After being hurt and missing most of your 16-year-old season, what was it like coming back to the team at 17?

It sort of was like another rookie season. I had gotten surgery and there was a lot of rehabilitation. I didn’t know what to expect from my shoulder right away. I’d only played 29 games, so I had to start everything all over again, but I think it went pretty well.

It’s never fun to go through a tough season on the ice like this team did, let along do it twice. Were you able to take positives out of those two years?

We finished almost at the bottom of the league for two seasons. It does build character because you never want to go through it again. I only had to live through half of it my first year, but the second year was a total disaster. This year, we have a great group of guys, and we know we can do so much better, and we are. We’re playing with sort of a chip on our shoulders to prove how much better we can be.

After growing up playing hockey with Stefan Fournier and Matthew Bissonnette, you are here and watch as the Maineiacs trade for them both. How did that make you feel, and how were you able to help, if at all?

When they got Stef in the summer time, we spoke about it, after he knew he was traded here. We were both really happy. We’d played together and we had good chemistry. Then at Christmas time we got Matt Bissonnette, and that was even better because now it was our whole line from when we played back home. They put us back together for this year in some games, and that’s great.

How has hockey been different this year from the last couple of years?

I don’t have to worry about playing to get drafted anymore. I have to worry about now playing for the team here, and for Philadelphia to hopefully have them sign me to a contract in the next year or two. I get good feedback from the Flyers, and it helps to get feedback from guys like that.

This team has developed into it’s own kind of family. Talk about how that has developed, and how that helps as playoffs approach.

This team has great chemistry. I’m surprised, you know, all the guys love each other and we all have so much fun. There aren’t many cliques here, guys that hang around only with each other. Every guy here plays for each other and we’ll fight for each other if we need to. It’s one of the greatest team chemistrys I’ve ever seen. I feel we can compete with every team. The only team we haven’t beaten is Montreal, and we know we can beat them. We have a great team when we play hard and play together, and hopefully we go all the way.

Copy the Story Link