Dallas Stars’ Tyler Seguin prepared for a resurgence: ‘I know I’ll have a good year’

TORONTO — When Tyler Seguin entered a restaurant on Matheson Boulevard in Mississauga, Ont., for lunch on July 4, he was greeted like family. Chris Soupourmas’ face lit up when Seguin walked through the door, and he greeted the star NHL forward by singing his name in an affectionate, fatherly tone.

“Tyler has been coming here for a while,” Soupourmas, the owner of Jessie’s, said proudly while pointing to the menu on the far wall. “He always knows what he wants.”

Jessie’s is an unassuming establishment, just 0.3 miles from Iceland Arena, where Seguin had been working out on the ice for the past hour. Soupourmas remembers a time more than a decade ago when Seguin would get dropped off to the restaurant by his mother after working out. Now, Seguin was a 30-year-old man driving over in his Ford F150, preparing for his 13th NHL season, still coming for lunch after a full morning of workouts.

For the past couple of years, Seguin was forced to break away from this routine. From the time Seguin felt a pop in his hip on July 29, 2020, in the Edmonton bubble, one day before the NHL was set to resume play from the COVID-19 pause, his hockey life had been greatly altered.

A labral tear is always a traumatic injury, as it’s often the result of overuse over an extended period of time, but, according to Seguin’s surgeon, his torn hip labrum was on the more severe end of the spectrum. Given that Seguin played 26 playoff games after that initial pop, that wasn’t exactly a shocking revelation. Unexpected, though, were the results of the knee scope that occurred shortly after his hip surgery, which resulted in him losing his whole quad muscle and left him with a “chicken leg.”

Now, after a frustrating period, there are encouraging signs. After a productive offseason off the ice, Seguin has started this season with one goal and three assists in three games.

“There have been percentages (of myself) that I’ve been missing from my injuries,” Seguin told The Athletic. “I’ve been away from from what my routine’s been that’s made me successful and got me that contract. I’m back on it now. That’s why I’m excited. That’s why I have high expectations.”

Going into the 25th game of last season, Seguin’s disappointment was palpable. Through the first 24 games, he had 11 points. There had been no consistency with his deployment. At one point, he was relegated to third-line duties.

“It was just humbling because I thought I could step back in and go with my body and with everything, visually, mind, habits,” Seguin said. “But it wasn’t that.”

It was during that 25th game on Dec. 11, 2021, in San Jose, when reality confronted Seguin in the ugliest way.

“The puck went forward and I had a half breakaway,” Seguin said. “I went, skated as hard as I could and got the puck. I could see the guy behind me, he came up, got to a side, caught me and the play was done. I got out after that and was like, ‘That should not happen.’ I can see it visually, I’m gone and then he caught me, and it wasn’t much of a problem for him. That’s when I knew, I’m still not there.”

Those close to Seguin, including his perosnal trainer and “sensei,” Matt Nichol, warned him coming into last season of the arduous journey ahead. Exactly one year prior to that game in San Jose, Seguin was unable to stand. He had undergone surgery to repair a torn hip labrum on Nov. 2, 2020 and in early December of that year, he was still in a wheelchair. In the following months, Seguin would work not just to rehab from his hip injury but also overcome complications along the way to his knee and quad.

The competitive side of Seguin couldn’t come to terms with the fact that he could be healthy enough to be on the ice but less of a player than what he had been his entire life. Seguin became an easy target. He received a $78.8 million contract in 2018 with an average annual value of $9.85 million. He was, and still is, the highest-paid player on the Stars. The production certainly didn’t line up to the contract, but this version of Seguin was also a far cry from the player in 2018.

“(Last) season, I never felt great on the ice,” Seguin said. “Like lower-body and power, it just wasn’t there.”

Midway through last season, things started to change. It began with Seguin revamping his pregame routine, which includes kBox workouts, squats, explosive jumps and other activating initiatives. Seguin also went to former head coach Rick Bowness and looked for a more defined explanation for what his role needed to be.

“They weren’t really talking to me either,” Seguin said of the coaching staff. “I was just kind of down there, figuring it out. That’s when I was like, I need help. No. 1, what do you guys want from me? Do you want me in this role, do you want me back to a different role? I wasn’t first power play, I wasn’t 6-on-5, I wasn’t even PK-ing. So, it was like, what do you guys want? Let’s work on video and tell me what you guys want.”

Results began to show. In Seguin’s first 35 games, he had 13 points. In the next 36 games, Seguin had 32 points. Even as his game started producing results, though, Seguin’s body still wasn’t at full strength.

“In the back of my head I knew I have this offseason, which will be great for me,” Seguin said. “I came back (to Toronto) and got back with (Nichol). That’s why I’m excited, getting back to just the different things I used to do.”

At 7 a.m. on July 4, Seguin went to one of the training rooms towards the back of the gym to meet with Dr. Melissa Givelos. On Mondays and Wednesday, Seguin met with Givelos for acupuncture to begin his mornings. At this stage of the summer, Seguin’s focus was on little movements, activating his body and other technical aspects. Later in the summer, Seguin would turn his focus to power, adding muscle and putting on weight, before the final phase, which is conditioning.

“His work ethic has become more diligent,” Givelos said. “The older he’s gotten, the more routine-oriented he’s become, but he’s always been a great kid and extremely respectful, which not everyone is at that age, especially teenage millionaires.”

As Givelos worked on Seguin, the two caught up on life. Seguin had just returned back from Dallas while Givelos was still riding the high of a Backstreet Boys concert. Seguin spent some time recounting exactly nine years ago to the day, when he was traded from the Boston Bruins to the Dallas Stars. Throughout the 45-minute session, Givelos and Seguin communicated about how his body was feeling and which parts needed more emphasis. However, she also had areas that she knew needed work, even if Seguin didn’t feel it.

“What we do in the offseason is very preventative,” Givelos said. “We address issues that can be silent in the body. It’s like, say he has no pain but I notice one of his shoulders are tight. That can limit his training, for example, or it can lead to some alterations in the gym that can lead to pain in the future.

“With Tyler, it’s well-known that he had those surgeries last year. That’s just a part of what we stay on top of but we also look at his body as a whole and make sure his ankles aren’t too tight, his glutes are firing, for example, so his whole body is functioning properly to get the most of his off-ice training and so that when he starts skating, he has that explosiveness.”

At 7:45 a.m., Seguin went out to the workout area. Nichol was working out another NHL client in the gym while Seguin engaged in small exercises. These things ranged from working with a golf ball under his feet to a variety of stretches against the padded wall to jump roping.

Once Seguin’s warm-up was complete, Nichol joined him to lead him through the different workouts for the day.

“There’s Tyler, the individual person, and what his training style is,” Nichol said. “Some guys respond to certain types of exercises, certain types of coaching cues. There’s also understanding Tyler the athlete, what he’s gone through from an injury history perspective the last couple of years. You put all of that stuff together and it all plays a role and factors into the decisions you make when you’re choosing any given exercise on any given day.”

At this point in the offseason, Seguin was still building up the intensity of the workouts. The heavy ramp-up phase was still a few weeks away. The focus of these workouts was to work on the muscles and get them ready for the grind that would come later. While they appeared relatively minor, this was the phase that Seguin missed for the past two years because of COVID-19 and injuries.

“I hadn’t gone for a jog in three years,” Seguin said. “Three weeks ago (from July), I’m doing it. I don’t have to think any more about certain injuries and stuff, which is wild, to be honest. That’s the No. 1 difference. A lot of the things I was doing before was kind of getting back to baseline. That’s what the past couple of years has been, getting back to what my baseline was. Now, we’ve hit the baseline weeks ago. Now, I’m already getting better from that. It’s been such a process. Those little things, they actually add up. They really do.”

After a 90-minute workout with Nichol, Seguin drove out to Iceland Arena in Mississauga to join kids on the ice as part of Jon Elkin’s goalie camp. For Seguin, this is an important part of his offseason training that actually began as a job. Over a decade ago, Seguin would get paid $8 per hour to be on the ice.

“I was always the young kid in the group,” Seguin said. “I would have to stay on the red line and just shoot. That’s where I would get blisters on my hands. I’d go about four hours a day.”

“I haven’t charged them in over 10 years,” Seguin added with a smile.

Seguin didn’t dress in his full hockey gear — that would come later and include the likes of Nick Robertson and Jason Spezza, among others — but he was on the ice, taking hundreds of shots.

“When I don’t do it, it’s not a good year,” Seguin said. “I’ve noticed it every time. It’s just a good starting base of feeling the puck again. Then, it’s all just goal-scoring, getting that habit so that when I get into those situations this season, it’s just instinctive.”

Seguin isn’t oblivious to the noise. He knows the criticism that comes his way because of his contract. He’s also aware of the image some have of him as a young millionaire athlete who chooses a good time over the extra time in the gym.

“I kind of let that persona go, too,” Seguin said. “Once you win the Stanley Cup, the partying and all of that was so public, I kind of let that ride. It’ll surprise people then, if you know me and you know how much I care. I don’t always love people knowing what I’m doing, as far as training. It’s better to work in silence and be quiet about how hard you actually are working, because maybe you’re going to motivate that guy who is coming to take your job or you’re going to line up against. I’d rather him think I’m drinking myself away or traveling the world or doing whatever.”

To that point, Seguin remained pretty quiet on social media throughout the summer as he took care of business in the gym and on the ice — and off the ice. On a trip to Sweden for the wedding of former teammate John Klingberg, Seguin took a detour through Greece, where he proposed to his girlfriend, Kate Kirchof.

“My life has definitely never been more balanced than it is now,” Seguin said. “We have our new home here, engaged and hopefully looking to get married next summer. That balance in life is always exciting. Part of growing up but to finally be there, definitely easier to rest your head at night. I have my circle of people I trust and people I care about, besides teammates, of course. Once you learn that, you kind of realize that everything else doesn’t really matter too much. People can say what they want.”

When Seguin sat at Jessie’s on July 4, he felt confident that, even at his age, he had plenty of good hockey left. He yearned to have an opportunity under a new coaching staff and with a healthy body for the first time in years. Seguin said he remembers when the scouting report on him was that his offense was fine but his defensive presence needed to improve. In recent years, the pendulum has swung far the other way. As Seguin strives for balance in his personal game, he’d also like to see it from the team game.

“The team, as a whole, we got so hammered by that defensive mindset by the (previous coaches) that we’re still stuck in that,” Seguin said. “One thing I did talk about with Pete (DeBoer) was how much more we’ve got to get our defensemen activated, how much more we’ve just got to possess it. I watched the Stanley Cup Final, how much (Nathan) MacKinnon would go, turn it back, regroup. That’s what I told Pete. I’d like to do that. I would like to not have to dump it in all the time. He was on board with that.”

Under DeBoer, the early results have been glowing in Seguin’s rejuvenation. He’s got two new linemates in Mason Marchment and Ty Dellandrea, who have played well in their own right. Marchment, in particular, was a player that DeBoer identified over the summer as an ideal partner for Seguin.

“I thought Seguin needs a guy like that with him,” DeBoer said. “I think Jamie Benn has been a version of that over the years for him. … (Marchment) creates room on the ice. He hunts and retrieves pucks. I think physical skill is probably a great way to put it. Seguin’s not alone there. There’s a reason Evander Kane is on (Connor) McDavid’s line. Great skill players like that need some of that element with them.”

The combination is clicking early. Seguin opened the season with a three-assist game and, through the first three games, is second on the team in points with four after scoring his first goal on Monday.

“Give me one guy to play with and there are no second thoughts in my head,” Seguin said. “I know I’ll have a good year. The statistics from last year, I’m not worried about that. I’m back to what my baseline was and getting better.”

(Photo of Tyler Seguin: Jerome Miron / USA Today)