"When I got drafted, I was in bed," Malik said. "I didn't watch the draft to be honest because I didn't want to be sad if I wasn't picked. My mom watched and my friends ... so I got the word pretty quickly."
From there, Malik had to quickly prepare himself to travel from Finland to Florida for the Lightning's development camp -- a trip that took more than 20 hours.
"Everything happened so fast," he said. "I was drafted and then I was on a plane and now I am here."
Malik (6-foot-1, 177 pounds) was 15-9-9 with a 1.97 goals-against average, .922 save percentage and four shutouts in 34 games last season for KooKoo of Liiga, the top professional league in Finland. He was 7-7 with a 2.14 GAA, .926 save percentage and two shutouts in the playoffs, helping KooKoo advance to the semifinals.
Malik is the son of Marek Malik, a former NHL defenseman who played 691 games over 15 seasons from 1994-2009 with the Hartford Whalers, Carolina Hurricanes, Vancouver Canucks, New York Rangers and Lightning. Malik's unorthodox shootout goal for New York in a game against the Washington Capitals on Nov. 26, 2005, made him somewhat of a folk hero among Rangers fans.
Watch: Youtube Video
Marek would end his NHL career with the Lightning in 2008-09, when Nick was six, making his return to Tampa for development camp bring back some childhood memories.
"I remember being here before and riding around on scooters with my brother," Malik said. "We would ride to a park with basketball courts and play basketball. A lot of things have changed. The Lightning have this nice practice facility now and I don't remember them having a practice rink when I was here before."
Malik took full advantage of the practice rink during his time at camp earlier this month, trying to absorb as much as he could.
"It's pretty exciting to be here and everyone from the guys to the coaches and the staff has been great," Malik said. "I know this team has high expectations for their goalies. Andrei Vasilevskiy is one of the best in the League and I am happy to be coached by some of the people that have coached him."
Lightning assistant general manager and director of player development Stacy Roest said he was pleased with what he saw from Malik during the camp.
"He is a competitor, and we like competitive players," Roest said. "You saw it in some of the groups and in the 3-on-3 tournament we had. We were able to see some of his makeup as a player and now we can focus on the areas we want him to improve over the summer."
