Last fall, when Colin Wilson arrived in Nashville for Rookie Camp, he had a lot of weight on his shoulders. He was a Top 10 selection at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, had just won a National Championship with Boston University, was a Top 3 finalist for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award given to the country's best college hockey player, and represented Team USA at the 2009 World Championships without any NHL experience.
"There was a lot of pressure and expectations that I had put on myself and I really just wanted to make the team and prove to myself and everyone around me that I could play and was worthy of being a Top 10 draft pick," said Wilson.
Although he made the Predators right out of training camp as a 19-year-old, it wasn't as smooth a transition as he would have liked.
"Playing in the World Championships was a great introduction to the skill level in the NHL and that game against Russia showed me exactly what I was in for," he said. "I was as prepared as I thought I could be and had a good training camp and I was excited the coaches decided to keep me, but then I got hurt and it never really went away and I thought I needed to take some time off."
In training camp, he had tweaked something in his groin area and thought it would go away over time, but when it persisted he sought out alternative treatments and therapies and consulted specialists. Unfortunately, no one could fix the problem and he decided to play through the pain.
"It was very frustrating. I wanted to feel my best out there and as a young player I felt like every part of my body should feel 100% all the time," explained Wilson. "Then I kind of looked around the room one day and realized that everyone had something wrong with them. They were either taping up a hip flexor or their ankle or something and I realized that
everyone had something that they were playing through. It's part of pro hockey and what happens when you play 82 games a year. It just wasn't something I was used to."
While the drive to succeed never wavered, Wilson's confidence definitely took a hit and he was sent to Milwaukee to try to get it back.
"I wasn't very confident and I wasn't playing the way I'm capable of," he said. "This game is all about confidence. I like to control the puck and if I don't have confidence with the puck, I'm not going to be able to control it very well. So, it effected my play, but I learned to get around it. I played all season with that pain in my leg, but I ended up playing well once I figured how to play with the injury.
"When I got sent down to the minors, I could have had a better attitude about it, but I learned from it," he continued. "In my first 18 games, I had three goals and two assists and I was struggling mentally, but I know now that slumps are going to happen and you just have to battle through it."
Wilson was also struggling off the ice as he dealt with the undiagnosed injury and life as a professional hockey player.
"I've never missed games before. I've never had an injury where I couldn't play so it was very tough for me especially going into my first pro season and all the pressures on me and, at the same time, I didn't have too many people around to help me through it."
Wilson moved away from home in Winnipeg at 15 to play in the US National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Michigan - Although he was raised in Canada, he was born in Connecticut while his dad, Carey, was playing for the New York Rangers and claims dual citizenship - and he credits the program for turning him into a hockey player.
"I was a fourth line player and either the last or second-to-last player picked to be on that team," he said. "I don't think they expected much out of me but they taught me how to play defensive zone coverage, which I had no idea how to before then, and it allowed me to develop my skills and I was just growing into my body and my hands developed while I was there and I started getting a better vision for the game. It just helped me develop into an all around player."
While he learned a lot from the experience - both as a player and as a person - and picked up both a gold and a silver medal from the U-18 World Championships in 2006 and 2007, he also made life long friends and two of them, Kevin Shattenkirk and Colby Cohen, went with him to Boston University.
"I went to BU because it had everything I wanted," said Wilson. "I grew up in Canada with hockey being number one, so I wanted to go to a school where hockey was number one. I didn't want it to be behind football or basketball. BU had a good track record of developing players and helping them advance to the NHL and they were great academically. So, it was a perfect fit."
While already knowing some of his teammates wasn't a deciding factor for Wilson, it certainly didn't hurt and was a big help as he transitioned into the next phase of both his career and his life. While college was seemingly an extension of high school, it wasn't exactly the same when he left college after his sophomore year and signed with Nashville.
"I decided to go pro because I did everything I wanted to at the college level. I won a National Championship and was in the Hobey Hat Trick and it really wasn't much of a question, I just felt like I was ready for the next step," he said. "But off-ice, I got here and everybody's married and I want to hang out after practice and everyone else has to go home to their wife and kids.
"I missed everyone from college. It was a great group of guys and we could keep in touch through video chat and phone calls, but I definitely missed hanging out with them. I had been with Shatty for four years and Cohen and we were all just really good friends. At the rink my mind was only on hockey, but when I left I didn't know what to do with myself. I missed having a group of 27 guys to hang out with all the time."
While spending time in the AHL was good for Wilson's confidence on the ice, it was just as good for his emotional well-being off the ice. He had grown up in Winnipeg with goalie Chet Pickard and was teammates with defenseman Jonathan Blum in the World Junior Championships in 2008 and 2009.
"The social aspect was awesome. I was really good friends with Wacey Rabbit, Chet Pickard, Blum, [Hugh] Jessiman...that whole team," said Wilson. "It was a lot like college. We all hung out together quite a bit and there were only a few married guys on the team. So, it was definitely a better social environment for me."
In February, he got another crack at the NHL as he was called up to Nashville just before the Olympic break.
"I was just excited to get another opportunity. I thought I had played well in the minors and I was just excited and anxious for another opportunity to prove that I belonged in the NHL," he said. "I got four games before the Olympics and I must have done well because they called me back up after the break and I stayed there for the rest of the season."
Wilson has learned a lot in each phase of his hockey career and last year was no different.
When he played youth hockey and was cut from a traveling team, he learned to turn disappointment into motivation.
When he played internationally and had 4 games in five days, he learned how to play consistently no matter what happened the night before.
When he played in college and his mouth got him into trouble, he learned that somethings are better kept to yourself.
And when he got his feet wet in the professional ranks, he learned how to play through adversity.
"As a player, it's always a question whether you'll be able to make that next step and play at the next level and I learned that I can play and produce at the next level and that my game does translate to the NHL," explained Wilson. "As a person, I learned that I can become more mature. Although I like to act as young as possible, I realized that you have to act a little older in certain situations. I have to act my age and not my shoe size as Coach Parker [from BU] would say."
He also learned there is a lot of free time.
"I was used to getting up, going to class, going to the weight room, work out, skate do homework and hang out with my girlfriend. My day was full and now I'm out of the rink by 12:30 and I don't know what to do with myself," said Wilson. "The difficult part was trying to find something productive to do. So, I started reading."
He's read all the books in the Twilight series, Lance Armstrong's autobiography "It's Not About the Bike", "Lone Survivor", "The Secret" and, because he's interested in history, Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kamph" - not because he supports his beliefs, but because he finds him to be an interesting person.
By the time the season ended, the cause of his injury had been determined and Wilson passed on an invitation to play in the World Championships in Germany and, instead,had surgery to remove scar tissue around a pinched nerve in his upper thigh. He took a month off and got back to work.
"I did a decent amount of working out, like everybody else, but I tried to do as much legs as possible and a lot of stretching and flexibility stuff," he said. "I realized with this injury that I don't want to get injured again because I hate being injured. It's hard being around the rink and not playing. So, I did a lot of that and a lot more skating than normal. I just wanted to get more confident with my leg. Post-surgery, half the battle is realizing you're ok. So, I wanted to skate a lot and feel more confident with it.
"I also worked on my hands quite a bit because I like to. So, why not do it?" Wilson continued. "I would spend 20-30 minutes a day on straight up stick handling whether it was with a ball or a puck on the ice just working on my hands and I can tell the difference when I'm out there. I can feel the puck a lot better on my stick."
As Wilson heads into his second season as a professional, he's a lot more prepared both on and off the ice.
He's going to continue reading, get an Xbox and take some online classes as he continues to pursue a college degree in either history or sociology.
"History I just find enjoyable. Plus, if you get a history degree you can get into law school - same with sociology - and I like writing papers and enjoy doing projects so that what interests me. I tried economics, but that just bored me terribly," he explained. "So, right now, I want to take online classes and go back to Boston in the summer and take a couple classes there. I only need 16 more classes, so on that schedule I should be done in 3-4 years."
He might even buy a keyboard and learn how to play the piano just because he feels like it and it gives him something else to do.
On the ice, he's much more appreciative of the opportunity to play hockey having dealt with the injury last season and is ready to get at it.
"I've been through it once and, again, it's a confidence thing," said Wilson. "I've played in the NHL and I know I can do well and coming into training camp, I know exactly what to expect. So, I'm feeling much better about it than I did last year.
"I just want to get out there and get playing right now," he continued. "I want to produce more. I want to have more goals than I did last year and play a whole season and become a regular in the NHL. That's my goal."
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Bonus Video: Colin Wilson - Youth Hockey in Winnipeg
Bonus Video: Colin Wilson - Welcome to the NHL Moments
Julie
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