The 19-year-old who arrived in Hamden, Conn., in 2013 was expert with the puck. He might skate in addition to any 1994-born Canadian defenseman. He took over video games together with his expertise.
However in 2012 and 2013, his first two draft-eligible years, NHL Central Scouting left him unranked amongst North American skaters. No NHL workforce thought-about him worthy of choice.
Devon Toews began his school profession at Quinnipiac as an undrafted defenseman who left his watchers wanting extra.
“The primary two years, he’d be the primary man off the ice, final man on the ice — wouldn’t do any further work,” Quinnipiac power and conditioning coach Brijesh Patel remembers. “However he was nonetheless one in every of our greatest gamers as a result of he was proficient.”
As a freshman, Toews scored one objective and 16 assists. In 2014, the New York Islanders drafted the 20-year-old within the fourth spherical. The left-shot defenseman scored 20 factors as a sophomore.
Earlier than his junior season, Toews approached Patel with a question. Might he assist him get quicker?
Patel had been ready for this. He knew the defenseman had a number of ranges of enchancment. But it surely needed to come from Toews.
By then, Toews was shopping for right into a notion Patel had been promoting: the mindset of the 24-hour athlete.
One thing to show
Quinnipiac is an NCAA heavyweight. The Bobcats beat Minnesota to win the 2023 championship. Underneath coach Rand Pecknold, Quinnipiac has gained essentially the most league video games within the ECAC for the final 5 seasons.
For all that, Quinnipiac will not be high of thoughts. Not one of the gamers from the U.S. Nationwide Staff Growth Program’s most up-to-date Underneath-18 and U-17 rosters has dedicated to Quinnipiac.
“We’d not get essentially the most expert gamers,” Patel says. “We get guys who don’t thoughts the grind, who’re keen to get uncomfortable. And so they’re not going to draw back from it. Connor Clifton’s a fantastic one. Keen to do something. These are the blokes that get attracted to return to Quinnipiac. As a result of they perceive they’ll go from undrafted participant to probably signing a professional contract.”
Toews match the Quinnipiac profile. He performed for a number of groups in British Columbia earlier than settling in with the Surrey Eagles of the BCHL. As a talented and slight puck-moving defenseman, Toews discovered himself neglected.
“My complete profession has type of been a late-blooming profession,” Toews says. “That’s motivation to me. I believed I had the flexibility to play at this degree and to maintain shifting up ranges all through the ranks. I used to be all the time a smaller man, type of put apart.”
Toews, now 31, is 10 years faraway from his third and last school season. He averaged 24:35 of ice time per recreation in 2024-25, eleventh amongst NHL defensemen. The 2022 Stanley Cup champion concluded the primary season of a seven-year, $50.75 million contract.
None of this might need occurred with no change in angle.
Clock by no means stops
Patel has been at Quinnipiac since 2008. He has helped prepare 17 rosters of gamers who push onerous on the ice, within the weight room and in school. Not all of them initially understood that every part is dependent upon the opposite.
“Success doesn’t occur in a vacuum,” Patel says. “Their capacity to enhance their sporting capacity doesn’t simply occur within the area or within the health club or within the weight room, wherever they’re going to compete and every time they’re going to coach. It’s getting them to know that the issues they do outdoors the health club and out of doors the world are going to immediately influence the issues they’ll do once they’re within the health club and within the area. As a result of we would prepare — we would follow for 2, three hours a day. Generally, your habits you might have off the ice or away from the health club can undo precisely what you probably did inside these two or three hours of what you probably did within the health club.”
For instance, Patel cites a typical participant who endures coaching and follow. Fatigue and soreness are initially anticipated.
All of that work can go to waste, nonetheless, if the participant continues full gasoline with no step again. The physique strengthens throughout restoration. Correct weight loss plan, hydration and sleep are important.
“The entire idea of being a 24-hour athlete is simply really understanding that simply since you prepare and work out for 2 or three hours a day, that’s not the one time you’re an athlete,” Patel says. “You need to suppose like an athlete the remainder of the day. As a result of all the trouble you set into creating self-discipline and habits are going to immediately influence your capacity to be the very best you might be if you get to the rink and the health club.”
Through the season, the Bobcats often work out at 9:45 a.m. Observe follows, sometimes from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The gamers are usually not given a wake-up time. However they’re instructed to depart sufficient time for breakfast. A pattern meal may very well be an omelet, oatmeal and blueberries. On-the-run gamers with morning class might minimize a nook by mixing protein powder and peanut butter into oatmeal cups.
If they don’t eat sufficient within the morning, they are going to be underfueled for exercises and practices. That will compromise your entire window. A participant practising on an empty abdomen, for instance, would possibly run out of gasoline on the finish of the session. Within the subsequent recreation, Pecknold would possibly hesitate to make use of that participant for a last-minute shift.
Protein shakes can be found after exercises and follow. Lunch is typically served after follow on the rink. Then gamers often go to class. They’re on their very own for dinner. Patel tells gamers who wish to achieve weight to eat till they really feel stuffed.
The 24-hour clock doesn’t cease ticking for gamers at evening. Homework, examine periods and socializing should be accomplished promptly. Sleep is non-negotiable, particularly for still-growing gamers. A 2 a.m. online game binge unspools the progress made earlier.
“Sleep,” Patel says, “is the most cost effective means you possibly can recuperate.”
To advertise good sleep hygiene, Patel suggests deep respiration, stretching, meditation, journaling and turning screens off early. He doesn’t maintain anybody’s hand.
“You’ll be able to’t do it for them,” Patel says. “You’ll be able to’t create the situations for them. It is advisable educate them and empower them to have possession over their very own means of their growth.”
That is how Toews discovered one other degree.
Working time beyond regulation
Each Tuesday and Thursday, a 21-year-old Toews devoted himself to further pace work underneath Patel’s watch. Others joined in. Quickly sufficient, Toews was main a gaggle of teammates.
Away from the load room, Toews began consuming higher. He dedicated himself to restoration. He spent extra time creating his expertise in follow.
He added muscle. He acquired quicker. A very good school hockey participant turned a difference-maker. To today, Toews tells Patel that what he realized within the weight room made him a greater professional.
“You can be nice, however you might want to work on these habits,” Patel remembers telling Toews earlier in his profession. “Sooner or later, he should have simply been sick and bored with it. Or he began to imagine in himself. I don’t know what that reply is. However it’s this idea of being a 24-hour athlete. It’s this idea of understanding you can be extra and do extra. But it surely’s a direct results of the self-discipline you develop in committing to the method of growth.”
It was most likely not a coincidence that Toews scored a career-high 30 factors in his junior yr. On April 9, 2016, Quinnipiac misplaced to North Dakota within the championship recreation. One week later, Toews signed his entry-level contract.
“You make your alternatives,” Toews says. “You study out of your failures and the issues folks have accomplished to you. I’ve no in poor health will on anybody. I’ve been minimize from groups the place I really feel like I’m a part of it. It simply motivates me to maintain going, preserve pushing by way of and get to the extent I wish to be.”
You could suppose this around-the-clock course of was onerous for Toews to observe. Sure and no, in line with Patel.
“We don’t say issues are onerous. We are saying they’re difficult,” Patel says. “In the event that they’re challenged — if they’ve the proper mindset and we shift it — we are able to overcome that problem if now we have a excessive diploma of effort we place towards the duty. But when we view issues as obstacles and so they’re simply onerous, typically a wall simply will get put up and we’re like, ‘Ah, I’m not going to try this.’”
From Patel’s viewpoint, phrases matter. They influence the thoughts, which impacts physique language, which impacts efficiency. So within the weight room, gamers greet one another with, “Nice morning.” Constructive diction guidelines the day.
As for different ideas, Patel insists on three: accountability, respect, work ethic.
“If you happen to deliver these three issues to follow, Rand will help you get higher,” Patel says. “If you happen to don’t work onerous and don’t compete, that’s going to remove out of your capacity to get higher. If you happen to’re not treating your self with respect by staying up late, by not consuming the proper meals, by not talking to your self in a optimistic means, that’s going to immediately influence your capacity to carry out. So we get them to know how every part is related. That finally goes to the idea of the 24-hour athlete. Every part issues. It’s not only one factor. Every part issues.”
(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic, with images from iStock)
