Isaac Poulter should have heeded his agent’s advice.
“He asked me if I was sitting down,” Poulter recalls from his conversation last week with his agent. “I was like, “No, what's going on?” He said, “You should be sitting down.”
That’s when his agent told him. The New Jersey Devils were offering him his first NHL contract, a two-year, two-way deal.
“If I wasn’t sitting, I might have fallen over,” he joked. “I was so excited. My girlfriend is with me (in Utica) and we weren’t if we heard the right thing. We kind of looked at each other like, “Is this true?” because after the call, I texted back and asked, ‘Hey, is this real?’ and he was like ‘Yeah, it's real.”
Poulter has never given up. He has had an endless stream of determination to get to this point in his career. From a very young age in Manitoba, he watched his peers make teams he didn’t. Despite all the adversity, he never gave up on himself, even when it was hard. It made him even more resolute.
“I got cut from teams,” he recounted, “it was always just seeing all my friends playing on like the double-A or triple-A and I wasn’t. I realized how much I wanted to be there. It all kind of just started from when I was younger, just getting cut from a lot of teams. And then once I started figuring out how much hard work I had to put in, I got cut from our provincial team that do a tournament every year, that was another point where I was like ‘Wow, I feel like I’m right there with these other guys”, there was so much work I put in. And I think it's just every step along the way, it hasn't always been the easiest, but, you know, just trying to keep working as hard as I can, and try to do all the right things to make sure that it works out.”
And work out it has.
The 22-year-old goaltender split time between the ECHL and AHL during the 2022-23 season, spending more time in the ECHL than the AHL. This year it has been Utica and Utica only, playing in 24 games with a .908 save percentage and a 14-7-1 record.
Attending the Devils prospect tournament in 2023 was a big turning point for the 22-year-old, he says. A young player coming into a camp like that gets an immediate glimpse into several things. The professionalism, the work ethic of those who have made it, and of course, the elite skill of their peers.
“Those are some of the best players in the world,” Poulter said thinking back to his first Devils training camp. “You're trying to make a good impression. Like, the first time Jack Hughes is coming down to shoot on me it's like, ‘Oh, that's Jack Hughes, who just scored on me’ I didn’t want to let him score me again, just kind of helps you kind of get past the fact that like, these are some of the best players in the world. You know, you just try to try to do your best, you know, learn from that experience and get the most out of it that you can.”
Poulter said he wanted to show at the Devils main camp that he was a hard worker, a good person, and “just tried to get in front of a couple of pucks.” He’s as sincere as they come, truly thankful for the opportunity the franchise has now given him. But that doesn’t mean the work stops or that he’s done learning. Nothing has changed for him, he remembers what it felt like to see his peers get opportunities and knowing internally that he belonged there too, no matter whether he was cut or not.
When he finally got his opportunity in Utica this season, he took the bull by the horns and has been in the mix ever since. It’s another opportunity to show he belongs. Everywhere he goes, Poulter takes it as a learning opportunity, after all that’s what got him to this point.
He credits his relationship with Comets goaltender coach Brian Eklund, as paramount to his success now at the AHL level. He says it’s the way Eklund wants to learn from his goaltenders as much as he wants to learn from his coach that is a unique approach that has benefitted him.
“He's been probably one of the biggest helps since I've been here,” Poulter said, “He’s on the ice with us almost every single day, he's asking us as many questions about what we're doing, as much as the advice he's giving us because he wants to learn from us.
“Half our video is probably him asking us questions about why we do this, instead of doing something else,” Poulter went on. “He wants to learn as much as we want to learn to get better as well. It's such a good experience to have someone who cares a lot about the position but also a lot about us and how we're doing.”
Turns out that right now, Poulter is doing just fine.
Eklund was sitting at the boardroom table when Poulter signed his contract. To his right was General Manager Dan MacKinnon and next to MacKinnon was Eklund. To Poulter’s right was Martin Brodeur, a surprise visitor for the big moment. The greatest of all time, sitting there with watching him sign his first NHL contract.
“That was crazy,” beamed Poulter, “I actually didn't know that he was coming. I was shocked. It (was) my second or third time meeting him. So, I think I played a little bit cooler this time, but still always crazy to see what's the best goalie in the NHL, right beside you.”
Now with the contract under his belt, and his first NHL call-up just days later, it probably won’t be the last time he sees Brodeur, so he better get used to it and keep playing it cool, calm and collected.
Just like he has his game.
