It’s a milestone worthy of being feted and even more so for a person so beloved by all.
Out of the thousands of players who have suited up for a game in the NHL, only 383 of them (380 skaters, three goalies) have played in 1,000 or more. Buffalo Sabres captain Kyle Okposo became the 381st skater (and 384th in all) to reach that milestone and it’s hard to find a more universally beloved player in the league.
Everywhere Okposo has played his teammates, coaches, executives, fans…you name them, they’ve latched onto him with the kind of admiration and respect people would long to receive at any time in their lives, never mind in a career.
Yet here’s Okposo about to eclipse a threshold relatively few have reached in their hockey careers and nary a bad word to be found about him anywhere. From his time as a youngster with the Minnesota Blades, to prep school at Shattuck’s St. Mary’s, to junior hockey with the Des Moines Buccaneers, to the University of Minnesota, into pro hockey with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and into the NHL with the Sabres and New York Islanders where it all began for him in March 2008—it’s been a long road and one that isn’t coming to an end at 1,000 games.
“It’s something that something I will look back on very fondly, and I don’t do anything for praise or recognition, I just try to do the right thing,” Okposo said. “This is something that’s a byproduct of that, and it’s a special day for everybody that helped me get to this point, for sure, for my family and the people behind the scenes that have supported me throughout the whole way. So just going to try to enjoy it, soak everything.”
It’s no small feat by any means, but hearing what Okposo has meant to others and how they see him speaks volumes of him as a man and a player.
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Erik Johnson has known Okposo since they were middle-school age in Minnesota back in 1998. They teamed up together with the Minnesota Blades, a team of about 12 to 15 boys who’d travel around the Twin Cities area for games. That team had three top-10 NHL draft picks on it with Johnson, Okposo, and Peter Mueller and according to Johnson about eight guys who played Division-I NCAA hockey.
When you’ve known someone for 25 years or so and have made it this far in your hockey lives walking mostly separate paths (Johnson and Okposo were teammates at the University of Minnesota, too) and to have them converge the year one of them is about to play their 1,000th game, it truly brings it all together.
“I think you guys just see the on ice but there’s so much more to the game to get ready to play for 1,000 is a lot,” Johnson said. “Just getting your body ready to play, your mind ready to play for that many years, it’s tough. The hockey part’s easy the part, there’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes that doesn’t get seen. And to go along with that you need a strong family, and I know he has that support system at home so it’s a true team effort. I’m happy to see him get there. It’s been a long journey and kind of cool to see it come full circle and be able to celebrate it with him.”
Okposo hitting this mark at age 35 after he made his NHL debut at age 19, about a month before he turned 20, is testament to the respect he has for the game and for himself. Playing the NHL is grueling.
“You cannot play in this league at his age without evolving your game,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “You talk about young guys and you say, ‘OK, this guy’s got to get better., he’s got to prove it here and here and here.’ And the older guys have to evolve because their body is not the same as it was when they were 25 and in their prime. And the guys that evolve and learn how to play differently stay in the game.
“The guys still try to play like they’re 25 in their 30s, they end up bottoming out, squeezed out of the game pretty quick. And so, for Kyle, he has really evolved his game, even from last season to this season. You guys can ask him. His training was completely different, or he added different things to his training to change body composition based on information he gained from last year and all through the season. So yeah, you evolve. You learn and evolve.”
Okposo’s evolution through the years from being one of the league’s most tenacious scoring power forwards to a guy who uses his sizes and smarts to be an effective defender and forechecker to forge ahead as the game gets younger and faster is an example that’s been easy for his teammates now to look up to. Being an on-ice leader can pale in comparison to being one of the best guys there is off of it.
“He’s meant a lot to all of us, I think especially me because of where we’re from,” Casey Mittelstadt, a fellow Minnesotan, said. “We’ve seen and been through a lot of similar things throughout our hockey careers. It’s very special to get to be a part of it and to get to know his family and see the type of father and husband he is along with how good a hockey player he is. He’s definitely a role model for all of us and someone we all look up to.”
Growing up in Minnesota where hockey is life, first and foremost, presents a different kind of challenge for the top players out of there. When you reach the NHL, the challenges can all blend together because everyone is pushing for the Stanley Cup, but coming out of the State of Hockey comes with pressure of its own because of how hyper localized the sport is there. Guys can still make the NHL and become All-Stars or even Hall of Famers, but they’re still the guys who played for their hometown high schools deep down.
“I think in some ways Minnesota’s so different with how hockey is played and how you play growing up and to have someone with that understanding and that that someone be Okie, I got pretty lucky on that one for sure,” Mittelstadt said. “There’s a billion good things you could say about the type of person he is, the things he’s done for the guys in the room. We’re so lucky to have him.”
It’s that sentiment that unites everyone in the Sabres room. One where they’ve got a veteran player with years of experience, of all kinds, who can provide an example for anyone of any age and provide the guidance they need to further their careers. Whether he’s viewed as the father figure, the big brother, or just one of the boys, Kyle Okposo the man is revered always.
“For me, he’s one of the most generous with his time, just how he cares about his teammates,” Jeff Skinner said. “I think we all benefit for that. For me that sticks out and it makes me grateful to be his teammate.”