A week ago, Thursday, Jordan Eberle had finished talking to a media scrum in front of his locker at Kraken Community Iceplex, calmly explaining he didn’t know whether he was staying with the Kraken or perhaps getting traded before the next day’s 12 noon NHL trade deadline.
Media scrum gone, Eberle leaned over to remove his shin pads, turning to locker neighbor Matty Beniers, kiddingly saying it might be the last time he would be changing out of his equipment “in here.” Eberle was smiling, but he said it softly, not 100 percent sure he would be extending his contract with the Kraken.
Beniers stopped unlacing his skates for a few seconds after hearing the remark. He exhaled a long “Noooooooo!” as if to both refute and reassure his trusted linemate. The next day, Eberle stood in the same place telling media he was relieved and happy to re-up for two more seasons in the PNW. Make no mistake, so were Beniers and all of Eberle’s teammates.
There have been many words of praise this week for Eberle and his reaching 1,001 NHL games, the most recent one coming Thursday after a rousing pre-game ceremony to mark Eberle’s 1,000 NHL appearances with the traditional Silver Stick. No praise carries more weight than hearing from his fellow Kraken, who know him in his many forms: worker, human, foe, mentor, and dad. Let’s take a quick spin around the Kraken locker room to talk about those roles:
The Worker
Kraken assistant coach Dave Lowry knows all about what it takes to play 1,000 or more regular season games in the NHL. He played 1,084 games with five NHL teams, he ranks 244th all-time in games played while Eberle is the 389th NHLer to do it out of some 8,000 players who have appeared in more than 100 years of league play.
When asked what is at the core of Eberle’s longevity, starting as a baby-faced, clean-shaven 20-year-old literally scoring the Goal of the Year in his first NHL game to today’s bearded and wise veteran, Lowry was prompt with his reply.
“The biggest thing is his commitment to playing the 200-foot game, the realization you're not gonna score every shift,” said Lowry. “When you're a young guy coming in and you're a skilled guy, you think every night you're gonna score. The reality is it's a hard league to do that.”
Lowry said Eberle has leveraged a high hockey IQ: “You get smart, right? As you get older, you try to find different areas in your game that you can work on. "Ebs skates with a group [of pros] I work with in the summertime in Calgary. Last summer, he said he wanted to work on his faceoffs. He’s always willing to get better.”
The Human
Kraken fourth-line center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare turned 39 earlier this month. He broke into the league as a 28-year-old and is now in his 10th season and fifth NHL franchise, nearing 700 games played. His life experience and hockey IQ make him an ideal evaluator of Jordan Eberle the man (“I came into this league a boy,” Eberle said last week).
“He’s simply trying to be a good human in every situation possible,” said Bellemare. “Whether he is on the ice, with his family, or has a decision to make [such as re-signing with Seattle], he is a good role model really.
“He’s more the quiet type, but sometimes guys in the league so long don't need to be loud. Their actions and their work speak loudly. I’ve learned to respect that. And playing 1,000 games in the NHL is an enormous statement in the hockey world. I’m not sure people understand just how tough it is in this league to play that long and at his level with injuries. And he’s a guy obviously with a lot more pressure than me [to score]. ... My job is to destroy the other team’s power play. I’m a construction worker. He’s one of our architects.”
The Foe
In the 2021 Eastern Conference final, Yanni Gourde scored a shorthanded goal in Game 7 to send his Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup Final and a subsequent Cup win. Now fellow Seattle alternate captains, Gourde has no trouble referencing Eberle as an opposing forward for the New York Islanders, who faced the Lightning in two straight Eastern Conference finals in 2020 and 2021. Down 3-1 in games to Tampa Bay in 2020, Eberle scored the game-winning goal in the second overtime to keep NYI alive in the series before TBL won in six. In 2021, Eberle scored the first goal in the Islanders’ comeback OT win in Game 6 after trailing 2-0 mid-second period.
“He's a great competitor,” said Gourde, thinking back to facing Eberle in high-stakes games. “He's going to give everything he's got on a nightly basis, every single night. The playoffs are when you see the players who can elevate their games. He did that [including scoring the overtime game-winner in Game 4 against defending Cup champion Colorado last postseason, thrilling the Climate Pledge Arena faithful and setting up Seattle to win the series in seven games].”
“Even in practice, Ebs is a tenacious guy, said Jamie Oleksiak, who saw Eberle the foe plenty during his stints in Pittsburgh (two) and Dallas. “He doesn't give up on pucks. He's a guy that may not be of the largest stature but he's not afraid to get the corners and grind. He’s well-known for battling for pucks.”
“He's obviously not the biggest guy,” said Jared McCann, remembering his time in a Pittsburgh uniform. “He plays twice his size. Very strong and skates hard. He’s got amazing hands and can make plays.”
Gourde said the 1,000-NHL game mark is “one of my favorite achievements” in hockey: “It shows how you are as a player to stick around that long ... you battle through injuries and other stuff, you always go out there for your teammates, do all the little things. Ebs represents all of that.”
