Wild Alumnus Kaszupski “Stays in the Game” in Gaming Industry
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Wenatchee Wild alumnus Joe Kaszupski has always enjoyed being involved in the game…growing up in the Las Vegas area, that game was hockey. Today, the action he’s focused on is in casinos across the Pacific Northwest.
The game – hockey, that is – was far from foreign to Kaszupski growing up in the late 1990s and 2000s, though Nevada would not get a National Hockey League team until 2017. The city had hosted a legendary exhibition game in the Caesars Palace parking lot in 1991 that featured goals from Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri, and once counted the International Hockey League’s Las Vegas Thunder and ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers among its home teams. Since ice was harder to come by in Las Vegas then, Kaszupski instead fell in love with the sport outdoors on dry land.
“I grew up in Henderson (just outside of Las Vegas), and honestly started playing roller hockey at a really young age,” said Kaszupski. “I played youth hockey here in Vegas until about 16s. I remember going to Thunder games at a pretty young age, and then we grew up with the Wranglers in town. Once I got older, I got to skate with some of those guys in the summertime.”
Eventually, staying in Las Vegas and continuing his development at home was no longer an option – after playing in the AAA ranks with the North American Prospects Hockey League’s Nevada Stars and Las Vegas Storm 16-and-Under teams, he joined the Los Angeles Jr. Kings 18U team in search of a new challenge.
That challenge opened up his eyes – and quite a few doors – to junior hockey opportunities. The 2011-12 Jr. Kings team made a run to the USA Hockey national title game, before falling by a goal to Shattuck-St. Mary’s on the final day. The first door that opened in junior hockey led him to Bismarck, North Dakota, playing seven games for the Bobcats before returning to Los Angeles to finish the following season.
He would play the entire 2013-14 season with the Wild, suiting up for 46 games and notching 10 points, including six goals. Fortunately, he had a little help getting the lay of the land – former Stars and Storm teammate Joe Sullivan came to Wenatchee from the North American Hockey League’s Aberdeen Wings midway through the 2012-13 season and helped the Wild reach the Robertson Cup championship game.
The final stop before college was a little more far-flung – Kaszupski played 10 more games with the Wild in the fall of 2014 before shifting to the Kenai River Brown Bears for the bulk of his 20-year-old season. Playing 1,500 miles from Wenatchee and 2,300 miles from home in Las Vegas, life in southern Alaska is a little different – during the winter, the sun often rises after 10 a.m. and sets in mid-afternoon, and snowy and overcast days are common. He admits that one of his first purchases after arriving in October was a winter jacket, something rarely needed in southern Nevada.
“My body didn’t adjust too well – I ended up getting pneumonia and having to spend a couple of nights in the hospital,” said Kaszupski. “My doctors told me, ‘You have no Vitamin D in your body.’ It was a bit of a culture shock when I first got up there. My billet parents up there were an unbelievable family – I still talk to them, and they helped me adjust to the different lifestyle. It was a ton of fun living up there – just a different world, something I’d never been familiar with, but the people up there are amazing.”
Kaszupski’s first two years of college hockey weren’t just a new opportunity for him – they were a new opportunity for his entire program. His NCAA Division III commitment to Endicott College in Massachusetts took him to a program that was transitioning from club hockey to NCAA competition, beginning NCAA play just as Kaszupski arrived in 2015.
The Gulls made a strong first impression during his freshman season, winning 16 games and reaching the ECAC Northeast championship game. The following year, they won 24 games, including a first-round NCAA Tournament upset of fourth-ranked Hobart and a double-overtime battle in the regional final. After playing in 22 games and posting nine points as a freshman, though, Kaszupski only appeared in one contest as a sophomore, suiting up for an early-season matchup against Salve Regina University.
“I got labrum surgery that second year out there, so I didn’t finish the year, but the first season was awesome,” said Kaszupski. “We had a team of 30 freshmen, which was a blast. We were all on the same level, going into the experience together, and we had a really tight squad. Being in the Boston area is a ton of fun – it’s a great sports town.”
With hopes of spending more time with family, Kaszupski made the move back home, and immediately caught on with a UNLV team beginning a memorable climb of its own. The arrival of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights and the opening of their City National Arena practice facility in 2017 allowed the Skatin’ Rebels to climb to ACHA Division I, the top level of collegiate club hockey in the United States. Since then, the program has continued its climb, upsetting defending NCAA champion Denver in December of 2024 on the way to its first ACHA national championship last spring.
The Rebels quickly took advantage of their new opportunity, and Kaszupski enjoyed the opportunity to play in front of hometown friends and family for the first time since high school. UNLV spent time in the top 10 during both of Kaszupski’s seasons in the program and took the 13th seed into the national tournament both years. Unfortunately, both 13th seeds proved unlucky, with losses to fourth-seeded Ohio University in both the 2018 and 2019 brackets.
Kaszupski graduated from UNLV with a political science degree, but quickly learned that he wanted to take his career in a new direction coming out of college. A season with the Golden Knights as a part-time marketing coordinator and several years in the real estate field led him to his current position with Bluberi Gaming, serving the slot-machine vendor as an account executive for casinos in a four-state territory made much more familiar by his time with the Wild.
As for hockey, it has quickly become second nature for sports fans in Las Vegas – in fact, no team has seen the Stanley Cup awarded on its home ice more often over the last nine years than Vegas, and the Golden Knights won one of those Cups for themselves in 2023. Even though hockey is no longer Kaszupski’s “day job,” he is still as interested in – and excited about – the sport in his hometown as ever.
“I was actually in Europe for one of my best friend’s weddings (during last month’s Stanley Cup Final), and the boys and I were staying up until 3 a.m. to watch the games,” said Kaszupski, who is newly-engaged himself. “It was an unbelievable Final – obviously, we would have loved a different outcome, but I can’t complain. I didn’t think we’d even have a team growing up, so the fact that we’ve done as well as we have and we’ve gotten a Cup, I’ve got no complaints.”
