Nick Paul and Barclay Goodrow ‘terrorized’ as linemates before becoming foes

NEW YORK — Ten years ago, Nick Paul arrived in Brampton, Ontario, ready to light it up in junior hockey with the Battalion.

“I wanted to score,” Paul said. “I wanted to toe drag.”

But there were a few occasions when Paul was called into the office of Stan Butler, a long-time coach in the Ontario Hockey League. Butler had trained many NHLers, including Sidney Crosby for four summers. He knew Paul’s path would be different.

“I know it’s not the prettiest way,” Butler told Paul. “But if you want to go far in this league, and leagues beyond this, there’s the right way to play. A lot of people have skill. And people like to rely on people who are reliable.”

Then Butler pointed to a model: Paul’s teammate and the Battalion’s captain, Barclay Goodrow.

Long before Paul and Goodrow faced each other in this Eastern Conference final, the two were linemates in junior in Brampton and North Bay (where the team moved in 2013). They were penalty-kill partners and friends. Their two years together helped Goodrow land his first NHL contract and helped Paul see an up-close model of the kind of player he needed to be in order to reach the next level.

Now, Paul has followed Goodrow’s lead as a key trade-deadline addition and identity player who could help lift the Lightning to another Stanley Cup championship. Perhaps, Goodrow’s six-year deal with the Rangers could be a comparison Paul uses in free agency this summer.

“Both of those guys got dirt on their hands, and I mean that in a good way,” Butler said. “Nothing has been easy for them. They had to work their asses off.”

Butler loved Goodrow right off the bat, having scouted him since his midget days, and made him a first-round pick in the OHL Draft in 2009.

“I like big guys. I think you’re starting to realize that,” Butler said, laughing. “He was on a really good team and he was a solid player. He came into junior as a goal-scorer, but the biggest thing I try to teach the guys is a 200-foot game. By the time he finished junior, he was.”

Goodrow had played three seasons in Brampton — racking up 24 and 26 goals in back-to-back years — by the time Paul arrived in 2012. Paul was a bit more under the radar as a youth player, partly due to the fact he was 5-foot-6 and awkward early in his midget years. He didn’t get drafted his first year in bantam. It took a serendipitous trip by Butler for him to get his break.

Butler was at Chesswood in North York, ready to check out a minor midget game on one of the four ice sheets. The game he planned to scout was delayed, so he popped by a neighboring rink where Paul was playing. The scouts he saw there didn’t know who Paul was.

“He was a good player on a bad team,” Butler said. “But he had potential.”

Paul got the message early on as to how he’d have to fit in.

“The players on that team, everyone bought into that style,” Paul said. “If you wanted to be that high-flying guy, you weren’t fitting in.”

The example Goodrow set made it easy to follow. “He played the right way — detailed, hard,” Paul recalled. “And he still put the puck in the net.”

Just imagine what it was like when Goodrow and Paul were put together.

Ben Thomson joined the Battalion a couple of months into the 2013-14 season in a trade.

He knew Goodrow from growing up, as they both were 1993 birth years, so we’re in the same hockey circles. At that time, Goodrow played left wing, and Thomson joined him on the right side. It wasn’t until around December when Butler decided to put Paul in the middle.

“I wanted to make the biggest line in junior hockey,” Butler said.

Goodrow was 6-foot-2, 220-pounds. Thomson, a fourth-round pick by the Devils in 2012, was 6-3, 203. Like Goodrow, Thomson was an overager in his fifth year in junior. Paul was the biggest, at 6-3, 224, a fourth-round pick by the Stars in 2013.

“The chemistry was pretty undeniable,” Thomson said. “We just had a lot of fun together.”

Thomson said it seemed like Goodrow would get a few breakaways a game. Paul used his size up the middle and on the forecheck, and made smart plays. They both had more offensive skill than Thomson, who admits he was more fit for the bottom six but ended up with career-high 24 goals that season.

“So many chances created by those two,” Thomson said. “I could think of 10 goals where I was literally standing there and they set me up.”

Butler felt Goodrow and Paul just complemented each other very well, and each had a relentless motor that made them nightmares on the forecheck. They were also penalty-kill partners. Lightning assistant GM Stacey Roest, then director of player development, would see Goodrow and Paul a lot that year, as they played with Tampa Bay prospect Dylan Blujus. They were a force. “Not as mean as they are now,” Roest said, smiling.

“They were impossible to play against,” Butler said. “They play that cycle-down-low game and they keep the puck and hold onto it forever. Benny’s a big boy, too. They play the right way, they block shots. They stick up for teammates. Once they were put together, they clicked right away. They terrorized defensemen. They just beat the piss out of them.”

They were also clutch.

Goodrow and Paul led Brampton to the conference finals their first year together. Goodrow totaled 38 goals and 14 assists in 62 games while Paul had 12 goals and 16 assists in 66 games.  The next year, Goodrow had 33 goals and 34 assists, Paul had 26 goals and 20 assists and the Battalion went to the OHL final, losing to Guelph. Along the way, they beat Niagara — led by former Lightning forward Carter Verhaeghe — overcoming a 3-1 series deficit, and Paul scored the winning goal in Game 7. They beat Oshawa, led by current Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli, in the conference finals. That Generals team would win the Memorial Cup the following season.

“They’re just winners,” Thomson said of Goodrow and Paul. “You watch this (Eastern Conference final) series and it’s so evident why Barclay is always on the team that wins. Both of them winning at a young age in junior, went to the final, won the Eastern Conference — it felt like we won it all to us. Once you get a taste of it, you don’t want to let it go. Those guys are pretty hungry.”

It’s not easy to figure out why. Paul wasn’t drafted his first year in bantam and was up and down from the minors with the Senators 11 times in his tenure there. Goodrow played five years of junior hockey and never got drafted. “A lesser person of character would have quit,” Butler said.

“I always said, ‘You get better or bitter,’” Butler said. “They never got bitter.”

Butler kept pressing Bryan Marchment, then a scout with the Sharks, that they needed to sign Goodrow. Give him a shot. San Jose eventually did in March 2014, giving him a three-year deal for $626,000 per season. Like with Paul, it took Goodrow some seasoning in the minors before he earned a regular role in the NHL. All Goodrow did was become one of Sharks coach Pete DeBoer’s favorite players, one who scored an overtime winner in Game 7 against Vegas in 2019.

And, like Paul this season, Goodrow was a key deadline addition by the Lightning in 2020, acquired from the Sharks for a first-round pick (Tampa Bay also got a third-rounder in return). Goodrow, of course, was part of the identity Yanni Gourde line — the modern-day version of the “Grind Line” — which helped catapult Tampa Bay to two championships.

“Remember when people were like, ‘Oh, that’s a bad trade,’” Butler said. “I don’t think there’s many people who feel it’s a bad trade now. Same with Nick Paul. They’re just honest players. Think you’re going to beat those guys? Good luck. When you’re on with them, you have to earn your ice. I’m not surprised how good they’ve turned out. Sometimes, it’s just opportunity, right?”

Paul nearly had the opportunity to be Goodrow’s teammate again in the NHL.

Before this year’s trade deadline in March, the Rangers were among the many teams in the mix for Paul. The Bruins were in it, too, with Edmonton and Colorado also showing interest. Paul was trying to negotiate a contract extension with the Senators, but those stalled over the weekend before the deadline.

It was believed that Paul turned down a four-year offer worth $2.5 million annually from Ottawa. By Sunday night, Tampa Bay had offered Mathieu Joseph, the kind of return the Senators needed to deal Paul to Tampa Bay. Paul turning down approximately $10 million had to be hard, especially considering his path.

“But Nick bet on himself,” Butler said. “And I love that. Look how good it’s turned out.”

It’s paid off big-time, as Paul has played himself into a hefty payday in free agency this summer. Paul’s performance in the playoffs — his Game 7 heroics against the Leafs alone — should make him one of the most highly sought-after targets. A model by our Dom Luszczyszyn projects a four-year, $3.4 million AAV deal for Paul. It wouldn’t be surprising if Paul’s camp started by asking for term and an AAV starting with a 4. But Paul said that, in an ideal world, he would stay in Tampa Bay.

“Definitely,” Paul told The Athletic. “I love it here. I love the staff. I love the guys. I love everything about it. Right now, the focus is on winning playoff games. But after the season, this is definitely somewhere I’d like to be.”

Fittingly enough, Paul could use his old teammate and buddy Goodrow as a contract comparison. Goodrow, following a trade from Tampa Bay to the Rangers last July, signed a six-year deal worth $3.6 million per season.

Does Lightning coach Jon Cooper see any of Goodrow in Paul’s game?

“It’d be hard for me to compare,” Cooper said. “If I was going to say one thing, maybe they’re both winners,” Cooper said. “Goody is a winner, and Paul is, too. They do big things at big moments. You like to have both guys on your team.”

Of all the players Tampa Bay lost in the offseason — Yanni Gourde to Seattle in the expansion draft, Blake Coleman to free agency in Calgary, Tyler Johnson in a trade to Chicago — you can make an argument they might miss Goodrow the most.

“He’s such a competitive player,” Cooper said. “He can play up and down the lineup. He’s like a Swiss Army knife. He’ll hate that I said that. He can pretty much do it all. To have a guy like Goodrow in your lineup that can play with good players, he can play with bangers, he can play with checkers. He can kill penalties. Those are pivotal guys to have on your team. Such a good team guy. He’s got a winning pedigree, raised the Stanley Cup a couple times. To have a guy who can play all situations, but he’s got the mentality to do it. He’s not trying to be anything he’s not, and that’s what makes a player like that so valuable.”

Thomson has watched Goodrow and Paul in the playoffs and is not surprised they’re playing key roles. He’s seen them both deliver in big moments. He’s admired their drive, their guts. The fact Thomson is still playing, spending last season with Vegas’ AHL affiliate, is in part due to Goodrow and Paul. Thomson said there was a 50-50 chance he’d sign a pro contract after his final year in North Bay, but the fact that he had such a good year on Goodrow and Paul’s line helped him get a look. He’s been in the AHL or ECHL ever since.

“I owe a lot to them,” Thomson said.

Butler used Goodrow and Paul as examples during his coaching career. Part of his job in junior is figuring out players’ strengths and getting them to maximize those. Goodrow and Paul were both point-per-game players in their final year in junior, but their future at this level was going to be in the roles they play today.

“I cheer for both of them. I hope it goes seven games and whatever happens, happens,” Butler said. “They’re both so likable. I don’t think there was ever a time that either pissed me off. The only thing that pissed me off is when people didn’t believe in them as much as I did. I’d tell NHL scouts, ‘These guys are going to be good.’ It wasn’t like I was a rookie coach. I’ve been around a long time. The scouts would say, ‘I don’t know, they’re big, but awkward at times.’

“People are looking at negatives instead of looking at intangibles.”

(Photo of Nick Paul and Barclay Goodrow courtesy of North Bay Battalion)