Brooks Laich reflects on Tom Wilson's growth for the Capitals as he's named one of The Hockey News' Top 100 NHL Players.
Brooks Laich remembers when Tom Wilson first arrived on the NHL scene.
The Washington Capitals were facing off against the New York Rangers in the conference quarterfinals of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and wanted to pack a punch. So they'd called up Wilson, 18 at the time, from the AHL's Hershey Bears following the end of his junior career with the OHL's Plymouth Whalers.
"I remember, he was thrust into playoffs and made an immediate impact," Laich recalled. "(I thought) 'This guy is going to be here for a long time.'"
While Wilson didn't score through the first three games, he had eight hits and showed promise on the forecheck and grit on the fourth line, doing what he could to make his presence felt.
For Laich and the Capitals, the potential was there, and they knew they had a star in the making.
"You could see his youth physically, but on the ice,he was already making a big impact. You're like, once this young boy becomes a man, it's going to be a wrecking ball," Laich recalled. "You could just see his potential in every aspect of his game. You could see it with his physicality, you could see it with his hands, with his shot, with his skating."
Wilson would stick around and play his rookie year in 2013-14, where he worked to make the team out of camp and burst onto the scene with 151 penalty minutes and 197 hits through 82 games, along with 14 fights.
"The first couple of years, he punched his way through the league. He was just a force, he made a statement: 'This is who I am. I'm here,'" Laich said. "He was a presence and feared.
For Wilson, it was what he had to do to earn his way onto the roster and become a regular.
"(They told me if I did that), it's going to be very hard for them to send you home,'" Wilson said of . "That was the mentality, that I was going to do whatever it took."
Then, when coach Barry Trotz came onto the scene, he helped Wilson fine-tune his game and capture his full potential, transforming him from an enforcer to a critical power forward and top-6 skater.
Now, he's the captain in waiting, a back-to-back 30-goal scorer and a vital member of the Capitals core.
"You can choose a trajectory there, but he knew he had abilities to be more than just a physical player. He develop into a goal scorer, his passing has improved immensely and now the development that he's undertaken, which has been so fun to watch, is now the leadership. Whether its this summer or next year when Alex (Oavechkin) decides to step away, a lot of that now comes on Tom. He is now the respected voice in that locker room and he deserves it."
That said, Wilson's still throwing his weight around, averaging 200 hits a year and dropping the gloves when he has to.
After all, that's just how the game goes.
"It's who I am through and through. I don't think I'll ever be able to play a game where I'm not playing that way," Wilson said. "There's just instincts in the game of hockey. My instinct is, when a guy's coming across, there's a chance to make a good, clean hit, you do it… I just have to play the game hard. I have to play the game the right way; it's just the only way."
The full magazine feature on Tom Wilson is in The Hockey News' Top 100 NHL Players Issue, which can be found here.