Felicia Keller
As the Mar. 7 Trade Deadline loomed, Nico Sturm and his fiancee Taylor Turnquist were expecting a trade.
That expectation materialized, as the San Jose Sharks sent Nico Sturm to the Florida Panthers the day before the Deadline.
Turnquist is a retired professional women’s hockey player, who won the Isobel Cup with the Boston Pride and two NCAA championships with Clarkson.
She spoke with San Jose Hockey Now twice – before the Deadline, on Feb. 27, and after, on Mar. 11 – about the realities of the Trade Deadline for athletes and their families.
She also shared what it was like when Sturm got traded in 2022 from the Minnesota Wild to the Colorado Avalanche, what it’s like to be in a relationship with another professional hockey player, and Sturm’s rapping skills.
Here’s the full two-part interview.
February 27
Felicia Keller: What are your feelings today about the Trade Deadline? Are you thinking about it at all on the day to day? What’s that like for you?
Taylor Turnquist: I would say yes, I am definitely thinking about it. It’s exactly a week away from today, and it’s always just kind of in the back of your mind, just the anticipation of it all, if it were to happen. You start to think about the logistics. Do we keep our apartment? Do we move stuff into storage? Where are we going to be, how far? What to do with your cars?
So I think Nico, being the player, is thinking less of that stuff and just focusing on playing, but me, being at home, I’m thinking about all those logistic things and is it going to happen? Is it not going to happen? Am I going to have to move? Am I going to be staying? So all those things are just kind of running through my mind on a daily basis.
FK: Especially with them being on the road this season until the deadline, do you feel like that changes things for you, especially with those logistics. Would he maybe not even come back to San Jose first?
TT: So that’s another big thing. This is one of the longest road trips of the year. It’s about 13-14 days. So a lot of the girls actually traveled home, just because it is such a long road trip. And I was talking with Nico before this road trip, ‘I really want to go home, see my family,’ but because the Trade Deadline is during the road trip – I mean, it’s the day they get back.
But I actually planned to stay here, just in case he were to get traded, and then if he does, because he only could pack one suitcase. So if he were to get traded, I will be here and can pack up some stuff for him and then meet him wherever he would end up. But it definitely is different them being on the road almost this whole time until the Trade Deadline. So I’m still in San Jose just thinking about it. What could happen, what couldn’t happen, all those things.
FK: What’s the support like between you and some of the other significant others during this time? What’s that community like? I saw that you guys got lunch and mocktails together this week, that kind of thing.
TT: That’s the best part about all this is we’re all in the same situation, we’re all going through this together. And actually yesterday we got lunch, some of the girls that are still here, and we all got lunch yesterday, and it was just so nice, because we all have such different experiences. And we were actually talking quite a long time about everybody’s experience with the Trade Deadline in the past – all their different stories and what’s happened to them and what they did when they got traded, how they dealt with all that. So yesterday actually we ended up sitting at lunch for almost four and a half hours, just chit chatting about all the things and hearing about everybody’s experiences. It’s so nice to have that community and just be able to lean on each other.
FK: What can you say about what that community has been like here with the San Jose Sharks compared to your shorter time in Colorado, but also in Minnesota.
TT: It’s been super nice here, just because Nico and I have been here now for three years, so I’ve really gotten to have that time to make connections with girls. It obviously makes it a little harder when you do have to say goodbye to people. I’ve been the tightest with the girls here in San Jose, because we’ve been here for so long, whereas in Colorado, we were there just for such a short amount of time. You obviously make connections with girls and click with some girls that are maybe around your same age, that kind of thing. But here it’s just been so nice, especially in San Jose and with the Sharks, they have such long road trips, whereas maybe teams in the Midwest have shorter road trips. That’s just what I felt, but with those longer road trips, we all try to get together just to see each other and support one another, so that’s been really nice.
FK: What can you tell me about the life that you’ve built in San Jose. For you a trade is always something that you have in the back of your mind. But how easy for you is it to move?
TT: I actually have made such good connections and friendships here, even outside the Sharks organization. I did coach with the San Jose Junior Sharks, so I made so many friends through that, and they’re friends I hang out with – I’m hanging out with some of those girls that I met tonight just through coaching. So that’s going to be really hard to leave, just because I built such a community here, being here so long, and it’s also a special place for me.
I completed my occupational therapy assistant degree while living here, so I did that completely online and flew back and forth to Minnesota for my labs that I had to be in person for. This past December, I just passed my boards.
So Nico was telling me to hold off on looking for/getting a job, just because we knew there’s a potential he could be traded. So on that side of things, it won’t be too difficult, because I’m not tied to any job or anything here. But still, it’s really hard to just up and move, you feel like you’ve built a home and a community of people here, so that’s always sad to leave if it were to happen.
FK: In terms of those relationships and jobs, in terms of routines that you’ve developed here in San Jose. What would it be like to have to relearn some of those things and redo some of those things. I know I’ve seen on your Instagram that you do a lot of running around San Jose. What is that experience for those things like?
TT: Obviously the weather here being so awesome all the time. Well, not all the time, there’s some rain, but being so warm here. I’ve always loved to run. I found some girls through coaching that also love to run, so we’ve built a little run club, and we’re doing another half marathon this weekend, actually. But you never know where you’re going to end up. And I really am trying not to take anything for granted because I do have such an awesome place to live here. The weather’s great. I get to be outside. I get to run.
There’s so many workout classes here that I love, and that’s one of my favorite things to do. So try not to take it for granted, because you never know where you’re going to end up. But I think that’s what’s made Nico and I feel a little bit more at ease, is that he knows I’m going to be okay wherever we end up. I’ll be happy anywhere right now, it’s just him and I.
We don’t have any pets or any kids, so moving for us is always going to be fine. It’s going to be okay. And he knows that I’m going to support him and I’ll be fine anywhere. So that makes it a little bit easier.
FK: How do the trade stakes for you change now that you guys are engaged versus dating, or is that not something that really has changed over his career, since you guys have been dating since 2016 ish. Does that change things at all or no?
TT: I would say no. When he was playing in Minnesota and got traded to Colorado, it was a little bit different, just because I was teaching full time, so I felt like I couldn’t just up and leave my entire classroom of students. So that year I ended up just finishing out the school year, and I would fly to Colorado on the weekends that he had home games just to see him. But now that I’m not tied to a job here yet, it doesn’t really change things. He can only play hockey for so long, so I’m going to support him wherever we end up, wherever he has to go.
FK: You mentioned the trade from Minnesota to Colorado. What was that experience like for you? Maybe getting that call that that was happening, did you have any sense of it kind of beforehand, just what was that experience like?
TT: That is totally different than this situation, because this year, we’re, not expecting it, but he’s on his last year of his contract, the Sharks are kind of in a rebuild, so it’s not that we’re expecting it, but we’re almost more prepared for it.
Whereas when we were in Minnesota, it was a complete shock, we had no idea it was happening. And I’ll never forget where I was.
I was actually teaching, and I wear an Apple watch, and I was literally in front of the class teaching. I remember I was teaching math, and on my Apple watch I got a call from Nico, and I was like, okay, he’s leaving the rink, calling me, which he normally didn’t do, because he knew I was teaching. But he called me, so I just declined it on my watch, and then he calls me again right away, and I was like, oh, maybe he thought my phone was just on do not disturb. I declined it again, and then he calls me a third time. And I was like, okay, something’s up. So I asked my para, who was in my classroom with me, and I was like, ‘Can you take over for a second? I’m going to just head into the hallway and take this call really quick.’
And I call him back, and he’s like, ‘Taylor, I’ve been traded’ and I’m like, ‘What? I can’t really talk that much right now, but I gotta head back. I have to head back into the classroom. Can I call you during my prep, during my lunch break?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah,’ and then that night he had to be on a flight, so that was all like, oh my God. What are we gonna do? All those kinds of things.
FK: What kind of conversations did you have to have? Did you have a lot of those logistics conversations about whether you were going to go? Did that happen in that day, or is that a slower process, after he actually flies out?
TT: If I remember correctly, I got home from teaching. First of all, my entire school was so supportive of me, especially them knowing Nico was playing for the Wild and Minnesota, everybody’s hockey fans, not everybody but it’s such a big hockey state. They were just like, ‘Take as much time, if you need tomorrow off, that’s fine.’ And I was like, ‘No, he’s literally leaving tonight, so I can be at work tomorrow. He won’t even be there.’
But I got home, and we were in shock, what are we going to do? I think I remember him saying just finish out the work week and we’ll Facetime and we’ll figure it out and go from there. So then I had time to think about what I wanted to do, and I just felt it was right for me to finish out the school year with my students. It’s hard to just up and leave and expect a long term sub for the rest of the year without giving any notice. So we kind of figured things out slowly.
FK: Do you feel like that experience made you more ready for this Trade Deadline, potential trade anxiety feeling?
TT: Knowing that we’ve done it before and everything always works out, it’s going to happen as it should. I think it makes me a little bit more calm.
FK: He goes on and wins the Stanley Cup that year. What was that experience like for you? Were you working? Were you able to go to a lot of the games in the playoffs?
TT: I definitely missed a lot more games than I wanted to, just because I was teaching.
But once it got to the last round of playoffs, the last round against Tampa. I remember thinking to myself, and I was calling my mom, my parents, ‘I can’t miss this. This is once in a lifetime, right? This opportunity doesn’t come by that often. I can’t miss this. I just have to go.’
And there was two weeks left of the school year, and I asked to have a meeting with my principal and my coordinator and all that. And I was like, ‘Look, Nico’s in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the final round, it’s a seven game series. I can’t miss this.’ And they were like, ‘You have to be there, you have to go, we’re going to figure this out.’ And they actually had my coordinator and the principal take over my class so that I could be there. So that was really, really awesome.
I ended up missing the last two weeks of school, which was really sad, because it’s the most fun time for the students. But then I flew to Colorado, and I was there for the rest of the playoffs, and got to enjoy the Stanley Cup celebrations and all that. So it was pretty awesome.
FK: Something that Nico has mentioned in a couple interviews to Sheng is his connection to religion and just religiousness. Is that faith, something that affects the worrying about what might happen or is there a comfort in that faith, in a moment like this?
TT: Definitely, we both rely on and tell ourselves that God has a plan for him and a plan for us, and it’s in his hands, and everything’s going to happen as it should. So that faith in who he is and what he has in store for us is what makes us so calm about the whole situation. Obviously, there’s feelings of anxiety or stress about planning and not being able to plan, but him and I have really grown in our faith, and that is something that we really can rely on during these times that are so uncertain and it’s kind of out of our control, but we know that he has a plan for us, and we’re going to really just trust that.
FK: With your experience as a professional athlete, very different leagues in terms of inner-workings and everything, but how is this time and experience? Do you feel like it’s different for you from some of the other significant others because of that experience?
TT: More so in a way that I can relate to Nico and how he’s feeling and how the pressure can feel. The pressure of performing during these times can be very hard just because you want to prove yourself, you’re on this edge like I don’t know what’s going to happen, and just trying to stay focused on the task at hand. Just being an athlete and a hockey player myself, I know that that can be so hard, so for me, I try to support him any way I can, knowing that it’s super stressful and super hard as a player to stay focused on the everyday tasks, rather than thinking too far forward in the future. And I think that’s something that Nico appreciates too, just that I understand so much what he goes through in the day to day, and what it takes to be such a high level athlete. So just in that sense, I am able to relate and support him, because I know how hard that can be.
FK: What’s your hockey relationship like with Nico? Do you guys debrief games or shifts together at all? Do you talk through things?
TT: We do. Sometimes if it’s a really tough loss, he’d prefer just to come home and not talk about hockey, and I totally understand that, so we won’t really talk much about the game. But there’s other times where I’ll tell him a few things, ‘There was that one shift where I think he should have done this,’ and he’ll pull up his shifts on his iPad and be like, ‘Show me what you’re talking about.’ And I’ll show him, but that’s only every so often. But even after games when he’s on the road, I’ll text him and be like, ‘Thought you played really well, your PK was really good, you did really good on face offs, I thought you were solid in the D-zone.’ So that kind of stuff is something that maybe other girls might not understand. But for me, I really am able to talk about those things and tell him those things because I did play myself, so that’s super fun for the both of us.
FK: Back when you guys were both playing, either professionally or at college, were there a lot of opportunities for you guys to watch each other’s games? Or was that a time period for you guys where it was just so crazy busy?
TT: Especially in college, I got to see him play more so than he got to see me play, just because there were only a few weekends where we overlapped where we were both home. And we would play at three, and the guys would play at seven. So he couldn’t really watch our games because he was at home, maybe napping or doing whatever, and then we were able to see their games after us.
But for the most part in college, when the guys were away on the road, we were home, so we never really got to see each other play all that much. And then obviously, I got to see him play a lot more once I was out of college, being able to stream his games when he was in the AHL, and then when he was playing with Minnesota, I tried to get to as many games as I could. But just schedule wise, he wasn’t able to see me play a whole lot. But obviously, when he had time and he could go, he was there and he was watching.
FK: About college, I’ve got to ask, is it just a crazy coincidence that you guys ended up wearing the same number?
TT: It’s so crazy. We had no idea who each other were. We had no idea. Before you come in your freshman year, the coaches reach out to you and they’re like, ‘Here are the numbers that are available. Which one do you want?’ And I wanted number eight, but we had a girl that was already number eight, and I had never been number 17, really before that. But I was like, I need a connection to the number eight. There was no numbers with the number eight involved or left. So I was like, seven plus one is eight. So 17, it is. And it was just a crazy coincidence that he was 17 too.
FK: And then obviously you retired before the new iteration with the PWHL, but for you are there a lot of players that you played with that are now in that league, and what’s seeing the success of that league been like for you?
TT: There’s actually quite a few Clarkson girls that are still playing in that league, and then obviously, growing up in Minnesota, knowing a bunch of hockey players that are in the league, it’s so cool to see that it’s succeeding. I’m beyond happy and so excited for women’s hockey just in general, because I feel like this is a sustainable league. It’s going to keep growing and keep evolving, and just to see what they were able to do in the first year is incredible. So I just hope that it keeps getting better and better and better and gaining more spectators, attention, fans, all that. It’s really cool, and hearing from some of the girls about how awesome it was just to be in that first year of it all is super cool.
FK: Is the Frost your team, being from Minnesota?
TT: I would say, yeah, definitely. But I have friends on a couple other teams from Clarkson, so I got to cheer for them too.
FK: What conversations do you and Nico have about that immediate moment where it happens, are you expecting to hear it from him first? Where are you expecting to kind of hear that news from first?
TT: Definitely hear from him. We Facetime every day when he’s on the road, and it’s always, ‘Is there any talk? Is there any news? Have you heard anything?’ And he’s always like, ‘Nope. I know as much as you do.’ So I just told him, ‘The second you hear, you call me. If I don’t answer, you call me again.’ But it’s always crazy. You never know if I’m just scrolling Twitter, and maybe Nico’s on the ice or something, and he hasn’t found out yet, and it’s on Twitter, you never know.
FK: Do you discuss what his agent [Matt Keator], San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier, him, do you talk about what some of those conversations have been? He’s said that they’ve been pretty open, with Griersy.
TT: I always ask questions, and Nico’s really good at keeping me in the loop. If he does have an important conversation, he’ll come home and he’ll say, ‘I talked to Griersy today. This is what was said, this is what’s going on, this was what might happen.’ Or same with his agent. When he’s talking to his agent, he’ll always be open with me and say, ‘Talked to Matt today. This is what we talked about, this is what he said.’ He always keeps me in the loop.
FK: Do you have a kind of city or team that you’re hoping for at all?
TT: No. Being it’s just me, I don’t. We don’t have any pets yet. We don’t have any kids yet. I’m open to going wherever, as long as Nico’s happy. I’m open to literally going anywhere. It’ll be a new experience for me, new experience for him.
FK: You mentioned checking Twitter. Do you pay attention to the rumor mill on the internet at all? Or do you try to put that aside?
TT: I try not to go overboard with it. Normally during the season, I’m never really on Twitter or reading any hockey news or articles, but obviously with this Trade Deadline coming up, I’m on Twitter a little bit more, just even seeing other trades, what’s happening around the league. I try not to dive too far deep into it, but I do like to check now with it being like a week away – what’s happening?
FK: Do family or friends send you any rumors at all?
TT: Yeah. And family is always asking, ‘Is he going to get traded, what’s going to happen?’ Nico and I are always like ‘You know as much as we do, we have no idea, we don’t know what’s going to happen, it could be anything.’ I have two brothers, and they’re always watching hockey, and they’ll text me like, ‘There’s a center that went on the IR on this team. Could it be this team?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know.’
FK: How aware are you of things on social media in general, not even trade specific, around Nico and the Sharks?
TT: Honestly, I feel like I’m kind of out of it. I just don’t really read, like some people will see a post and then click through the comments, read the comments. I don’t really do that. I love to see and read about hockey, about the league, but I honestly never really, I’m not somebody that will go through comments and all that kind of stuff.
FK: Did you have thoughts on Nico’s rapping skills or the reaction to it?
TT: Oh, yeah, I had so many friends send me it on Instagram, dying, like, ‘What is this?’ And I was like, he tried really hard.
FK: The general response was that he was the best, from what I heard.
TT: Oh yeah, you could tell he was into it.
FK: I think that’s all my specific questions for now. But is there anything about this time that you feel I haven’t asked about that you think is important, that people know and consider about the significant others of players?
TT: I just want to make known that everybody’s experience is so, so different. For me, it’s not even close to as stressful as it can be for others that have kids in school, have full on families, and they have to think about moving their kids that have friends here and they’re in a school that they love. So that’s just something that I always think about is, I really feel for the families, the girls with kids in schools, even young newborns, maybe a couple month-old kid, it can be really stressful and very hard for them. Everyone’s experience is so, so different.
March 11
Felicia Keller: Where are you at today? Are you still in San Jose? Are you in Florida?
Taylor Turnquist: We found out about the trade on Thursday, and then I ended up flying home on Saturday, just to be home, because Nico wasn’t coming back from the road trip because of the trade. So I was like, I’m gonna head home for a little bit, see my family, check up on our house here before I head to Florida.
FK: What are your feelings about Florida, excitement, how are you guys feeling?
TT: We’re obviously super excited. They’re the best team in their division right now. So that’s super exciting. Obviously exciting for Nico to have a chance to make a really good playoff run. So yeah, we’re super excited, and obviously great place to live, warm weather. So I’m pretty excited about that.
FK: You mentioned it, but sunny city, great for running. How nice is that to know that you’ll be able to continue some of those routines you’ve had?
TT: I’m super excited. I have already heard from a couple of the wives and girlfriends, ‘You’re going to love it here. The weather is amazing. Fort Lauderdale is such a great place to live.’ So I’m super excited that I’ll be able to still run and do all those kinds of things outside.
FK: What’s the timeline like for a move? How long are you anticipating it taking before you guys feel like you’re really settled in Florida?
TT: It’s kind of tricky. Right now actually, it’s been pretty nice.
The team set us up with a realtor that’s helping us out, and just right now trying to get to know us a little bit, do we want to be in a condo, an apartment building? Do we want a single family home that kind of thing. And you never know what you really want, because we don’t know how long we’re going to be there. We don’t know all the logistics, are we going to have family come visit all that kind of stuff. So right now, we’re just at the very early stages of it, and she’s helping, sending us options.
So I think our hope, Nico’s on a road trip right now, and I think he hopes to, in the next week or two, make a decision on a place so that when he comes back from the road trip, he’s not in a hotel for too much longer. So hopefully we can get it all squared away in the next week or two.
FK: Are you the one on the hook for doing a lot of the moving and packing things up? What is that process going to look like for you?
TT: Nico being on the road trip during the trade, he didn’t have a chance to go back to San Jose and pack some more stuff, so he’s just living out of the one suitcase he had for the road trip. And then I actually have had this ski trip planned in Tahoe in two weeks. So I’m actually going to head to Tahoe, ski for a couple days with some friends, and then I’ll go back to our apartment and pack up some extra things and all the things that he might need from home from there, and then I’ll make the move. So yeah, packing wise and getting him everything that he needs is kind of on me, because unfortunately, he did get traded during a road trip, but it all works out in the end.
FK: You mentioned some of the women that have reached out to you. What has that experience been like, starting with some of the women from the Panthers. What has their reaching out to been like you?
TT: It’s actually super exciting and super heartwarming to know that they’re so welcoming and that they reached out so quickly, welcoming me and Nico to the Panthers organization. I was added to the wives and girlfriends group chat, which is nice to get everyone’s contact saved and that kind of thing.
But then we played with the Gadjoviches in San Jose, so I knew Allison, and she reached out. And same with Emelie Kulikov, we played with them in Minnesota, so she also reached out, ‘We’re so excited for you to come.’ And then along with that, the GM’s wife, she also reached out to me which was super awesome and welcoming. ‘We’re super excited to have you guys, can’t wait to get to know you.’ So, yeah, it’s always nice to have some of those texts coming in once you do get traded.
FK: How long was it for you between when you hear about the trade to when you’re added to that group chat?
TT: I want to say it was the next day, next morning.
FK: From some of the San Jose Sharks women, did you get any messages from them? What was leaving that group chat like, what was saying goodbye to them like?
TT: It’s sad, it’s hard. It’s always a really hard time of year for everybody. There’s a lot of change happening, and it is really sad and emotional sometimes. So obviously with there being multiple trades on the Sharks, I wasn’t the only one, so the group chat was just kind of buzzing about how us girls that are leaving are going to miss it, and how the girls staying are going to miss us. So, yeah, it’s hard.
FK: Does going to a team with another player help at all? Do you have a relationship with Vitek and his wife at all? Not sure if they’re in San Jose or not, but does that help to have somebody else?
TT: I haven’t had the chance to get to know her that well, just because they do have a newborn, so she’s pretty busy, and she’s had kind of a crazy couple of months. So I haven’t gotten to know her that well, but I’m sure once she gets to Florida, and I get there, we’ll really be able to connect.
But I know, for Nico it’s been really nice to have Vitek there as well. He’s also in the same hotel as him and them coming from the same team, they already have that connection, so they’ve been able to get dinners together, go out for breakfast, that kind of thing. So I know for Nico, it’s been especially nice to just have him, and they’re kind of in the same boat.
FK: For Nico, what has that process of getting adjusted to a new team been like? How’s that going for him? How’s he feeling about it?
TT: Every day you feel a little bit better and better about it. At first, it can be kind of stressful, overwhelming, you’re meeting an entire new group of guys, new group of staff. You’re trying to get settled with all the new equipment, all that kind of stuff, figuring that out.
But also he had a day, maybe a day and a half, to learn all the new systems, how the team works, how they run, how the coaches work. So all of that’s very overwhelming at first and then, not to mention all the other things that is going through your head, I gotta get my stuff here. I gotta find a place to live. I’m in a hotel. I gotta figure out the car situation.
So the first 24 hours, 48 hours is pretty tough on the players, I would say. But I told him, ‘It’s honestly good that they go on a road trip together, because that gives him a chance to really connect with the guys right away.’ So, yeah, he’s feeling good about it. He’s getting settled in, so it’s good.
FK: What was the moment that you found out? Where were you when you found out?
TT: I was driving home. I was at the grocery store, and I was just on my way home.
Nico had called, and I knew right away, it happened. He was kind of getting antsy about it, with it being within 24 hours of the Deadline, maybe a little more, but I was in my car and he called me, and he’s like, ‘Hey, I can’t talk very long.’
Because he had to call his agent, he had to talk to the team, he had to do all these things, ‘I just want to tell you before you find out anywhere else I’m being traded to the Panthers. I’ll give you a call the second I have a minute. But I just wanted to let you know.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, call me when you can.’ And he’s like, ‘I will’. So then he just hung up. And it took him a while, I think maybe another hour or so before he actually had time to call and talk about it.
FK: What was the first thing you did about it, or first person other than Nico that you talked to about it?
TT: The first thing I did was text in my family group chat with my parents and my two brothers, and I was like, ‘We’re going to Florida.’
FK: What was your family’s response? You’d mentioned your brothers were sending you messages about when players would go on IR last time we talked, what was their reaction?
TT: I actually have a twin brother, and he texted back right away and said something like, ‘Go Panthers baby!!’ with like, a bunch of exclamation points. And my mom, she sent back, ‘NO WAY’ in all caps. And then my dad, he’s, we always laugh, he’s a man of few words, and he hates texting, so he just will send back, like one word or one emoji, and he just sends a thumbs up emoji.
FK: With it not super far before the Trade Deadline, but still 24 hours, does it help that it happened before Friday, not on deadline day? Is it nice to get it out of the way and not deal with the day of stress?
TT: Yes and no. When it starts to get within a day or two of the deadline, Nico was getting pretty anxious, pretty antsy about it. You never know what’s going on behind the scenes. And with it being a game day in Colorado, he woke up and was like, I’m going to go about my normal game day routine and just focus on my normal routine. If it happens, it happens.
And obviously, if not, he was like, then I get to come home and regroup, repack, and then if it were to happen on Deadline day, then he would have that chance to gather some stuff together. But I think it happened the way it should have.
FK: It was right before practice, so he was able to go say goodbye to the guys before heading on out. Is that nice for him to be able to get that moment?
TT: He said that was nice, because sometimes when you get traded, you’re not at the rink, you’re at the hotel, and maybe guys are taking their pre game nap, so you don’t really get that chance to say goodbye. You just have to shoot everybody a text, and then when you see them again, you see them again. But, yeah, him being at the rink helped. He said, it’s always kind of sad, emotional, you say thank you to everybody, good luck, and hopefully you’ll see him again sometime in the near future. I think it was nice for him that he was at the rink and was able to be surrounded by all the guys.
FK: Given that Nico has been traded to a team that then goes on to win the Cup, what valuable experience do you feel like that brings for him to a team like the Panthers?
TT: I think that is part of the reason they picked him up. He’s a really good role player heading into the playoffs, and he now has that experience in his backpocket. And not that it’s going to be exactly the same, because it’s not, each year is different, but just having that experience and that playoff run, in the back of his pocket, can only help him going down the stretch. And he knows what it takes, and he knows how he can best prepare himself for situations like that. And I think it’s going to be really good for him.
FK: Had you guys heard the name Florida at all before you received that phone call?
TT: We did. Nico had talked with his agent a few times, and he was always open with me. I’m like, ‘Is there any rumblings about certain teams?’ And he’s like, ‘I mean, you can never be sure, but there’s rumblings and rumors that I’m hearing the Panthers, but no specifics.’ So he had said that a few days prior to being traded. I didn’t think too much into it, just because you never know what’s true and what’s not.
FK: What are some of your emotions about leaving San Jose and your reflections on your time here? Now that it’s officially over, what are your feelings there?
TT: It’s honestly, really sad. I’m not sure if you saw the Instagram video that the Sharks posted of Nico. Honestly, watching that I was in tears just because we were there for three years, and it started to feel like home. It’s hard in this lifestyle to feel at home wherever we’re playing, just because you’re not guaranteed to stay there, and you might only be there a short period of time.
But being in San Jose for three years, it really did start to feel like our home. I made connections even outside the hockey world. I was texting with them after the trade, and they’re like, ‘This is so sad. Why does it have to be like this?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know.’ So it is hard, but it makes you very grateful for the time that we did have in San Jose, that it was so special that it makes saying goodbye hard.
FK: Is there anything just overall about this whole experience for you that you think that it’s important that people know about?
TT: We want to thank everybody in San Jose for making our three years so memorable. We’re so grateful that we had those three years there. And maybe, you never know, we might end up back there one day.