EDINA, Minn. — There are times Carly Zucker’s blown away by her husband’s ability to not get rattled.

Take two seasons ago: Jason Zucker’s mom was diagnosed with colon cancer right in the middle of the Wild’s training camp. She underwent surgery during the opening month of the season to have a baseball-sized tumor removed. To protect his mom’s privacy and because there were so many unknowns, Zucker kept it secret from Wild management, the coaching staff and most of his teammates.

Still, as difficult as that news was for the Wild forward to absorb, Zucker somehow managed to score a career-high 33 goals during a breakout season.

Take this past season: Even in the midst of persistent trade rumors, even after finding out his best friend, Charlie Coyle, was traded to the Boston Bruins just hours after being delivered the news that his grandmother had passed away in Las Vegas, even after learning a week later that he too was nearly traded to the Calgary Flames until things fell apart at the last moment, Zucker kept soldiering on like nothing stressful was going on behind the scenes.

So now, even as his name tops most trade-bait boards yet again heading into NHL draft weekend, even knowing that there was an agreement in place to trade him last month to the Pittsburgh Penguins only for that too to fall apart because Phil Kessel is, so far, unwilling to waive his no-trade clause to come to Minnesota, the perhaps soon-to-be “former” Wild winger barely seems bothered.

“He worries about things only when they happen. It kinda drives me nuts, sometimes,” Carly Zucker said, laughing. “He doesn’t spend a lot of time worrying about anything until he should worry about it. He’s been very comfortable with everything that’s going on in the sense that it’s part of the business.

“I think, like any player, he just wants to be where he’s wanted, so if that’s somewhere else, he wants the Wild to do what’s right for the team. He looks at all those pieces and understands the business. If it’s best for the Minnesota Wild to move him, then he understands that.”

Her husband proved that sentiment right off the hop during an hourlong sitdown with The Athletic at Interlachen Country Club on Friday afternoon.

Jason Zucker
“I have a very, very strong belief in myself as a player,” Jason Zucker says. If the Wild don’t share the same feeling, “that belief of mine … is not going to change. I’ll play where they do feel that way.” (Brace Hemmelgarn / USA Today)
Zucker, the first Nevada-produced player in NHL history, heads home to Las Vegas on Monday because for the second year in a row, he is up for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy. It’s an award given to the NHL player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.

Wednesday night, at the NHL Awards Show, Zucker, whose #GIVE16 campaign led to the opening of the Zucker Family Suite and Broadcast Studio at University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital, is a finalist with the New York Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist and the Arizona Coyotes’ Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Asked how awkward it is that he could perhaps win this prestigious honor while representing the Minnesota Wild and conceivably be traded a day or two later, Zucker’s reaction showed that he’s not freaking out one iota about the potential end to his Wild career.

“I could be somewhere else before the award show,” Zucker cracked. “I mean, honestly, I can be traded at any moment … if it’s going to happen, obviously.”

Don’t get Zucker wrong.

Even though it stings that good friends Coyle, Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund were all traded in the past six months and at least two of them showed the grass sometimes is greener elsewhere, Zucker would love not to be the next to go.

He loves Minnesota and the organization that drafted him in the second round nine years ago. And, personally, he especially doesn’t want to be traded because his wife and children won’t be able to accompany him to any other city. Carly says she would never take Jason’s stepdaughter, Sophia, away from her biological father. Carly and Jason have a boy, Hendrix, and infant daughter, Stella, together,  so he’s always at risk of being separated from his family during hockey season if he were to be traded.

“But I’m not going to stress over this because in the grand scheme of life, this is a very small aspect,” Zucker said as he sipped on a smoothie following a long workout at his club. “You know, I have a beautiful family with healthy kids. I’m happily married. Life is great.

“I’m a professional athlete, so the possibility of having to live in another city is, you know, a small worry. Are there complications to that? Yeah, absolutely. But it’s a small worry.

“The other side of it is, I have a very, very strong belief in myself as a player and what I can do. What I feel I’m capable of doing as a player is never going away. And if (general manager) Paul (Fenton) doesn’t feel that that fits into his system in this team here in Minnesota, then that belief of mine in myself is not going to change. I’ll play where they do feel that way.”

Zucker, one of two Wild draft picks in history to eclipse 30 goals for the team, hasn’t spoken with Fenton since their one-on-one exit meeting in April.

But during his candid interview with The Athletic last week, Zucker talked extensively about potentially being traded and the pride he has in all of his philanthropic endeavors. He also cut open a vein about how tough it was to play hockey after his mom was diagnosed with cancer and the recent loss of his grandmother, who was like a second mom to him.

In May, he also had an all-too-personal scare with his daughter that reaffirmed to him how important it is for his family to continue to devote themselves to the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital even if that means he has to do so while playing in another city.

Here’s a deep dive into The Athletic’s interview with Zucker.

On his mom’s diagnosis with colon cancer
It was a Thursday night in September 2017 when the phone rang.

It was Zucker’s dad, Scott, calling.

“I was sitting in the kitchen cooking dinner with Carly,” Zucker said. “My dad is very similar to me. He’s very even-keeled at all times, there’s no ups and downs in life. You get busy and you figure out a way to deal with it and you move on.

“But I could tell the second I picked up the phone that something was wrong. I mean, anybody you’re close to, you’d do the same. And he said, ‘Yeah, your mom has Stage 2 colon cancer.’

“I’ve never been hit like that before. My best friend, Nick Scheafer, passed away when I was younger, but this was very, very different. This is my mom, you know? And the first thing that goes through your mind is obviously every negative in the world. You know, how long she had to live? I mean like everything, right? My immediate thought was, I needed to get home and see you. And my dad, he’s like, you’re not coming out. You can stay. You need to play. You need to be with your hockey family. And just if we come to a time that you need to be out here, I’ll let you know if you need to come out here.”

Natalie Zucker, a former figure skater that the family has always asserted Jason got his great wheels from, underwent surgery a month later to get the tumor removed. She unfortunately had to miss coming out to Minnesota for the birth of her grandchild, Hendrix.

“It was the first colonoscopy I ever had, so it was perfect timing,” Natalie Zucker said by phone Sunday. “I almost canceled actually. It was like, ‘Do I really want to do this?’ But I just wasn’t feeling right, so I thought, ‘Let’s just do this.’ So I wasn’t really 100 percent surprised when they did find something.”

“She was bedridden for quite awhile with that,” Jason said. “Her mother drove in from Oregon to stay with her for a while because my dad obviously had to work. It was tough. I called her every single day to see how they were doing. It’s really hard being so far away. Not being able to see them and be able to help and be hands-on.”

Jason Zucker
Jason Zucker, dad Scott, son Hendrix and mom Natalie during the Wild’s first trip to Vegas in the 2017-18 season. Natalie was diagnosed with colon cancer that September, something Zucker hadn’t revealed before. (Michael Russo)
Zucker, never one to make excuses about anything, admits it was hard to play through.

“It was a tough time. It was definitely tough,” he said. “In hindsight, I just didn’t know how to handle it personally. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to do so much, but I didn’t feel there was anything I could do being so far away. And I think that was kind of that helpless feeling that made it hard. And it probably didn’t help that I kept it secret.”

Zucker has two older brothers and a younger brother and sister. He leaned on oldest brothers Evan and Adam for updates, and Adam lives next door, so that was helpful.

“Still,” Natalie said, “I was one of the lucky ones. They took 24 lymph nodes out of the area and they didn’t show anything in any of them.”

Natalie has gotten one colonoscopy since and gets checked every three months. She is so far clear of cancer and doing so well, it has led to the family’s decision to talk openly about what happened.

Zucker, 27, takes his public platform very seriously. Zucker, his wife and his mom hope to influence others to get a colonoscopy for the potential of early detection. Because colon cancer is possibly hereditary, Zucker and his siblings will now have to get their first colonoscopies at age 40 as opposed to 50.

“The great part about it is that she was very proactive,” Zucker said. “Luckily when she started feeling pain and some issues, she went to the doctor right away. And that was the biggest key. And that’s the biggest takeaway for me is don’t be afraid, don’t have that stigma about the doctor. Just go and get checked and make sure everything’s OK. If she would have waited six months, I mean, who knows what would’ve happened.”

There’s a misconception that colon cancer is mostly a man’s disease. Zucker hopes their story convinces women to also get checked early.

“It’s like Carly is part of the Red Dress (Collection with the American Heart Association),” Zucker said. “I didn’t know until Carly told me that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women. I would never have known that. Carly used to tell me all the time that the best feeling she could ever have is after her event, women would tweet her, ‘I just got checked,’ and that’s what I do hope happens now after what happened to my mom.

“Everybody just needs to get checked out. Be proactive and try and go see the doctors and do these things because you never know. And if you catch it early enough, like my mom, she was able to do her treatment. She did her radiation and she did the surgery to get the tumor removed and hopefully we never have to deal with it again.

“She’s doing really well. She’s doing really, really well. And the great part now is she’s much more educated. We all are.”

On his grandmother’s death
In a hard month of February, one in which his name was churning through the rumor mill, Zucker learned that his grandmother, Sari Zucker, passed away on the morning of Feb. 20.

She had Alzheimer’s for six years and had just moved into an assisted living facility with her husband, Stewart. Still, even though she had been deteriorating this past year, nobody expected her to pass so soon.

“She had went into the hospital. She came out of it, went back in, got out,” Zucker said. “Then the third time she went in the hospital (with pneumonia) and dad’s like, ‘They’re thinking about putting her on hospice next week.’

“I said, ‘OK, I should come see her,’ but my dad said that the doctors said some people live for months like this.”

Jason Zucker
Hours after learning of his grandmother’s death in February, Jason Zucker also found out best friend Charlie Coyle had been traded to Boston. “It was such a bad day,” Carly Zucker says. (Brad Rempel / USA Today)
The Wild had a break in the schedule from Feb. 27-March 1 and were actually going to be playing in Vegas in late March, so the family thought Zucker was safe waiting.

“I got a text at 9 a.m. the next morning. She had passed away,” Zucker said, shaking his head. “That was hard because I literally almost took the red-eye home that night to go see her. I couldn’t believe it.

“Growing up, I was so close with them. They were 10 minutes away. They owned a jewelry store. Every summer I would go there. I still wear a watch that they gave me when I was 15. I’ve worn it every single game since I was 15.”

It’s a dark gray Seiko with gold accents on it.

“My grandpa (Stewart) told me that it would help me score goals,” Zucker said. “And ever since I was 15, I’ve never missed a game with it. It’s a beautiful watch.”

Zucker wanted to return home for the funeral, but his grandfather, who has dementia, decided not to have one.

“In fact, I still haven’t seen my grandpa,” Zucker said. “I’ve called him a couple times, but because of his dementia, he’ll talk for 30 seconds. All of a sudden, he puts the phone down and walks away. So it’s been real hard, to say the least. I just wish I could have gotten back there.”

Hours after learning of the death of his grandmother, Coyle, the best man in Zucker’s wedding, was traded to the Bruins.

“It was such a bad day,” said Carly, who had an emotional lunch with her husband before the Wild’s charter that day to New York City.

On the potential of being traded
The Wild have a lot of cap space to spend this offseason but few roster spots if any that are really open.

So that’s one big reason Fenton has been talking to other teams about Zucker.

If he wants to add a top-six center or a right-shot right wing, trading Zucker may be able to make that happen. Or, if he wants to pursue a free agent like Anders Lee, creating a roster spot by trading Zucker is another mechanism to achieve that.

Tradeable pieces like Niederreiter, Coyle and Granlund have been dealt. Even if he would accept a trade, Zach Parise is difficult to deal because of his age (turning 35 next month) and contract (six years left at $7.538 million). And it’s assumed Fenton’s not about to trade a youngster like Luke Kunin or recently-acquired Kevin Fiala or Ryan Donato.

So there are few valuable trade assets left, which is why Zucker is the most logical player for other teams to inquire about.

After all, Zucker, one of the Wild’s fastest players, ranks tied for 47th in the NHL the past three seasons with 76 goals, tied for 34th with 60 even-strength goals. Two years ago, in advance of signing a five-year, $27.5 million contract, Zucker became the second Wild-produced player to hit the 30-goal mark, joining Marian Gaborik.

“The hardest part for me is I have teammates reaching out to me like, ‘Hey man, how you doing? How’s it going man? You OK?’” Zucker said. “Everybody I know asks me what I’m hearing or, ‘Are you getting traded?’ But it’s the teammates that have the most lasting impact. We’ve created such a bond amongst the team.

“I mean everyone from Mikko Koivu to Spurgy (Jared Spurgeon), to Chucky (Coyle), to, I mean everybody. I mean even guys like (Brad Hunt) and Donato and Kunin, we’ve all created this bond together — even those guys that have only been here a short time.

“That’s what makes it the hardest because we’re all great friends. And I mean as far as I know they don’t want me to leave and I don’t want to, but again, that’s kind of part of the business. But I will say, I do want to be somewhere I’m wanted.”

Zucker was asked if there’s ever a point where he feels, “Enough is enough, just trade me already then,” especially when he sees former teammates thrive elsewhere. Zucker said he really thinks their success elsewhere had more to do with this just being a down year for everybody in Minnesota.

“I mean, take Charlie. Don’t get me wrong, he played really well,” Zucker said. “But the points didn’t come right when he got there. But he was put into a clear role when he got there: ‘You’re our third-line center, you’re going to play this role, you’re going to do this and do that.’ And he thrived under it. We all knew Charlie had talent. He showed it here a lot. Is Charlie ever going to be a 30- or 40-goal scorer? Probably not. But he’s a guy that is very valuable on any team in the league.”

Jason Zucker
“Am I happy with (my 21-goal season)? ” Jason Zucker says of his 2018-19. “No. I think I should score 30 every year. At least. And I want people to expect that from me.” (David Berding / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Zucker hopes he gets the opportunity to bounce back with the Wild.

But he is getting tired of the narrative that he had the world’s most miserable season.

“I’m harder on myself than anyone I know,” Zucker said. “And so I was very, very disappointed with my season. But the funny part is, I think I almost created that narrative by always (publicly) being so hard on myself.

“The outside factors probably didn’t help, but I mean, I still scored 21 goals, you know? Am I happy with that? No. I think I should score 30 every year. At least. And I want people to expect that from me. I want Paul to do the same. I want Bruce (Boudreau) to do the same, but I don’t think I was horrible. I just need to be better.”

On a team where virtually everybody took a step back, in 81 games, Zucker registered only eight fewer shots than his 222 during his breakout 2017-18 season.

What happened was his shooting percentage dipped 5.1 percent from 14.9 the year before. And, including struck crossbars and posts, he also missed another 104 nets, which was tied for ninth-most among all NHL forwards.

But, as those numbers indicate, he generated basically the same chances as the year before. So maybe with a clearer head next season, he’ll be able to rebound.

Still, Zucker’s not about to call Fenton and beg to stay.

“I’m going to stay out of it because realistically, I mean Paul’s never treated me poorly,” Zucker said. “I have respected Paul in his position and what he does. Can I say fully that I agree with everything? No, but I can say that about any position, any person in the world I wouldn’t totally agree with everything. And most people would say that about me, and that’s just the way it works.

“So, I mean, I have respect for him and what he’s trying to do for his job. At this point, it’s his deal to make or not make. He’s going to do what he wants to.”

What is interesting is as much as Zucker has it in his head that he could be traded in advance of his 10-team no-trade clause kicking in July 1, he says he also has to be prepared if a trade doesn’t happen.

“Being traded isn’t something that I thought would ever happen after signing a five-year deal, so I also need to be ready if it doesn’t happen and what that entails,” Zucker said.

In other words, Zucker says he would have to get himself in the right frame of mind knowing the team he committed to for so long has decided for now that after months of trying to trade him, he’ll instead remain part of the future.

“Easier said than done,” Zucker admits. “But the other side of that is that I legitimately do want to be here, you know? So I’ll have to able to move past all of this. I talked to Paul the day after the (February trade) deadline. I’ll keep that conversation between us, but it’s not like we hate each other because he tried to do that with Calgary. It’s just the way it works. Now, did I think that it would happen this way again in the offseason with Pittsburgh?

“No, I didn’t. But again, he has a vision of what he wants for this team and this organization and to me right now it seems like, you know, I’m not part of that. If suddenly I am, I’ll have to be a man and be professional and get over it.”

Zucker says he’s not worried.

“The only thing we really talk about is the logistics with the family because I can’t leave,” Carly said. “So it’s more like, ‘When can we see you? How could we see you?’ If he’s traded to a team in Canada, that’s more complicated than if you’re, say, in Pittsburgh. We have conversations like that, but again that’s more difficult to talk about because I would miss him. That’s the biggest thing for me is that we enjoy being together and I would miss him so much.

“Hendrix and Stella are still little. They change so much in those first few years that they would miss him. Their excitement level when he gets home is high. He’s a lot of fun. They love having him around, I love having him around, but we also look at it as a short-term thing, too. If we’re lucky enough for him to play another five, six, seven, eight years in this business, then that is short-term compared to the rest of our lives being together.

“Minnesota’s home and we love it here, so ideally you stay here, but if that’s not what’s in the cards for the team or for him, then that’s OK. We’ll figure it out.”

Zucker’s mom just hopes for a resolution.

“Here we were hoping ’19 was going to be a better year,” Natalie Zucker said of the trade rumors. “I just hope the rest of his world gets better. The award would be nice, but I just really want all this other stuff to work itself out. Ups and downs, ups and downs, every single day.”

On his daughter’s medical scare, the King Clancy and Tucker
As most Wild fans know by now, Zucker is part of several philanthropic endeavors, but the biggest stems from his friendship with an 8-year-old boy named Tucker Helstrom, who passed away in 2016 of a rare form of bone cancer. The two met during a team visit to University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital.

Jason and Carly, a KFAN contributor, organized a number of fundraisers to create “Team Tucker’s Locker” inside the Kyle Rudolph End Zone at the hospital.

So inspired, they launched the #GIVE16 campaign in an effort to build the Zucker Family Suite and Broadcast Studio inside the hospital. People mostly donate in increments of 16, Zucker’s uniform number.

This past season, they had a night where 16 suites were purchased and donated to patients and staff at the hospital. He also donated $1,600 per goal he scored and co-designed 16 hats for purchase that were unveiled prior to the final 16 games of the season. Since the launch, #GIVE16 has raised almost $1.5 million.

“We’re so proud of the nomination for the King Clancy because it’s a reminder of why we started what we did,” Carly said. “Any time we can say Tucker’s name, remind people of who Tucker is, is going to be an honor and a moment for us that will never get old. We’ll never tire of talking about him, and I think that’s what we don’t want to lose sight of. We’re trying to remember and honor Tucker always.

“I think, if he wins, it’s a win for Tucker’s family and for the legacy of Tucker and what an important and special kid he was. I think, for us, that’s just another opportunity to say his name and to remind people of his story.”

Jason Zucker
Jason and Carly Zucker at the 2018 NHL Awards in Las Vegas. They return this year with Jason a finalist for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy for their work with the #GIVE16 campaign. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
The Zuckers were given a cold dose of reality last month about how special the Children’s Hospital is when their daughter, who was born in March, stopped breathing.

It was Mother’s Day, and Carly was holding Stella with her own mom and her sister nearby. Stella had what looked to be a seizure. It was scary enough for Carly’s sister, Katie, to jump off the couch. Stella’s breathing changed, and she had another episode before her breathing suddenly stopped.

Stella was revived and rushed to the same children’s hospital the Zuckers have devoted much of their life’s work to. The family was there for three days and every scan and test came back normal.

“When we got home, we felt like we’d been there a year and a half,” Jason Zucker said. “So imagine the families that have to be there for months or a year or a couple years. I mean, that right there is what gives me chills. Seeing, knowing the situation we were in, like every noise Stella would make, holding her 24/7 for three straight days, and wondering if her every move was normal, and that’s nothing compared to the kids that are in there for months or years.

“I think it shows how much those little areas of space, the Zucker space, the Rudolph space, how important it is that we make sure that stuff is there forever so these kids can be kids. So many families have to leave their kids and their babies there overnight. But our space is going to help with that because they’re going to have iPads in rooms that parents can record things and put them on the iPad and play it from their kid.

“There’s so much that was relevant to us in our situation.”

The Zuckers are already bouncing around some #GIVE16 ideas for next season.

“The hard part is going to be upping it, but to be frank, a lot of it depends on what happens,” Zucker said of potentially being traded. “I mean, am I here or somewhere else?”

Zucker does plan to always have an annual event in town, and the #GIVE16 campaign and his relationship with Rudolph, the Vikings’ tight end, and the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital will always exist, he says.

On Sunday, Zucker and Rudolph are hosting the Lord Fletcher’s Lake Bash and Monday the Annual Champions for Children Celebrity Golf Classic at Windsong Farm Golf Club to raise money for the Zucker Family Suite and Broadcast Studio and Kyle Rudolph’s End Zone.

“I mean, that’s never going to change,” Zucker said. “We just appreciate the way people have rallied behind it.”

Added Carly, “We’ll never, ever stop doing that because Minnesota will always be a home for us. #GIVE16 is something that we’re committed to continuing to do no matter where we are, and that will also translate into hopefully other bigger things that we do in the future.

“We’ll always be supportive of Masonic and the hospital, but we hope to do even bigger things for #GIVE16. If he ends up somewhere else, I look at that, again, as an opportunity to maybe introduce people to what we’re doing, and hopefully help in other areas.”

Wednesday will be a special night for Zucker.

The man who loves a perfectly tailored suit will be dressed in snazzy new attire and may even prepare a speech just in case he wins.

Along for the ride will be his entire family — his wife, three kids, parents, three brothers, one sister, a cousin and some friends, including the director of development and community partnerships for the hospital.

He especially hopes to give his mom a big hug if he gets the honor of going onto the stage.

“It’s always hard for Carly and I being honored for stuff like this because we wish Tucker could see it,” Zucker said. “This is all for Tucker and this is all because of Tucker and this is all for his family. It’ll be fun to be able to share it from a distance with his family. They’ll be watching.

“It’s just an honor to be recognized. So many guys in the NHL do so much for their community, even a number on our team. I mean, look at all the stuff (Matt Dumba) does. So to be in the final three two years in a row is an honor. It’s crazy that it all started because of Tucker and what he inspired us to do.

“And hopefully we’re inspiring other people to get on this path and do the same thing.”