After spending the last week in quarantine, the pair, with 12 years between them in age, finally joined Sens training camp today.
"I was joking with my wife that I have three little ones at home and I've adopted a German 18-year-old," Stepan said.
After a whirlwind few weeks for Stuetzle, who dazzled at the World Juniors for his native Germany, he was thrilled to start the next chapter of his hockey career.
"It was very exciting just getting here and getting to know everyone and all the boys," Stuetzle said. "I'm looking forward to being able to play with them. It was an unbelievable day and a great practice. I'm so excited to be here now."
He hit the ice with a huge smile on his face and got numerous stick taps from his teammates as he skated onto the Canadian Tire Centre ice for the first time this morning.
"They make it easy for you to fit in," Stuetzle said. "I feel just great and everybody is unbelievable."
For Stepan, who's entering his 11th NHL season, he's a little more familiar with the welcomes. But, there was no hiding his excitement of getting back on the ice.
"I was pretty fired up," Stepan said. "After spending seven days in a hotel you're pretty itching to get back. Obviously, camp was already going so felt like I had some FOMO (fear of missing out) going there so to be here and get the introductions done and start to gel in is good."
Helping Stuetzle over the past week while they've been in quarantine was natural for Stepan. He assisted him with ordering meals and getting some workouts done. Over the past week, they've gotten to know each other pretty well.
"He's a great mentor," Stuetzle said of Stepan. "He really helped me a lot during quarantine. He's a great guy and a great leader and unbelievable player as well. It's great to be around such a great veteran and hopefully learn a lot from him."
For Stepan, he's looking to bring that veteran experience to the Sens locker room and have it rub off on not just Stuetzle, but the rest of the Sens young line-up.
"I think it's really important that the young pieces in your organization are going to be your core pieces in the organization. To make sure they're doing things the right way, in my eyes, not to say I have a crystal ball and know exactly the right answers, but I do have a lot of tools to pass on when I was younger and that's something important to me."
Stepan has 479 points in 739 career NHL games. Stuetzle is looking to get his first in both categories. But now that he's in Ottawa, he's ready to earn his spot and prove himself in the NHL.
"I need to prove it here at this level and that's my goal," he said. "I hope I'm going to have a good training camp and play a good season.
"It's great that everybody is so excited but I need to prove it at that this level and play good hockey and that's my first step right now."
