You were an overtime goal away from getting to the Stanley Cup Final two years ago. Does this team, the Sharks, now represent that same chance for you? Do you see the potential everybody else does?
"Yeah, I think so. They've done a good job over, I don't know, the past 25 years, however long they've been in the League, of always being an established playoff team. They were in the Cup Final a few years back (2016) and they have a similar team, if not a better team now. The only problem is you have another 30 teams that are equally as good, so it's always a challenge every year. That's why it doesn't matter what you did the year before or two years before, you always have to start over every year. I feel like this group is dedicated to doing that, to starting off the season not looking too far ahead but trying to build. Once you get into the playoffs, you never know what's going to happen. You've got to have as few injuries as possible and you have to be as fresh as you possibly can. If we do that, and everything aligns, this group has a great chance of going all the way."
Since you've been here, has there been anything that has really caught your eye, something you didn't know, something about a certain player you didn't know? What has surprised you?
"What has surprised me? Yeah, I don't know what that would be. It's hard to just pinpoint one thing. There's a lot of things that have surprised me. I didn't really know much about the organization, the practice facility, what it was like to be here on a daily basis. I think that surprised me in a good way, coming here and seeing how nice and how good of a setup it is. I think the hockey culture is good and the dedication to being a good organization is huge. I wasn't sure about that since I'm coming from Canada, where it's all hockey. I didn't know how big of a difference it would be, but it kind of feels like it's the same, which is nice. So that I was pleasantly surprised about. And also these guys, they work hard, even though they might have some miles on them, which is also appreciated. I just feel that ever since I got here, it's just been easy. It's been an easy transition for me. It's not been too overwhelming. I think everybody in here, whether they're 22 years old or 40 years old, they've been very professional and they know what needs to be done to be successful. I feel like the group has a good sense of what needs to be done when times are tough."