Get to Know: Tommy Novak

Tommy Novak spent the first three and a half years of his professional career with the Predators after Nashville selected him in the third round in 2015, putting up strong numbers with 49 goals and 117 points in 201 NHL games.

“You could really see the potential,” Filip Forsberg said.

After Pittsburgh acquired the forward at the trade deadline in 2025, Novak said he wanted to carve out a role and be consistent, and he’s done that.

“Tommy has become an excellent player for us,” said Penguins President of Hockey Operations and GM Kyle Dubas, who signed Novak to a three-year contract this offseason.

Penguins Head Coach Dan Muse often says Novak flies under the radar and that others don’t appreciate his game enough. But for someone like Spencer Stastney, who came up with Novak in the Predators organization, there is plenty of admiration for what Novak brings to the ice.

“He gets the puck on his stick and he starts weaving through people,” Stastney said. “Like, he doesn't lose it. He just finds little triangles and little angles where he just sets it, gets it, sets it, gets it. It's just glued to his stick. He’s like a wizard out there. He knows what he’s doing. He sees things other people don’t, and it makes it easy. And he can move.”

Off the ice, Novak’s personality is also on the quieter side.

“He’s just even-keeled. He's just gonna do his thing. He’s his own person,” Stastney said with a smile. “He's awesome. On a down day, on a bad day, you go to him, and he's always there. He’s not necessarily this bubbly, optimistic guy, but if you're down, he won't get down with you. He’ll be positive there.”

But as Stastney went on to say, there’s some niche things Novak likes that are interesting. We touched on one of them in this Q&A.

You were born in Minnesota, but grew up in Wisconsin?

My parents are from a city in Minnesota, 20 minutes away from where I grew up. They ended up moving to River Falls, Wisconsin. It’s right on the border of Minnesota, still a suburb of the (Twin Cities). So, I grew up in River Falls. Ended up going to high school across the border in Minnesota, and then college there, too. So, most of my roots are in Minnesota, but it's close by. My family still lives in River Falls, just a 10-minute trip over the border.

Are there any rivalries between the two states?

There are, just when it comes to fandoms. Like, some people are Packers fans. I was always a Vikings fan because that's what my family was. I'm mostly claiming Minnesota, but I definitely have the Wisconsin tie as well.

What do your parents do for a living?

My mom was a fourth-grade teacher for 30-some years. This is her first year retired, so she's excited about that. And then my dad, he works for a law book company, Thomson Reuters. He’s an auditor for them. He’s done that for a long time, too. Works mostly at home now. They're both almost wrapping up, so they’re at the finish line.

Do you have any siblings?

Yeah, I have an older sister and an older brother who both are back in Minnesota now. Two and four years older than me.

What part of Minnesota do you spend the most time in?

This summer, I moved into a place in Edina. It’s just west of Minneapolis, about 10 minutes. A lot of my buddies live around there.

How did you spend your time there when you weren’t training?

It was a lot of trying to get better at golf. Just hanging out with a lot of my friends that I don't get to see for a big portion of the year, and my family that's back there.

What was the process of trying to get better at golf?

This was kind of my first summer trying. I got the bug pretty bad.

Why is that?

All of my buddies are always golfing. So, it was like, I gotta get out there and be able to swing decently well. I wanted to last year, and then I had the injury that kept me kept me off the golf course in the summer. Just trying to be able to go play with my buddies is the main motive.

So, where do you feel like you stand?

I feel like I accomplished like being able to go out there and swing it around, but obviously, still a huge work in progress. Tough game.

So, you've lived in Minnesota, you’ve lived in Wisconsin, and you’ve lived in Nashville. What was that like, when you were with the Predators?

It's cool because you can pretty much just go outside and be somewhere that's pretty lively with music, and it's going to be fun wherever you go. There's just such a variety of music in Nashville, there's always going to be something that speaks to you. My last year there, I was just a block away from the rink.

 If people were visiting, where would you tell them to go for dinner?

I would say The Twelve Thirty Club. That's right down on Broadway.

If you were going to go up and Venmo a request to a band that's really good, what would you ask them to play?

I really like Jason Isbell, who's in Nashville.

What’s something you’re really into at the moment?

I guess it kind of changes. Like, right now it's golf, but I don't know much about it, so it's tough to say. I think maybe outer space stuff, if someone wanted to talk to me about that.

I would love to talk to you about that!

But the thing is, I don't know much. Like, I can't talk too much. I'll just listen to someone who knows a lot about it.

Do you believe in aliens, or anything like that?

Yeah, I think it's hard to say. Like, it's so big, right? It's hard to fathom how big and expansive. I would say yeah.

Well, we'll come back to this another time. For now, what does an ideal day off look like for you? Let's do offseason and then in season.

Offseason, hopefully get outside. Now, I would say get a round of golf in. Maybe end the day in a body of water somewhere, like a lake. Have my dog, family around. Just hang out with good weather. During the season’s a little different. Usually just laying on the couch, trying to do as little as possible, and then maybe a nice dinner or something like that. But yeah, during season, usually go horizontal a bit more often.

Can you tell us more about your dog?

Manny is a 13-month-old puppy. Last summer we got him. And yeah, he's energetic. I would say he's a little bit mischievous sometimes, but he’s a nice pup.

Do you have any like recommendations of stuff like whether it's books, podcasts, video games, movies, TV shows, like any content that you kind of go to?

Well, I'm watching Ted Lasso. It's my favorite. And Game of Thrones is another one of my favorites. I think the season's been awesome so far.

Circling back to hockey, how did your journey in the sport begin?

We were actually living in College Grove, Minnesota, where I was first living until I was about four, and my dad had a backyard rink. My brother played. My dad would always say that I wouldn't go out with my brother because I wasn't as good as him, and I would wait until he got off and then try to go out and skate. So, that's I think the first hockey moment I had. Kept playing when we moved, kept playing in River Falls, and then I think I kind of started playing hockey (in my) age group when it first got crazy for kids to play AAA and do stuff like that. So, when I was 9 or 10, I started doing that with guys from all over the Twin Cities metro area, and then just kept going. I loved it, and would always be fiddling around in my basement and just working on hockey stuff. It was just fun for me. So, spent a lot of my time stickhandling, shooting, and stuff. That was kind of my enjoyment as a kid. I had a couple buddies that would do the same, and I think that helps a lot, too. Had one really good friend in River Falls, and after school, we’d always come to my house or and stickhandle, make obstacle courses. That's kind of where it went. And then went to eventually play junior in Waterloo, Iowa, and then to college in at Minnesota, and then starting pro after that. So, I think I was the first wave of like crazy hockey stuff.

Who were the players and teams that you liked growing up?

Patrick Kane was my favorite player. I actually had a Sid poster in my room. I think everybody did. Kane and Pavel Datsyuk were my two favorite players to find on YouTube and watch their highlights. I would do a lot of that. Those were my two guys.

Obviously, there's so many people in the village. Was there anyone in particular that really helped you take a big step to get here?

Yeah, there's so many. But I think one of my trainers back at Minnesota, Tad Johnson. He was really good for me at that time, and I think that really helped me propel into having a good start to my pro career, which is pretty big, because you can kind of get thrown the other way pretty fast when you when you jump in. So, I think he was really big for me when I left college going into my first year.