The year was 2014. As a young journalist, I traveled to Boston to attend the Sloan Analytics Conference. Nervous and eager, I downed numerous coffees and mingled, wiggling my way past the clusters of basketball and football geeks to find the smaller, isolated crowd of hockey attendees. I began a conversation with an unassuming man around my age who worked for the Tampa Bay Lightning organization. His name was Michael Peterson, and today he still works for the team as a Statistical Analyst. His consulting work preceded Steve Yzerman’s arrival, and has overlapped with Yzerman’s entire stay with the franchise. Since he reported to Yzerman and Julien BriseBois, it seems likely Peterson will continue in his role now that BriseBois is taking over general manager duties.

From the start of the decade until now, Yzerman has been on the forefront of innovation. It makes perfect sense that the Lightning embraced analytics early because they understood that the NHL was evolving, and that it was important to identify opportunities by utilizing data to pinpoint trends. Yzerman’s use of analytics was an indicator of his openness to obtaining various points of view by examining different sources of information.

Yzerman invested in Russian players with high draft picks (Vladislav Namestikov and Nikita Kucherov) and dismissed the myths about Russian players being selfish or a flight risk. (He also drafted Andrei Vasilevskiy in the first round in 2012.) During our conversation, I asked Peterson about the development of Kucherov and Namestikov, who at that time were still in their NHL infancy, but I knew had a lot of promise from reading Corey Pronman’s draft updates.

“They are still rounding out their games, right? Like, they are working on their two-way play?” I asked Peterson. He laughed, like a man who knew that Kucherov would hit the NHL like an asteroid. “They are quick learners,” he said with a wry smile, not really answering my question because he was privy to knowledge I was not. Kucherov’s talent abounds, and Namestikov became a valuable commodity capable of affecting play over 200 feet of ice who the Lightning could move up and down their lineup. Yzerman and the Lightning identified their talent and seized on the opportunity at hand because their nationality was depressing their draft stock.

Yzerman also understood much better than most that small players could thrive in the modern NHL, discovering undersized forwards like Tyler Johnson, Brayden Point, Jonathan Marchessault, and Yanni Gourde. The talent of those four is undeniable, but Johnson, Marchessault, and Gourde went undrafted with size certainly playing a factor. Point lit up the WHL from a young age, but dropped to the third round for the same reason.

A few things happened that gave smaller players new opportunities to influence play. The NHL outlawed pulling and grabbing, and restricted what defenders could do to inhibit forwards. The game has also been refashioned in a way that makes it safer and lessens the threat of concussion lawsuits. Ultimately, skill and speed trump size. Yzerman understood that earlier than most. If these smaller players had a motor and could win puck battles, they could be stars. During the Yzerman-Martin St. Louis years, St. Louis flourished.

Yzerman also recognized that a great NHL coach could be a former Hofstra lacrosse player and lawyer. There is certainly a way of thinking among some athletes who get into management that the only people who can analyze the sport properly and make good decisions are people who played the sport professionally or at a high level. Cooper did neither, and Yzerman didn’t care. Like Yzerman and Peterson, Cooper got his opportunity at the start of this decade, only it was with the Norfolk Admirals. It was Yzerman who promoted Cooper to Lightning head coach after firing Guy Boucher.

Yzerman stood by Cooper during the flashpoints. He sided with Cooper during the Jonathan Drouin drama, which is even more impressive because Yzerman drafted Drouin third overall. Not meddling in Cooper’s territory was necessary, even as it became obvious that Yzerman made a mistake when he drafted Drouin. When it came time to move Drouin, Yzerman fleeced the Montreal Canadiens and obtained an excellent defenseman in Mikhail Sergachev. Yzerman also played the Steven Stamkos saga perfectly. Ultimately, he retained the franchise player and at a price that wasn’t exorbitant. He didn’t flinch, even when the pressure became overwhelming.

A poised and analytical decision-maker, Yzerman could acknowledge when he made mistakes, and he was self-effacing enough to accept different viewpoints, even when they might seem unusual at that point in time. The company he surrounded himself with reflects a measured individual who wants to reach the right outcome. Peterson’s tenure with the Lightning, along with the high-profile lawyer behind the bench, signal that the Lightning appreciate information flow from non-traditional sources. One can only hope BriseBois is as receptive.

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