>When Tiger Woods turned pro in 1996, he was already one of the most recognizable golfers in the world. Not even eight months later, he dismantled the field at the Masters, winning by 12 strokes in a record-breaking performance.
>In 1998, coach Butch Harmon rebuilt Woods’ swing from the ground up, leading to Woods struggling through the season but coming out on the other side as perhaps the most dominant force golf had seen in a half-century.
>Seth Jarvis isn’t the Tiger Woods of hockey — though he’s confident enough to make you believe he one day will be — but their paths to success aren’t all that different.
>Flash back to 2021-22, Jarvis’ rookie season. The 19-year-old earned his way into the NHL just a year after he was drafted 13th overall. He then scored 17 times in 68 games, finishing with 40 points and earning a few votes for the Calder Trophy.
>Expectations for Jarvis’ second season were, understandably, high. But the focus of Year 2 wasn’t on getting the right wing to score more goals at all costs. Instead, it was to take someone who had spent his WHL career as the best talent on the ice most nights, and develop him into a 200-foot player.
>“A lot of times, maybe a high-end guy comes in and didn’t have to be that,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “He’s got the puck all his life. Now you get to the NHL, you have the puck 10 percent of the time. So there’s 90 percent of the time that you weren’t really focused on, and now you’ve just gotta change your way of thinking while still maintaining all that other stuff that you have. That’s really the trick.”
>It didn’t take much convincing to get Jarvis to buy into rebuilding his game with a focus on defense.
>They made it pretty clear to me that if I want to play — and they knew how bad that I wanted to be on this team and how bad I want to be an impact player — that I have to play defense,” Jarvis said this week. “And so for me, mentally, it wasn’t a hard switch. It was something I knew that I was that gonna have to do regardless, if I wanted to play as much as possible.
>So, to be able to build that side of my game was just something I just had to do it. It didn’t take too much convincing. It’s obviously tough, because this is the best league in the world, so you’re guarding some pretty good players. But it wasn’t something that I ever had any debate about or had any idea of trying to do it a different way.”
>That meant taking on more responsibility, like killing penalties and taking the occasional defensive-zone faceoff. It meant deferring on the risky plays that probably turn into goals in junior but lead to goals against in NHL games. And it meant believing that even though his numbers dipped in his second season (14 goals and 39 points, both lower than his rookie year and in 14 more regular-season games) the end result would be worth it.
>One didn’t have to look far on social media to find people saying Jarvis was going through a sophomore slump or that the league had simply figured out Carolina’s hotshot 20-year-old with the devilish grin and peculiar hairstyles.
>You could kind of feel last year that nothing was working for me offensively,” Jarvis said. “To be able to still kind of brush off the whole regular season — I thought I had a really good playoff. I thought I really turned it on there.”
>Jarvis was third on the team in scoring during the Hurricanes’ run to the Eastern Conference final last year, scoring five goals with 10 points in 15 games while logging nearly 20 minutes a night — behind only Sebastian Aho among Carolina forwards.
>He came into this season with a confidence that has carried throughout the year. Also, consistency: He has 9, 9, 9, 11, 10 and 12 points in the first six months of the season.
>“He’s been one of our more consistent players throughout the year,” Brind’Amour said last week after Jarvis scored for the fifth straight game of what became a six-game goal streak.
>That run, which included another goal on Thursday — in 14 games in March, he has nine goals with one still to play — has pushed him to 28 goals on the season with 32 assists for 60 points, all behind only Aho among players who started the season with the team.
>So, to just be able to build the defensive side of my game that whole (second) year, basically, and then knowing coming into this year what I can do offensively and just believing in myself because I knew I had this in me,” he said. “And it was just a matter of belief and confidence and just being able to go out there every night and kind of show it.”
>And his commitment to defense isn’t just a means to create offense. He’s first over the boards with perennial Selke Trophy vote-getter Jordan Staal on Carolina’s second-ranked (85.6 percent) penalty kill, logging 2:03 of short-handed ice time a night — the only forward 23 or younger averaging more than two minutes in the league.
>I love it,” Jarvis said of killing penalties with Staal. “I love going to battle with him on the penalty kill. … To have that trust to go out there and shut people down and be trusted in those situations is what I’ve dreamed of, what I want to do.”
>As that trust grows, so do Jarvis’ minutes. He played 22:57 against Toronto last Sunday, just shy of the regular-season career-high 23:23 he played earlier this season against Los Angeles. He’s averaging just shy of 19 minutes a night, skating on the top line with Aho and newcomer Jake Guentzel while playing on Carolina’s top power-play and penalty-kill units.
>It’s a lot of minutes, but I want to play those minutes,” he said. “I want to play a lot. I want to be on the ice at all times.”
>And the more he’s on, the greater his chances are of reaching 30 goals in just his third NHL season.
>A lot of me wants to get 40, wants to get 50,” he said. “But it’s just a mentality I have that you may as well aim for as high as possible. … I think it’s just believing in myself, and I think that’s something I lacked last year. It’s a joking confidence, but there’s belief in there and in the words I say. I do mean that I think I can reach those levels and make that kind of impact.”
>The more he scores, the more expensive his second contract will be, whether it’s a bridge deal as Carolina looks to remain a Cup contender beyond this year, or a long-term contract that locks Jarvis in as a core piece into the next decade.
3 Comments
paywalled
Blank check. Keep Jarvy forever.
>When Tiger Woods turned pro in 1996, he was already one of the most recognizable golfers in the world. Not even eight months later, he dismantled the field at the Masters, winning by 12 strokes in a record-breaking performance.
>In 1998, coach Butch Harmon rebuilt Woods’ swing from the ground up, leading to Woods struggling through the season but coming out on the other side as perhaps the most dominant force golf had seen in a half-century.
>Seth Jarvis isn’t the Tiger Woods of hockey — though he’s confident enough to make you believe he one day will be — but their paths to success aren’t all that different.
>Flash back to 2021-22, Jarvis’ rookie season. The 19-year-old earned his way into the NHL just a year after he was drafted 13th overall. He then scored 17 times in 68 games, finishing with 40 points and earning a few votes for the Calder Trophy.
>Expectations for Jarvis’ second season were, understandably, high. But the focus of Year 2 wasn’t on getting the right wing to score more goals at all costs. Instead, it was to take someone who had spent his WHL career as the best talent on the ice most nights, and develop him into a 200-foot player.
>“A lot of times, maybe a high-end guy comes in and didn’t have to be that,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “He’s got the puck all his life. Now you get to the NHL, you have the puck 10 percent of the time. So there’s 90 percent of the time that you weren’t really focused on, and now you’ve just gotta change your way of thinking while still maintaining all that other stuff that you have. That’s really the trick.”
>It didn’t take much convincing to get Jarvis to buy into rebuilding his game with a focus on defense.
>They made it pretty clear to me that if I want to play — and they knew how bad that I wanted to be on this team and how bad I want to be an impact player — that I have to play defense,” Jarvis said this week. “And so for me, mentally, it wasn’t a hard switch. It was something I knew that I was that gonna have to do regardless, if I wanted to play as much as possible.
>So, to be able to build that side of my game was just something I just had to do it. It didn’t take too much convincing. It’s obviously tough, because this is the best league in the world, so you’re guarding some pretty good players. But it wasn’t something that I ever had any debate about or had any idea of trying to do it a different way.”
>That meant taking on more responsibility, like killing penalties and taking the occasional defensive-zone faceoff. It meant deferring on the risky plays that probably turn into goals in junior but lead to goals against in NHL games. And it meant believing that even though his numbers dipped in his second season (14 goals and 39 points, both lower than his rookie year and in 14 more regular-season games) the end result would be worth it.
>One didn’t have to look far on social media to find people saying Jarvis was going through a sophomore slump or that the league had simply figured out Carolina’s hotshot 20-year-old with the devilish grin and peculiar hairstyles.
>You could kind of feel last year that nothing was working for me offensively,” Jarvis said. “To be able to still kind of brush off the whole regular season — I thought I had a really good playoff. I thought I really turned it on there.”
>Jarvis was third on the team in scoring during the Hurricanes’ run to the Eastern Conference final last year, scoring five goals with 10 points in 15 games while logging nearly 20 minutes a night — behind only Sebastian Aho among Carolina forwards.
>He came into this season with a confidence that has carried throughout the year. Also, consistency: He has 9, 9, 9, 11, 10 and 12 points in the first six months of the season.
>“He’s been one of our more consistent players throughout the year,” Brind’Amour said last week after Jarvis scored for the fifth straight game of what became a six-game goal streak.
>That run, which included another goal on Thursday — in 14 games in March, he has nine goals with one still to play — has pushed him to 28 goals on the season with 32 assists for 60 points, all behind only Aho among players who started the season with the team.
>So, to just be able to build the defensive side of my game that whole (second) year, basically, and then knowing coming into this year what I can do offensively and just believing in myself because I knew I had this in me,” he said. “And it was just a matter of belief and confidence and just being able to go out there every night and kind of show it.”
>And his commitment to defense isn’t just a means to create offense. He’s first over the boards with perennial Selke Trophy vote-getter Jordan Staal on Carolina’s second-ranked (85.6 percent) penalty kill, logging 2:03 of short-handed ice time a night — the only forward 23 or younger averaging more than two minutes in the league.
>I love it,” Jarvis said of killing penalties with Staal. “I love going to battle with him on the penalty kill. … To have that trust to go out there and shut people down and be trusted in those situations is what I’ve dreamed of, what I want to do.”
>As that trust grows, so do Jarvis’ minutes. He played 22:57 against Toronto last Sunday, just shy of the regular-season career-high 23:23 he played earlier this season against Los Angeles. He’s averaging just shy of 19 minutes a night, skating on the top line with Aho and newcomer Jake Guentzel while playing on Carolina’s top power-play and penalty-kill units.
>It’s a lot of minutes, but I want to play those minutes,” he said. “I want to play a lot. I want to be on the ice at all times.”
>And the more he’s on, the greater his chances are of reaching 30 goals in just his third NHL season.
>A lot of me wants to get 40, wants to get 50,” he said. “But it’s just a mentality I have that you may as well aim for as high as possible. … I think it’s just believing in myself, and I think that’s something I lacked last year. It’s a joking confidence, but there’s belief in there and in the words I say. I do mean that I think I can reach those levels and make that kind of impact.”
>The more he scores, the more expensive his second contract will be, whether it’s a bridge deal as Carolina looks to remain a Cup contender beyond this year, or a long-term contract that locks Jarvis in as a core piece into the next decade.