"When you look at the No. 9 stall, you never have to worry about if he's going to play or not," said Wes Walz, Koivu's teammate from 2005-08. "You know how hard he's going to work, and you know what you're going to get.
"If you're going to be in a foxhole, you want [Koivu] on your side, because you know he's going to give you everything he has."
Wild coach Bruce Boudreau, who coached Saku Koivu during his time with the Anaheim Ducks, echoed those sentiments.
"[Mikko] doesn't do a lot of talking. He's not a loud guy, but he lets his actions work," Boudreau said. "He just works so hard, that it's hard not to get sort of tangled up into that, 'Hey, if our captain can work this hard, then I certainly have to be able to work that hard.'
"He wants Minnesota to win. And he wants to do whatever he thinks we can do to win, and that's what makes him such a great captain."
Koivu made note of a long list of players who helped him achieve NHL success, including former teammates Andrew Brunette, Gaborik and Nick Shultz.
"If there's one name, Jacques Lemaire," Koivu said of the Wild coach from 2000-09. "Without him, I don't think I would be sitting here right now with this team or with the career that I had here. I think he really taught me what it takes to play in this league.
"As a young kid I thought, 'Well, I got this. I'm where I want to be.' Not even close. He made me realize that. He was very hard every single day. I started to realize when I got a little bit older that he did it because he cared. I owe him a lot."
Koivu learned his lessons well, all the way to 1,000 NHL games played.
"The identity of what he brings is part of the Minnesota Wild," Brunette said. "He's a big part of the culture there for many years, and he will be for many more to come."