"We have so much skill in our locker room," Adam said. "But if you're not scoring goals, or whatever it might be, you might not get that reward that you should. We have players that bring the hard work every single game and everyone enjoys seeing them get rewarded too, maybe not on the score sheet but within the room. I think that's an approach that's really important in hockey."
Adam's impact is felt in more direct ways on the ice, too. In addition to being in the midst of a career year in terms of assists and points, the blueliner has been a mentor on and off the ice to his defensive partner, Vince Dunn.
The two started playing together last season after the trade deadline and the combination clicked. The pair developed a close relationship and playing with Adam heightened Dunn's motivation to put in hours of work this season to be ready to play top pair minutes at peak performance with the 12-year veteran.
"I can just see a different sort of drive in him this year and I'm very proud of him," Adam said. "I feel like he realized how good he can be this year.
"We have that relationship now where we can tell the other guy 'Let's go' a little bit and it's all to help each other out. I mean, you're not going to see in the same direction. . .every single day or every shift or whatever it might be. And I think he is he has that old school mentality where he doesn't take it to heart. He just sees it as helpful. I feel like he's raised (his game) at every level and that's shows. I really hope that he understands how good he can be."
When asked if he can see his impact on the 26-year-old, Adam humbly defers with a little smile. And that brings us to another topic - all the things that have endeared Kraken fans to Larsson, too.
There's no question, the defender has a presence to him (apologies to the other trail walkers who took notice of a striking 6-foot-3 man and asked who he was. We excused away our cameras by saying Larsson was a Swedish conservationist).