Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – Tage Thompson is a player that Buffalo Sabres head coach Don Granato knows very well. He says he’s been coaching Thompson since he was a teenager.
Granato joined the "Howard and Jeremy Show" on Wednesday, as he discussed the seven-year contract extension that Thompson signed early Tuesday evening to keep him in Buffalo for the long-term.
Related
“I’ve known Tage and watched him since he was about 15," said Granato on WGR with Jeremy White and Joe DiBiase. "It was in Buffalo at the USA Hockey Development Camp and I was coaching the national team, and we needed to bring in two players for our U-18 year. I walked in here and honestly within one scrimmage, right away saw Tage Thompson and Troy Terry (Anaheim Ducks), and said these are two kids that I want to work with as a coach. He’s never let me down since then, as he’s returned all the favors.
“He comes every day to work, he works for his teammates, he’s open-minded, he self-evaluates very well, he owns his performance good or bad. I’ve watched him persevere since that moment when I selected him.”
Now that Thompson is in the fold for the next eight seasons, the head coach couldn’t be happier.
“The numbers and the duration show that we feel that he is a strong piece for the future," Granato said. "We’re very comfortable in doing that, because he’s proven lots of things in many ways through tangible attributes and intangibles that are very important to success.”
It was Granato’s idea of moving Thompson to center before the start of the 2021-22 season that began the 6-foot-7's ascension.
“I felt he was capable, and I felt it would be something that would pull him out of the past and push him forward to drive to more,” Granato said.
There, of course, was getting Thompson away from the wall and into the center of the ice, which allowed him to play more free. However, Granato says there were other factors too.
"I wanted him to focus on something that would be demanding, because what we try to do is remove the unnecessary or negative pressure or the impediments," he said. "That gave him something new to strive for, and a challenge in the way that we knew wouldn’t be overwhelming to him.”
When Thompson netted his 30th goal of the season on April 1 against the Nashville Predators, Granato interrupted the celebration.
“What I did say to him on the bench while everybody was celebrating, I snuck up next to him and I said, ‘We can celebrate this, but you and I both know there’s a lot more,’ and he smiled," Granato recalled. "He likes that, and he has that attitude and has a very high internal determination. We all watched his perseverance. A lot of players would’ve crushed under the pressure he had been under the last few years.”
Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams has said from the start that they will develop their own players and then pay them. Thompson is the first example of that, and Granato thinks that will drive the group to see that if they work, they’ll be rewarded.
“They see the hours that Tage puts in and the selflessness," Granato said. "He is a team player, and they see that and feel that. Tage has gotten rewarded, and I think the players that have watched him; you have two categories of people, one that says 'I deserve this money for what I did,' while the other group says 'They paid me this much money, so I owe them this much back.' It’s totally two different mindsets, and Tage is in that [second] category. He’ll work for this now.”
Granato gets to see the prospects play three games during the Sabres Prospects Challenge, which starts Sept. 15 at Harborcenter against the Montreal Canadiens.
Related
