RoughRiders All-Decade Team: Bobby Goepfert

Bobby Goepfert doesn't want to sound bitter. He's playing hockey for a living, and how cool is that?

But you don't have to be clairvoyant to figure out that being a goaltender for Germany's Hamburg Freezers isn't exactly what he had in mind.

“I kind of expected bigger things coming out of college,” Goepfert said in a recent phone interview from Hamburg. “But nothing is guaranteed in this game ... I'm not trying to put down any of the guys who have already made it, but it seems like you need to catch a break. And I haven't caught any.”

Goepfert, 26, was the first truly outstanding Cedar Rapids RoughRiders goalie, named the United States Hockey League's MVP in 2002. He was a RoughRider in 2000-01 and 2001-02 and calls Cedar Rapids “my second home.”

“I've had kind of a bumpy pro ride,” he said. “It's a dog-eat-dog world in the pros. Things have happened so fast. It's a weird job. You play hockey all your life, now you're playing for a paycheck. It's just a different world.”

When he says world, he means it.

A sixth-round NHL draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2002, Goepfert wasn't offered a contract, despite two outstanding seasons at St. Cloud State. The Anaheim Ducks signed him as a free agent and he spent two seasons mostly in the minor-pro ECHL.

He played last season in Salzburg, Austria. Now it's Germany, where teammates include former NHLers Clarke Wilm and Jere Karalahti.

“It's been cool,” he said. “It's an experience not a lot of people get a chance to do. I've been fortunate to see the world and play hockey.”

He hopes to land in the NHL. His role model is Tim Thomas of the Boston Bruins, who played in Europe before becoming a Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL's top goaltender.

For now, Goepfert's just trying to learn German.

“I'm doing my best,” he said. “Things come full circle. It's kind of funny. You have so many guys come over to the United States, and you teach them ‘The 30 hockey words.' Now it's happening to me. I can say I am pretty fluent in German curse words.”