No Longer a Kid, Fowler Has Evolved Into a Veteran Leader for These Ducks

To most ardent Ducks fans, he's still a boy, the one they remember being taken by the Ducks 12th overall at that NHL Draft in LA, who made his debut with Anaheim a few months later at just 18 years old.

But hard as it may be to believe, that was 10 1/2 years ago, and Cam Fowler is closer to grizzled vet than wunderkind, a 29-year-old in the middle of his 11th NHL season and closing in on 700 career games. No Ducks defenseman has appeared in more games in an Anaheim sweater than the 682 (and counting) Fowler has played. He's also married now, having tied the knot with longtime companion Jasmine just a little over a year ago.
He looks more like an older guy than ever these days, with a healthy beard paired with some significant hair flow flying out of the bottom of his helmet. The latter can be attributed to the quarantine life Fowler and the rest of the world has experienced over the past several months.
"I think it's getting close [to a mullet]," Fowler said during a virtual session with media today. "So, I'm going to have to reevaluate here in a little bit, but just kind of going with the flow. This has been a hard year for everybody. I've been without a haircut for some time, but it's just kind of morphed into to what it is now. I told the wife that she needs to let me know if that turns into a legit mullet. And then at that point I'll address it."

Fowler reflected on how he's evolved as a player over the last decade-plus, a much different man than the fresh-faced teenager who made his NHL debut without playing a single minor league game, in October 2010. As mature as he may have appeared at the outset, he now admits it took him "maybe five years" to feel like he had transitioned from kid to established NHL vet.
"I was grateful for the opportunity," he says now, "but it can be a whirlwind coming in at 18. I was fortunate enough to have people around me who helped me along the way, Getzy [Ryan Getzlaf] being a big one of those. And I think that's why we have such a great relationship now.
"But there's so much more to it than just playing hockey. It's a way of life that you have to understand that you don't really have an opportunity to do when you're 18. It's something that comes at you quick, and there's a lot that you have to learn. It took me, took me a good amount of time before I really felt like I have a good understanding of what it takes to be a National Hockey League player. Taking care of your body, traveling from city to city, different time zones, different things to worry about, what you're eating, how much sleep you're getting. At some point it all catches up with you during the season, so you have to be so adamant about that, and that was a big learning curve for me."

Fowler's role has changed dramatically in Anaheim, where he has evolved from a youngster soaking up as much as he could from the older guys, to now being someone the young d-men are looking to for inspiration.
"I think that's been something that has kind of evolved over the last few years," he said. "Being here for 11 years now, I think I have a good understanding of my role, what the coaches want from me, what management wants for me and try and help out the new faces as best I can. I just want to try and bring some consistency back there on and off the ice and help those guys with whatever they need."
Fowler missed 12 games last season with a lower body injury suffered in February before COVID shut down Anaheim's season in mid-March. So, the first month of his offseason was spent in rehab in Orange County before he and Jasmine went back to their offseason home in West Bloomfield, Mich.

"I spent my whole summer there training, did a little bit of skating early on," Fowler said. "The hardest part was not knowing when we were going to start again, so that was a balancing act, trying to figure out how much did I need without burning myself out before the season started. We ended up coming back out to California around probably mid-October and then got a lot of good work in with some of the guys that were here. And then when everybody started coming in and we were able to get ready for the season."
The Ducks made a major pickup over the summer in signing veteran Kevin Shattenkirk, who was coming off a Stanley Cup championship in Tampa. The addition of Shattenkirk solidifies Anaheim's top 4 on the blue line with Fowler, Josh Manson and Hampus Lindholm. Manson suffered an upper body injury Monday night in the home opener, which will test that depth.
"We are definitely comfortable with the depth we have on our team, especially on defense," Fowler said. "We have a lot of guys who are capable of stepping in and playing a big role. Obviously getting Shatty is huge for us. He adds a lot of value on both ends of the ice. Mans is a hard guy to replace. He does so many great things for us, but we feel comfortable that we have guys there that can step in and play big roles. It's going to be a unique challenge for us, and we need to step up and try and play some big minutes."