By / Steve Fitzsimmons
With his first NHL season now complete, Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning shares his thoughts on making the jump to the NHL and looks back on his 23-goal debut.
You had a really strong finish to your rookie season in the NHL and played excellent hockey at the World Championships, winning a silver medal for Canada. How do you view your season looking back on it overall?
Overall, I view it as a positive one for me. Obviously, it was a tough start and a rough situation at the beginning of the season for me personally and for the team. There was lots of turmoil and lots of changes early on in the season, but once I got my feet onto the ground I think the second half went really well for me.
I thought I played my best hockey there and obviously at the World Championships was another step forward for me. If I have to view it, I definitely think it was a positive season where I learned a lot as a young player and hopefully something to build on for ?next season.”
What was the biggest adjustment you had to make in playing in the NHL versus the Ontario Hockey League?
Early on, it was just not taking enough time to make the right play. As a young kid idolizing the NHL and the players that play in it, you maybe give them a little too much respect and try to force plays and making plays too quickly and not realizing that if you want to be a good player in this league you have to slow the game down and that’s definitely what happened for me in the second half.
The game slowed down and I had the confidence from the coaching staff and the confidence in myself to make those plays and that really changed my whole outlook of the game and ultimately how I was able to perform in the game.”
You played with and against John Tavares growing up and know him very well. How do you view his potential as an NHL player?
I think John is going to be an All-Star in the league. I’ve played with him and in hockey tournaments against him and in the OHL and when we were growing up. I think from an offensive perspective, in the offensive zone, there is no one more dangerous for his age, I think. He protects the puck so well. He’s a smart hockey player.
He’s a goal scorer and he makes plays and that’s what he’s going to be paid a lot of money to do. I think he’ll be able to do that in the NHL next year if he’s put in the right situation. Everyone seems to have the knock on his skating, but growing up with him and playing against him I’ve watched his skating improve so much and in a league where you can’t clutch and grab, it’s definitely not going to hold him back.
I think he’s going to be a prolific scorer in his prime and he’ll probably make that jump next year and he’s going to be a pretty big contributor.
Several of the top players in last year’s draft made the jump to the NHL and had a significant impact. What advice would you give the top prospects this year on how to prepare to at least have a chance to do that?
Being the first pick, it was probably the most difficult. For Bogosian and Schenn and those guys they all had a pretty easy transition. For me, it was a little tough and I had to learn the ropes and know how to deal with certain situations. For the prospects that come in, every year they are more and more prepared to jump right in and play. For me, it was just realizing how hard you have to work to be a good player in this league.
The common theme seems to be that the hardest workers are also the best players. It goes hand-in-hand with work ethic and how much you care. How you act off the ice and what you do to get yourself prepared for games and practices, that correlates with your success on the ice.
That’s something I really learned last year, especially with how things went at the beginning. You learn a lot about yourself and realize how hard you have to work in order to stay on top of your game and be a good player in the league.
I was able to learn that and it seems like players nowadays are coming more and more prepared and that’s a good thing. The game is obviously going to get better and faster and the guys are bigger and stronger and you just have to realize you have to work that much harder to maintain your skill set and to be a good player like everyone wants to be.
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