Where did you grow up? And what was your hometown like?
It's called New Liskeard, Ontario. It's a super small town, about five, five and a half hours north of Toronto. Not a whole lot going on, I would say. A lot of lakes, lot of hockey as a kid growing up. Pretty quiet, but it's kind of what I like.
Do you go back there in the summers, or is there somewhere else that you spend the offseason?
I kind of bounce around. I used to do a lot of like North Bay, Sudbury... a little bit bigger towns around there. I go home for a couple weeks, just kind of visit family and stuff. But the last couple years I've been in Boston most of time training and stuff there. There's not much training and stuff going on up there.
Were you a Maple Leafs fan growing up? Like, what teams/players did you love as a kid?
I kind of bounced around. I mean, I was a Leafs fan, as much as I would try to fight it at times, sometimes. I liked Ovechkin a lot. I liked a lot of players, Ovechkin, Sid... Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, those guys... but yeah, I was probably a Leafs fan. Probably.
And how did you get started playing hockey?
Honestly, I don't remember a time when I haven't been playing hockey. My dad used to make rinks in the backyard and stuff when I was a kid. So, I think as soon as I could walk, I kind of had skates on in the back. My dad's obviously a big hockey guy, and my family plays a lot of hockey. So, I think in my hometown, if you're not playing hockey, you're really not doing a whole lot in the winter. Because it's a long nine months. So, I think everybody's kind of skating at some point in their life.
What is your family’s story?
It’s funny, my dad Greg works for the paving company in town, and my mom Heather works for the construction company. So, they kind of work with each other and against each other a little bit. They were in London, Ontario before they had me, and they moved up north to have me. But yeah, big sports people. They never really played anything too high a level, but they kind of play all sports. Like as a kid, I don't remember playing one sport for more than a couple weeks of time. I bounced around doing everything. They kind of just pushed me to do as much as I could.
Then I have one sister, Lauren. She’s actually in her last year of vet school right now. We had dogs growing up, but my aunt – my mom’s sister – is also a vet. They had a little farm where there were rescue animals and stuff. She was out there a lot.
So, let's say you're on the road and you're on your own, and you don't have any obligations to family or friends. What are you doing?
Ooh, it depends on what time of the season. Probably not a whole lot. Getting up, going grab a coffee, quick walk, see if there's anything around. If not, I like to just kind of hang out and chill, not do anything too crazy.
What kind of coffee are you getting?
I just kind of started getting into coffee. I never really drank coffee until a couple years ago, and then schedule we have, you kind of need it sometimes. We have a Nespresso machine at the house. I used to have, like, the press one. It's like a Ninja something. But we got rid of it. We weren't good enough at it, I don't think, for the process. We bought the pod ones.
When you are at home in the summers with your fiancé, what do you like to do?
I'm a big golfer, so I like to golf as much as I can. Obviously, it’s kind of tough with timing and stuff... but also, when I go home, we have a cottage back home, so I spend a lot of time at the lake and kind of getting away from stuff. We do a bit everything. We have a pontoon boat, so it's more lounging around. We have a Seadoo. We used to do a lot of wakeboarding and skiing and stuff, but since we've gotten older, not as much. But bonfires, stuff like that. I don't like being too, too busy. She's the same way. We both like going back here and going to the cottage and being with the family and the kids, so it’s nice. It's my parents’ cottage. I grew up going to it all the time. So, it's just ours. If I wanted to go up and use it, I could, but it's so far away, I'm only up there with them.
Spoons told us that you're actually a scratch golfer.
That's what I was going to say, but I feel like everybody says something about golf.
It's so true. But I think you being scratch makes it a little bit better.
(Laughs) If you want to ride with that one!
When did you get into golfing?
Ever since I was a kid. I think I have pictures as a kid where it's like, hockey stick in the winter and golf clubs in the summer. My parents, they’re not huge golfers, but they like it. When I was born, that was kind of their thing. They'd go to the range once or twice a week and have a date night-type thing. So, they just brought me from an early age. I don't remember a time where I wasn’t playing golf. Did it a lot as a kid.
Do you have favorite golfers, or favorite golf moments?
I mean, I've always been a huge Tiger fan. When he came back and won the Masters in 2019, that was cool. I was a big Rickie Fowler fan when he was on tour with all the bright orange and stuff like that.
Any recommendations when it comes to what you’re watching?
I like watching the same things over and over. I've seen Friends I can't even imagine how many times, How I Met Your Mother... I like Suits a lot. We just started Chief of War or whatever it is on Apple TV, that’s a pretty good one. But, yeah, we don't watch a ton of shows, I would say. It's hard with our schedule, too. We finally get into a show, and it's like, all right, I'm gone for eight days. Don't watch the next episode. So, it's tough. But I would say I repeat the same couple a lot.
Finally, what’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
My old coach in juniors used to always say you get better or worse every day, you don't ever stay the same. So, I think something like that, where some days it's hard coming to the rink and you're tired and stuff, but if you're gonna be here, you might as well get the most out of it. So, I kind of try to live by that.
