Custance: It’s funny, because there’s all these generalizations people want to make about big hockey players. You’re 6-foot-7, so people wanted to say, “Oh, this guy is going to develop into a power forward.” I heard that about you in your draft year. This is how it’s gonna go for Tage Thompson. But with you, when you talk to people or you read things, it’s vision. It’s intelligence. It’s not the prototypical 6-foot-7 kind of descriptions. How much of that is being a coach’s son and having that coach’s kid mentality?
Thompson: One-hundred percent. I think the majority of it is that. Another piece is that I wasn’t always the biggest kid. I was a late bloomer. Like, big time. I was 6-foot-1, 160 at the program.
And then I went in the next year at college at 6-foot-4, 185. So I grew three inches over the summer and put on 25 pounds. Then I think I grew another inch the next season. When I turned pro, I grew another two inches. You keep growing, and you start to get comfortable with your skating, and then you grow a little bit (more), and you’re like, “Oh, I feel weird.” And then you gotta keep adjusting.
I finally stopped growing. The weight started to come on. I’m feeling comfortable in my body. When I’d been younger, I’d always been the smaller, skilled guy on the team. I wasn’t a guy that would run around and use his body. I was still learning how to use that part of my game. I’m still learning how to use my body in certain situations to benefit me. But when I was younger, I relied more on my hockey sense and my skill to create plays and get open. That’s something that’s stuck with me. It’s something that I have now, plus the size. I think learning how to combine those two will be nothing but a benefit for me.
Gentille: How much of that happened during offseason? Was there a summer where you came back and were like, “Oh, shit. I have to relearn everything.” How do you adjust whenever you make those jumps?
Thompson: I think the biggest focus was just making sure that I’m continually working on my skating, working on the mechanics on my stride so I can always fall back on that. I think the biggest thing with the skating, as you grow, is the strength. You’ve got to continue to build strength as you get taller, because your center of gravity is changing. And I think as long as I had that foundation for my stride and continued to work on the mechanics, that was a big focus for me. Obviously the weightlifting, too. But it just seemed like no matter what I did in the gym, the weight just wouldn’t come on. And I feel like the past couple of years now, it’s starting to (stick).
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