 2023.
Is Marian Gaborik a Hall of Famer?
No. Marian Gaborik has not been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and was not in the 2026 class. He is not in the IIHF Hall of Fame either. His case rests on 407 goals, a Stanley Cup and a scoring peak that included three 40-goal seasons, in 2007-08 with Minnesota and in 2009-10 and 2011-12 with the Rangers.
He held the Wild’s franchise record for goals, 219, until Kirill Kaprizov passed it during the 2025-26 season. When the Wild celebrated their 25th anniversary in October 2025, Gaborik came back for it and predicted that Kaprizov would break all the records, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
Marian Gaborik’s Stanley Cup and his five-goal night
Marian Gaborik was the Minnesota Wild’s first draft pick, taken third overall in 2000, and he scored the first goal in franchise history on 6 October 2000, according to LA Kings Insider. On 20 December 2007, he scored five goals in one game against the New York Rangers, the team he signed with as a free agent in 2009.
His Stanley Cup came late. Columbus traded him to Los Angeles in March 2014, and he scored 14 goals in 26 playoff games, more than anyone else that spring, as the Kings won the Cup. He played parts of five seasons in Los Angeles before a trade to Ottawa in February 2018, and he officially announced his retirement in November 2021.
Marian Gaborik’s NHL stats
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000-01 | Minnesota | 71 | 18 | 18 | 36 |
| 2001-02 | Minnesota | 78 | 30 | 37 | 67 |
| 2002-03 | Minnesota | 81 | 30 | 35 | 65 |
| 2003-04 | Minnesota | 65 | 18 | 22 | 40 |
| 2005-06 | Minnesota | 65 | 38 | 28 | 66 |
| 2006-07 | Minnesota | 48 | 30 | 27 | 57 |
| 2007-08 | Minnesota | 77 | 42 | 41 | 83 |
| 2008-09 | Minnesota | 17 | 13 | 10 | 23 |
| 2009-10 | NY Rangers | 76 | 42 | 44 | 86 |
| 2010-11 | NY Rangers | 62 | 22 | 26 | 48 |
| 2011-12 | NY Rangers | 82 | 41 | 35 | 76 |
| 2012-13 | NY Rangers and Columbus | 47 | 12 | 15 | 27 |
| 2013-14 | Columbus and Los Angeles | 41 | 11 | 19 | 30 |
| 2014-15 | Los Angeles | 69 | 27 | 20 | 47 |
| 2015-16 | Los Angeles | 54 | 12 | 10 | 22 |
| 2016-17 | Los Angeles | 56 | 10 | 11 | 21 |
| 2017-18 | Los Angeles and Ottawa | 46 | 11 | 10 | 21 |
| Total | 1,035 | 407 | 408 | 815 |
Figures are from Hockey-Reference.
Marian Gaborik scored 32 goals in 84 NHL playoff games, and 14 of them, 44 percent, came in the single spring of 2014. The other 18 were spread across six different postseasons.
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