James Stefan has been on a hot streak as of late that’s seen him piling up the goals. This season’s team is clearly a group that is gelling well and that much was clear from Stefan. It’s clear this season that Stefan is showing what he’s capable of when it comes to his on-ice performance.
“I think just confidence is the key right now,” Stefan said. “I feel like I’m playing well with my linemates on my trust on a lot and I enjoy playing with Gabe and Josh. So I think all three of us just have a lot of confidence right now and we’re just making it easy on ourselves to play with each other I think.”
When a line is gelling and seeing success you don’t mess with that and it’s clear that the Winterhawks haven’t. They’re putting lines out on the ice that see success and it’s paying off.
“I think we all bring different aspects to the game,” Stefan said. “I think we’re all pretty different players, which creates a good chemistry on our line. Josh obviously brings a lot to the table, he’s really physical, he’s got a good shot, and then Gabe obviously has a good all-around game, a two-way guy who can score. Then I feel like I bring a scoring touch and maybe abilities to feel like we all bring different things to the table and I think works really well and enjoy playing with each other.”
Stefan is a native of Laguna Beach, California and has participated in multiple NHL camps over the course of his career so far, but has gone undrafted. He’d love to go to the Los Angeles Kings or Anaheim Ducks since those are his two home area teams. But it’s clear that he’d be happy to be selected by anybody.
“To be honest, I’d go to anyone, there’s not a certain team that I’d choose one over the other,” Stefan said. “It’s the NHL so it’s the best league in the world. So it’s not really a thing where you can pick or choose but I mean, I don’t know I think it’d be pretty cool to stay locally and play for like the Kings, the Ducks. I feel like that’d be that’d be a cool thing to do. Just being a California kid you always dream of playing for the Kings or the Ducks when you’re living there so I feel like that’d be pretty cool.”
During the summer before last, Stefan was able to meet players from the LA Kings such as Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar at the team’s main camp.
“So I got to go there and kind of experience their organization,” Stefan said. “I met a lot of their prospects and then went to their main camp.”
While it was obviously a cool experience for him being able to meet LA’s prospects and veterans like Doughty and Kopitar, he was also able to get the feel for what the pace of the NHL is like. He noted that the next level is a lot faster and stronger.
“I think just the way those guys prepare themselves and the way they take care of their bodies is something that I’ve kind of taken into my game,” Stefan said. “When you go to that next level and you see all those pro guys in the way that they show up early to the rink, take of their bodies, stay late at the rink, take care of injuries, whatever it may be. That kind of shows you what they really put in behind the scenes to play the best in the game. So that’s something that I’ve kind of taken away.”
Many athletes as they’re developing their game look up to professional athletes and try to model their game after them. Stefan said that one guy that he kind of looks at a little bit is the Boston Bruins’ David Pastrnak.
“I feel like we play sort of a similar game,” Stefan said. “He’s a pretty skilled guy and he likes to finish all over the ice and definitely a shoot-first kind of guy. So that’s who I kind of model my game after.”
As one of the veterans on the team, it’s clear that he knows that he has to take on a leadership role as a 20-year-old.
“I feel like it’s just bringing my experience to the team,” Stefan said. “I’ve gone to playoffs for the last two years now, so this will be my third year. So I think just bring in that kind of experience of trying to be both in the locker room and help a lot of the young guys out because I know being a young guy in the league is hard and I obviously went through through my troubles as a young guy, so just kind of being there to help them and sort of coach them and help them however I can is something that I take pride in.”
This season’s team is obviously quite talented and they all have the same goal of winning the WHL Championship, but each player wants to develop their game with goals of their own.
“I think personally I just want to have the best year I can and to reach my full potential as a WHL player in my last season so I think whatever that may entail, I don’t know exactly, but I just want to reach my full potential,” Stefan said. “I want to put in as much effort I can and be the best player I can be and finish up my career on a good note so I could hopefully have some pro opportunities.”
Portland has faced adversity this season with struggles on their eastern road trip. But Stefan explained how it’s good that they’ve faced that already so they don’t have to face it for the first time in the playoffs.
“It was tough,” Stefan said. “At the start of the road trip, we did have some adversity, and that was pretty much our first kind of adversity of the year and I think it was important to get that out of the way because you don’t want to be a perfect team the whole year and then come playoff time you start facing adversity, you don’t want to deal with it. So I think that was huge for us. I think we just stayed confident in our group. We knew that we had a good group and that obviously we weren’t playing our best hockey but I think we just stuck with it and started with our leadership group and kind of dug ourselves out of it. And we were playing really good hockey.”
This season’s team is special and they clearly know that they have the potential to make a deep run and possibly win the league. On the day of the WHL’s trade deadline Portland acquired a Detroit Red Wings first round draft pick from the Brandon Wheat Kings in Nate Danielson.
“I think what makes us special is our depth,” Stefan said. “I think we have a really deep group, if you look at our roster, our defensive core is really strong. We have a really good defensive core back there and I think our forward group has really grown. We have four deep lines and I think everyone can be trusted on the ice at all times which is huge. You always need to have trust in all four lines. So I think that’s really good. And then obviously we have good goaltending. So I think just the depth in our team is something that I think is a really big strength for our group.”
Like many other teams, Stefan and his teammates enjoy spending time together away from the rink when they have time.
“One thing I love to do is play tennis,” Stefan said. “I’m a big tennis guy, also golf. Those are two sports that I think are great to just get my mind off the game and to stay active so my linemate Gabe Klassen, he also loves tennis and golf. So I know we like to go play a lot. I think those are two things that I love to do most in Portland.”
Northwest Sports Desk 