Mikey Eyssimont doesn't care whether it's a game or practice – he plays his heart out and isn't afraid to piss off whoever he's up against. His relentlessness and strong analytics were exactly what Tampa Bay's GM looked for.

Tampa Bay Lightning GM Julien BriseBois often surveys his pro scouting department and analytics staff separately when assembling his NHL trade deadline targets.

During the midway point of last season, BriseBois sought upgrades to his bottom six.

“We were trying to find good forecheckers that had low cap hits,” BriseBois told The Hockey News.

One name that both Tampa Bay’s eye-test evaluators and number crunchers coveted was Mikey Eyssimont. He checked off every box. A virtual unknown before becoming an NHL regular at 26 last season, Eyssimont is a speedy winger who excelled on the forecheck, played with an edge and had a knack for getting under the skin of his opponents.

“The best adjective to describe his game is relentless,” BriseBois said. “He’s hard to play against. If you want to be successful, especially come playoff time, you’ve got to be hard to play against.”

BriseBois ultimately traded Vladislav Namestnikov (50 percent retained) to the San Jose Sharks for Eyssimont, a player who was plucked off waivers two months prior. BriseBois sees untapped potential in Eyssimont, who recorded 15 points in 54 games last season split between three teams and maintained strong underlying numbers during 5-on-5 play. 

Once the 2022-23 season concluded, Tampa Bay re-signed Eyssimont to a two-year, $1.6-million contract. A near-league minimum deal may not seem all that newsworthy for a now-27-year-old, but Eyssimont has all the traits to become the Bolts’ next great diamond-in-the-rough signing.

“We think he can grow into playing a bigger role on our team, and he’s going to be given that opportunity going forward,” BriseBois said.

“To me, it’s always been NHL or bust. I’ve never seen any other route besides that in my life.” - Mikey Eyssimont

BriseBois’ belief in Eyssimont is rooted in the latter's competitiveness. The origin of Eyssimont uncovering that dog in him, per se, is what really changed the course of his pro career. 

The Littleton, Colo., native was selected in the fifth round of the 2016 draft by the Los Angeles Kings after recording 33 points in 40 NCAA games with St. Cloud State as a freshman. After three years of NCAA hockey, Eyssimont joined the AHL’s Ontario Reign ahead of the 2018-19 season. 

Early in his pro career, Eyssimont realized he had to change the way he played. The Reign’s coach, Mike Stothers, made it clear from the get-go that Eyssimont would no longer be able to get by on skill alone. 

Stothers’ critiques added fuel to the fire for Eyssimont, who developed a reputation as a fierce competitor during not just games but practices as well.

“His work ethic was just impressive. He’d go out there every day and grind,” said Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Sean Walker, Eyssimont’s teammate in Ontario that season. “There was a certain fight in him where he didn’t care who he was playing against — he was going to battle, claw and do whatever he could to get his way.”

Throughout three seasons with the Kings’ farm club, Eyssimont tallied 66 points in 162 games and, above all, reinvented himself as an energy player.

“It’s not easy to change your reputation from a skilled finesse player to a gritty, hardworking, tenacious player — or pest, you could say,” Eyssimont said.

But he was never near the top of the call-up pecking order for the Kings, who had one of the NHL’s best prospect pools at the time.

“And slowly, it created a chip on my shoulder that was bigger than the one I already had,” Eyssimont said. “I was going to go out there and play my heart out. If I take a penalty, it’s going to be because I’m being the hardest worker on the ice. If I piss someone off in practice, it’s going to be because I’m trying to get better.”

The Kings didn’t offer Eyssimont a qualifying offer after the 2020-21 season, making him a UFA. He signed a two-year, two-way contract with the Jets.

Eyssimont was far from shy in his first few days with the Winnipeg Jets organization, and he instantly made his presence known.

“You can ask any of my old teammates — they never liked practising with me,” Eyssimont said.

That was no different in Winnipeg, even during informal skates before training camp.

“I just remember Mikey’s going 100 miles per hour during 3-on-3 games in a zone,” said Jets defenseman Declan Chisholm. “He was stealing the puck from Blake Wheeler, opening up the hips and doing tight turns. I remember Wheeler being like ‘Oh my God, who is this guy?’ But Mikey didn’t care. He was going to take a puck off a guy and score. He didn’t care who he was.”

In the NHL, where the margin for error is so thin — and the extra one percent makes or breaks whether you’re in the big leagues or the AHL — an unapologetically driven and determined demeanor can make all the difference. Eyssimont knows who he is, and he’ll never allow external factors to veer him away from that.

“He doesn’t let a lot of things affect him, and I’d say Mikey’s pretty unique in that way,” said Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jansen Harkins, a former teammate of Eyssimont’s with the Jets. “He doesn’t really let anything change that about him. Whether it’s someone else opinion or things that happen to him, he’s pretty set in his own course.”

Eyssimont’s uniqueness is what gravitates many towards him.

“He doesn’t care what other people think. He came to Winnipeg and was rocking clothing that was probably more LA-style, and nobody’s wearing that stuff in Winnipeg,” Chisholm said with a laugh. “But he doesn’t give a s---. He’s going to wear what he wants, and he’s going to rock it.”

Flamboyant fashion wasn’t the only thing Eyssimont brought from the West Coast to Manitoba. During that season with Moose, Eyssimont’s hard-nosed, gritty style of play stuck out in the AHL’s Central Division — where he quickly became arguably the league's most-hated player. He finished with the 32nd-most drawn penalties per 60 minutes of any forward from the 2021-22 season, according to InStat.

“He’s just constantly in your grill,” Chisholm said. “He’s constantly putting sticks in your hands, your feet. He’s always finishing a hit. He might give you a whack or two behind the scenes, too. He doesn’t leave you alone all game.”

While his 42-point output in 58 games may incline you to believe otherwise, Eyssimont was hands-down one of the AHL’s best forwards that year. Eyssimont was a possession monster at even strength — driving play at both ends of the ice — and created a high volume of quality chances.

Eyssimont carried that momentum from his first year in Winnipeg into this past season. But despite having a strong training camp, Eyssimont didn’t make the Jets roster out of camp.

“You could tell he had a fire under his ass,” Chisholm said of Eyssimont’s mindset last fall.

However, after being a point-per-game player in his first nine AHL games, Eyssimont was the first player recalled when Winnipeg had a forward injury. In 19 NHL games with Winnipeg, Eyssimont recorded five points and solidified himself as a capable bottom-six forward — all while continuing to display his pest-like traits, which rattled the cage of several NHLers, such as Jack Johnson. But once the Jets got healthier, Eyssimont was the odd man out. The Jets placed him on waivers, and the Sharks swooped in to claim him.

“When I got the call that San Jose picked me up off waivers — It was the best day of my life,” Eyssimont said. “It truly was the best feeling in the world, knowing another team was going to give me a chance.”

San Jose featured Eyssimont prominently in the team’s top six, and his play ultimately put him on Tampa Bay’s radar. 

He was extremely efficient at 5-on-5, recording a team-high scoring chance-for percentage (62.46 percent) and the second-highest Corsi-for percentage (58.5 percent) while averaging 13:07 of ice time per game, according to naturalstattrick.com. In that same span, Eyssimont finished behind only Timo Meier in 5-on-5 shots per 60 minutes (13.02).

“By the end there, he was playing with Logan Couture,” BriseBois pointed out. “We thought, if he can play with Logan Couture, he can play with our good players, too, and he could end up (complementing) some of the players we already have on the team.”

His promotion to the top six didn’t mean he was any less annoying, as he even baited future teammate Brayden Point into a fight.

Life was good, albeit hectic, in San Jose. On March 1, less than two months after arriving in the Bay Area, Eyssimont was at a grocery store preparing for what would’ve been his first home-cooked meal in his new apartment. But that all changed when he received a call — San Jose traded him to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“I was starstruck,” Eyssimont said. “The team I watched the most was taking me. I didn’t miss many Tampa Bay Lightning games on TV, whenever I was free.”

Eyssimont fit right into the Lightning’s lineup seamlessly. He recorded two points in 15 regular-season games and continued driving 5-on-5 play — ranking second in Corsi-for percentage (54.7 percent) and fourth in scoring-for percentage (54.3 percent). He also led full-time Lightning players in individual expected goals per 60 minutes (1.06) and shot attempts per 60 (21.3), according to naturalstattrick.com. He even finished third on the Lightning in hits per 60 (11.94) since March 1.

“He was delivering what we had seen prior to acquiring him,” BriseBois said. “That ability to go out there and create turnovers and generate scoring chances off those turnovers — which he creates off the forecheck. The more comfortable he got, we were seeing him make plays with the puck.”

The next step for Eyssimont is to up his offensive production.

“I have to learn to convert on more of these chances that I’m getting because I’m seeing a lot every game,” Eyssimont said.

But Eyssimont isn’t overly concerned with hypothetical point totals. His sights are set on building off of last year and solidifying himself as a key part of a contending team. And good luck stopping him.

“To me, it’s always been NHL or bust. I’ve never seen any other route besides that in my life,” Eyssimont said. “I know I’m still establishing myself in the league, and I have two more years on this contract to do that, but I have the attitude that this is what I want to do with my life — this is what I’m going to do, and I’ll stop at nothing.”