The Journey to 1,000 NHL Games

Paul Stastny's first game in the National Hockey league came on October 4, 2006 as a member of the Colorado Avalanche, but he was a fixture in an NHL locker room far before then.
As the youngest son of Peter Stastny, a hockey hall of famer in his own right, young Paul could be seen around the dressing room as a kid.
That's when Winnipeg Jets assistant coach, Jamie Kompon, first saw Paul.
Back in 1997-98, when Stastny was 11-years-old, his father was a special assignment scout with the St. Louis Blues.
Kompon, at the time, was just starting his first NHL gig as a video coach with the Blues.
"One of my good friends in St. Louis had taken over the junior team," Kompon said. "Peter's son, Paul's older brother, Yan - who was a Manitoba Moose at one point - he ended up playing on the team. I had a real good interaction with Yan and had a good relationship, then also my relationship with Peter, and then I got introduced to Paul."

Even at that age, when Paul and Yan participated in alumni skates with the Blues, Kompon could see the apple didn't fall far from the tree.
"You could see they had their dad's pedigree. Yan was a very competitive player, Paul is very competitive in his own right," said Kompon.
"His ability to see the game, process the game, to slow the game down and speed the game up, he skates like his dad in terms of being strong on the puck.
"When I see Paul on the ice, I say 'that's Peter.' There are a lot of similarities. It's really good to see."
That competitive spirit, that drive, that will to improve, is a big reason why Stastny has hit the milestone of 1,000 NHL games. Those habits were instilled in him as a kid, but cemented when he broke into the NHL with the Avalanche.

"When I came into the league, it was a completely different game," said Stastny. "In my first year, watching guys like (Ian) Laperriere, (Milan) Hejduk, (Andrew) Brunette, (Joe) Sakic and (Adam) Foote and the way they took care of themselves. I kind of laughed it off, but you realize five, 10, 15 years later that there was a reason those guys all had such long and storied careers."
Of course, Stastny's story doesn't begin in Colorado, or even in St. Louis as a kid.
It begins with a decision his family made in 1980.
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On August 26, 1980, Peter Stastny - along with his wife and his brother Anton - defected from Innsbruck, Austria following a European Cup tournament.
Just over one year later, Peter and Anton became the first players to defect to play in the NHL.
They both joined the Quebec Nordiques for the 1980-81 campaign, making immediate impacts.
Anton had 39 goals and 85 points in 80 games, while Peter posted a stunning 39 goals and 109 points en route to winning the Calder Trophy as the league's rookie of the year.
Peter spent 10 of his 16 NHL seasons in Quebec, a city that saw the birth of both of his sons - Yan in 1982, and Paul in 1985.
It's a big reason why playing in the province is still important to Paul today.
"It's always special. It's always fun to come back," said Stastny, who has 10 goals and 19 points in 25 games against the Montreal Canadiens in his career. "When the fans are here, I always have some kind of family that is from Quebec. It's a special place to play. For me, it's where I scored my first goal. There is history obviously with my dad and him being close to Quebec City. It's fun. It's a cool place with a lot of history."
It's easy to see why Quebec is so close to Stastny's heart. His dad is even closer.
He's been an incredible resource as his son puts together a career that has made him one of the most respected two-way centres in the game.
The two talk hockey nearly every other day, but Paul says those conversations aren't of a coaching nature.
"I feel we talk a lot more mental side of hockey," said Stastny. "He knows what I'm going through because he's been through it or he's seen me go through it at different times in my career."
Even when Stastny is feeling low on confidence - and he doesn't want to talk to anyone - if the phone rings and he sees it's his dad, he'll always answer.
"He knows how to contact me and say the right thing somehow or some way," Stastny said. "Hockey wise obviously, we think the same. When I'm thinking stuff I always ask him, just for assurance, just to make sure I'm on the right page in the way I see it.
"For me, the biggest thing obviously having him as a dad, as a mentor, is just the sound board that a lot of guys don't have. As I've gotten older, I've realized how lucky I am to have that."

On March 22, 2021, Stastny played his 977th career game, tying him with the 977 his dad played in the NHL.
He scored that night, but grins when he thinks about how much further he'd have to go to surpass the point totals his dad put up in his career (Paul currently has 755 career points, while Peter finished with 1,239).
"That's probably the only number I could beat him in stats wise," laughed Stastny. "Just to equal the same amount of games, it's special. It's special for him, for me, and for the Stastny legacy."
Paul Maurice's NHL coaching career began the season after Peter left the NHL, but as a fan of the game, Maurice can appreciate the importance of such a milestone for a family.
"You kind of sit back and you get to look at a player that you care for who is a really good man and you just kind of think about what that great that must mean between father and son," said Maurice. "You're always so proud of any accomplishment or even not an accomplishment, but any joy that your kid is having in life and you get to participate with that a little bit.
"I'm sure that there is a tremendous amount of pride by his dad and rightfully so."

Peter continues to cheer on Paul, and the team he's playing on.
He knows just how lucky he is to have that support.
"I grew up around the game. I learned a lot from my dad and my brother," said Stastny. "I'm very fortunate to learn a lot of things at a young age, that I didn't realize I was learning maybe until now."
Family continues to be an important part of the game for Stastny.
His wife, Haley, and his two children - Draper and Riley - being in the building makes up for the fact there won't be fans in the arena.
"That's important to me. As long as I have a little family here to share the moment, that makes it extra special," said Stastny. "It's an opportunity to thank the people who got me here, whether it's my parents or my brothers and sisters, they're always my biggest supporters and always have my back and always want the best for me. They get a lot of love internally, quietly. I'm not a guy who likes the public limelight. But it's times like these I can thank them for everything they've done and everything they still do for me."
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Stastny was drafted 44th overall by the Colorado Avalanche in the 2005 NHL Draft.
At that time, Stastny had just finished his first of two seasons at the University of Denver. He won an NCAA title that season and was named rookie of the year and earned a spot on the NCAA all-rookie team.
When he broke into the NHL to begin the 2006-07 season, Kompon (who was with the Los Angeles Kings at the time) couldn't help but think of the 11-year-old he had skated with back in St. Louis.
"You're so proud of the fact he made the NHL, and how he contributed and how far he's come and where he is as a person," said Kompon. "Joel Quenneville was the one that hired me in the NHL and he had a chance to coach Paul in Colorado also. He has nothing but high praises for Paul.
"We always talk about where he was when we were in St. Louis when he was a young player, to an established NHL player among the elite, closing in on his 1000th game."
While he didn't quite match his father's Calder Trophy win in his first NHL campaign, Stastny was named Rookie of the Month in February 2007 and was named to the league's all-rookie team after posting 78 points in his first 82 games.
Learning to be an NHLer started there, and even today - 1,000 games later - it hasn't stopped.
"I'm still learning now," Stastny said. "I try to hang out with these new school guys, or these younger guys and see what they're doing and try to implement that. Whether it's diet, or training, or working out, or on the ice, you're constantly trying to sharpen your tools a little bit and get better and learn from everybody."

By February of 2018, Stastny had played over 800 career games between the eight seasons with the Avalanche and nearly four more with the St. Louis Blues.
Stastny and the Blues were fighting for a playoff spot and were hosting the Winnipeg Jets a couple weeks before the trade deadline.
Kompon, now in his second season with the Jets, was catching up with some old friends on the Blues side of the arena prior to the pre-morning skate meetings.
When he got back to the Jets side, Maurice was waiting for him.
"Paul Maurice stops me and goes 'Paul Stastny.' He didn't even say anything further and I said 'we have a chance?' And he said 'Yes,'" recalls Kompon.
"I said 'Get him.' That's all I said. If we can get him, get him."
Maurice recalls that Kompon maybe had a few other words.
"The funny one was, 'he's a better hockey player than you think he is.' That's funny because I think he's a really good player," said Maurice. "I understand what they're talking about because they said 'he's a complete player.' It's not just points here, this guy does it all."
Then, a couple days before the trade deadline, things started to heat up.
"I got a text from Doug (Armstrong) in St. Louis a couple days ago that said depending on how some of the outcomes might be going in that direction for them, he might be looking at doing something," said Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff. "I immediately responded that I'd be very interested if it ever got to that point."

Around that time, Jets captain Blake Wheeler was also brought in the loop. Wheeler's relationship with Stastny dates back to various USA Hockey camps and tournaments, the Olympic Games in 2014, and the 13 games the two played together in Germany during the NHL lockout in 2012.
"When I first caught wind of it, it was a possibility. Even just the possibility of it was really exciting," said Wheeler.
"His name wasn't even out there, so I was surprised to hear it. My fingers were crossed."
On trade deadline day, Cheveldayoff and Armstrong worked on the details.
Stastny had a no-trade clause that he'd have to waive to come to Winnipeg. That, and respect for the player and person Stastny is, meant the negotiations were kept very quiet.
"We both knew this was a person's family at stake, it's a person's decision at stake, and he earned that right to have a no-trade," said Cheveldayoff. For us, there was never going to be any leakage form our side to damage the reputation of that player."
Stastny was presented with the proposition of going to Winnipeg, and as one might expect from a player as cerebral as Stastny is on the ice, he did his homework.
"When it got brought up after we lost to Nashville, all of a sudden there were a couple texts and a couple phone calls, and there was a lot of thinking going on," he said. "I had a good answer in the back of my mind, but there are still certain people I have to talk to so my emotions don't cloud my decision making.
"We all thought it was the best and - in the end - it was my choice, and I moved forward with it."
The deal was done and Stastny was a Winnipeg Jet.
He'd play a big role in helping the Jets get to the Western Conference Final in 2018. His two goals in Game 7 of the second round series against the Nashville Predators - the only team that finished with more points than the Jets in the regular season that year - are a huge part of Winnipeg coming out on top that night.
Stastny finished that postseason run with 15 points in 17 games, which went along with the 13 points in his first 19 regular season games in a Jets jersey.
That off-season, Stastny signed with the Vegas Golden Knights and spent two seasons in the state of Nevada.
He had 70 points in 121 games, with 38 of those coming in the 2019-20 campaign before the season was put on pause.
When the NHL resumed in the summer in the bubble in Edmonton, Stastny and the Golden Knights were eliminated in the Conference Final by the Dallas Stars.
There was one year left on Stastny's contract and when free agency opened up on Oct. 9, Cheveldayoff set out to get Stastny back to Winnipeg.
"We tried real hard to make it happen when he was here to stay here," Cheveldayoff said of the 2018 off-season. "It was more of a function of the business side of the game, not a function of the desire of both sides to try and find something. We all understood that then. I told him we were very excited to have him back with the Jets."

For Stastny, the opportunity to return to the city that had made such an impression on him in such a short time was on that excited him.
"I feel comfortable here and I feel good here," Stastny said. "It almost felt like my wife and I and kids really never left."
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Of the four teams Stastny has played with leading up to 1,000 games, his time with Winnipeg has been the smallest part.
Yet, even though he's only played 74 regular season games in a Jets jersey, his impact through the locker room is apparent.
"Having Stas is a lot better than not having him. I can tell you that," said Wheeler.
"The way he plays the game, mentally he's a step ahead of everyone else out there. He's incredibly reliable on face-offs. He's the type of centre that makes the people around him better."
Maurice agrees, adding that the way Stastny retains information, deciphers it, and applies it to other in-game situations is at a level that Maurice has rarely seen in his 1,600-plus game coaching career.
"I've always thought of Paul as a version of Ron Francis. If you wanted to know what was going on, on the ice, you went and asked Ronnie Francis because he's going to tell you three or four things that you didn't see," said Maurice. "Paul's very similar, in that you love getting his opinion because he has a really unique view of what happens out there, about players, about systems, all those kinds of things.
"So, as good as he is in the room with all the different players, working on faceoffs, working on all those small things that only players teach other players, he's as good for the coaching staff as well because he's got a really valuable view of the game."

It all goes back to Stastny's will to improve in every aspect of the game.
Wheeler may call him old-school, a description that perhaps fits in a number of ways, but Stastny feels it's all because of a competitive drive instilled in him from a young age.
"The players I respect the most are always the players that are really skilled but also work really hard and are constantly getting better," said Stastny, citing Wheeler as a prime example of that.
"You look at a guy like (Sidney) Crosby, he's obviously going to go down as one of the best players in the world and probably in our generation. I look at him and think, the hardest thing about him is how hard he competes and how hard he works."
One thing is certain. Stastny may have grown up in NHL locker rooms, skated with alumni players, and learned the ins and outs of the game from his incredibly talented father, but those things only take an athlete so far.
The work needs to be done. The stall in the locker room needs to be earned, as does the respect of teammates, coaches, and officials along the way.
Stastny has done all that - and that's why he can celebrate 1,000 NHL games.
"Nothing is given to you, you always have to work hard out there," said Stastny. "Nothing always goes your way, nothing goes the way it's planned. You don't want to pout about it. You want to keep working at it, whether it's hockey or life, and keep moving forward and do things to the best of your abilities."