Veteran San Jose Sharks defenseman Marc-Édouard Vlasic played his 1,300th game in the National Hockey League (NHL) on Thursday night in a 4-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Yes, 1300 games, all played in a Sharks uniform. An extremely rare occurrence.
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In an interview with “SJ Hockey Now”, the Quebecer, who is now 37 years old, remembered his first season in the big league, in 2006-2007, when he was only 19 years old.
An impressive first campaign for a young man who wore the colors of the Quebec Remparts the previous season. Moreover, the Remparts coach at the time, Patrick Roy, was convinced that Vlasic would play a few games with the Sharks in October and that he would return to Quebec then.
But that never happened.
“I remember my first game, I was playing on the first pair with (Scott) Hannan, I think, and I was on the right side,” Vlasic said. We play against St. Louis, I jump on the ice, I play against Keith Tkachuk and we contain them. In my first match. I think we won in overtime.”
From then on, Vlasic knew he could play in the NHL. While he thought he would return to Quebec after ten games, the Sharks kept him in San Jose. Which remained a surprise for him.
“Just before leaving Quebec, I bought a Mazda 3, two days before leaving for the camp and I left it at the family home saying ‘ah I’m going to come back and drive it this year,’” -he remembered. But I never came back.”
What happened to the Mazda 3?
-“I sold it,” he said.
In San Jose, the organization first loaned him a car. Then he bought his own.
“I bought a Jeep and I still have it,” he revealed. A little less than $60,000. I bought it in November 2006.
The trophy he should have won
Later in the interview, Vlasic defended the idea that NHL guards should have one more individual trophy. For the moment, only the Norris Trophy, awarded to the defender of the year, is offered to them.
The man with 1,300 matches deplores the fact that even goalkeepers have two trophies, while attackers have several.
“I think it’s completely absurd, (the defenders) deserve it,” he said.
“We’ve been hearing about it for a long time, but no one has made any adjustments,” he also mentioned.
That said, even if he had won this trophy 10 or 12 times, “I would have traded them for a (Stanley) Cup.”
“Individual honors, I would trade any to help the team,” he added. Any player, on any team, would say the same thing.”
