ECHL: An Interview with Rapid City Rush All-Star Alex Aleardi

Alex Aleardi is coming off back to back 30 goals seasons, and for the first time in his career, he was an All-Star as he was the Rapid City Rush’s All-Star as well as being named an assistant captain for the ECHL All-Stars, “It means a lot, I’ve been pushing a long way in my career this is year 11 for me and to be rewarded with something like that it’s something special and it makes me proud to represent Rapid City Rush like that and the organization, and guys are giving me chirps about being captain in there so it’s fun, it’s a special thing” said Aleardi in a post-game interview after the All-Star Game. Five of those 11 years have been spent in the ECHL as he’s spent time with the Evansville Icemen, Florida Everblades, and now the Rapid City Rush, playing in 208 games, putting up 96 goals and 106 assists for 202 points.

During his career, Aleradi has won three championships, two of them overseas and one in the ECHL, which came with the Florida Everblades under Brad Ralph, “It’s awesome; it’s unbelievable to win back-to-back cups in any league. It’s a very tough thing to do, and he’s good at x’s and o’s. He runs a tight ship there, and that’s not an easy thing to do in any league,” said Aleradi on winning the Cup with the Florida Everblades, but when asked what his favorite place to play was, Alearadi took a different approach than most players, “That’s tough, I’ve had a lot of great experiences, Mora was my first championship in Sweden so that was really special to me, winning in France was another great opportunity. It was great winning there with how crazy their fans get. I don’t have one specific memory; I have great memories from each team and each moment, and I’m just taking my journey as it goes,” said Aleardi.

Aleardi would head to Rapid City after winning the Kelly Cup with the Everblades, he would end up signing with the Rush, and I asked Aleardi about that decision, “It was an interesting situation; it was a fun time in F. It’sa it’s always fun when you win and we won a championship and Scott Burt is a good coach and I wanna get into coaching in the future and he said he’d help me, do that and mentor me in a way, it’s been nothing but the greatest for me so I really appreciate it”. It seems like it’s working out for Aleardi and the Rush as he appears to have plans on staying in Rapid City for the foreseeable future, “It’s been good I absolutely love it there, the ownership group there is not but the best, they treat us first-class, we fly everywhere, apartments are unbelievable there and they take really good care of their players and that’s why I’m definitely staying there” said Aleardi when asked about how the season is going so far in Rapid City.