Scott Burnside: When you signed your first NHL deal, was there a celebratory purchase?
Jamie Benn: I was in Kelowna when I first signed, so I didn't have a vehicle up there at the time. So, I bought myself a nice F-150 truck and my dad drove it up for me from Victoria and dropped it off and then flew home that night. And I actually crashed into a snowbank first day I got it up there, trying to get home for curfew. It wasn't bad. I was leaving Tyse Barrie's (Tyson Barrie of the Colorado Avalanche) house with one of my teammates, Cody Almond, and I called up Tyse and we had to dig it out of the snowbank at probably 11:30 at night. First day, yeah. A white F-150. Didn't even have it for three hours.
SB: Tell me the best hockey gift or purchase you ever made or received as a kid.
JB:I mean, really, when one-piece sticks came out, that was pretty special to have one of those. My parents bought it for me for a present. And around Christmastime, I got a new set of road hockey goalie gear. That stands out to me. I played a lot of road hockey growing up and I was always the goalie. I wanted to be a goalie growing up. But obviously, well, thank God I didn't end up being a goalie.
SB: Who were your goalie guys growing up?
JB: Curtis Joseph, he was up there. Marty Brodeur was up there. Saw a lot of Dan Cloutier, of all people, being a Canucks fan.