Auston Matthews
You want to be explosive, to get the advantage of the first step.
My mom's side is from Hermosillo. It's about six hours south of Phoenix. I've been there, went there a lot growing up. I'm not really sure how to really describe it.
The outreach of people in Arizona, young kids, families, just reaching out to me and my parents at the rink or wherever, it's always been really positive. You want to be the kind of person that they can look up to.
I like kind of picking out specific players and watching what they do, whether it's in pregame skate or warmups or in the game.
You want to do what you do best and play to your abilities. As far as that goes I don't think that's really a problem for me.
I think I learned a lot just playing against Canada and Russia. Their rosters are filled with NHL studs and All-Stars.
I want to be an impact player.
I believe I can be a franchise centerman, a No. 1 centerman in the NHL. That's my ultimate goal.
I take a lot of pride in my ancestry and where I come from.
I love my family and they've been a huge support cast for my whole career, so I feel really lucky.
I'm not a great singer at all.
I'm not a big cook.
My dad was kind of the one that, pushed me, I think in the right ways.
I think it'd be amazing to see a pre-season game in Mexico.
I want to be a leader regardless of if I have a letter on my sweater or not.
I just want to play hockey and help the team win.
I mean obviously the 200-foot game, play without the puck, that could always use improving, as well as everything.
I think sometimes having change is good because it just brings you something new and something fresh that maybe you didn't know that you needed, or you didn't know that it would work out as well as it ends up working out.
I try to be the best I can be.
I would always go hunting with my dad, my grandpa and some of their friends. We'd hunt quail.
I think everyone wants to get drafted as high as they can. That's the way I look at it as well.
Playing against older and really experienced players really challenged me.
My dad is a competitive guy. That's a part of me. It's just a certain drive, I guess.
I think it's cool to go outside the box and try new things.
The summer I was drafted, I think, I just spent all summer working on my shot and different release points.
I played pretty much sports games. 'NHL,' 'Madden,' stuff like that.
Toronto is a sports city, and hockey is the top of that list.
Obviously I want to put the puck in the net and create on offense but it starts in the D-zone.
I did enjoy baseball, and it was certainly something I liked to play, but hockey would become my No. 1 passion.
When I'm playing well, I do think I can be a dominant centre.
I'm going to have ups and downs and what I have to do is work that much harder and push through the tough parts.
It's all about winning.
I have to make sure I make an impact and in every way possible.
I think internally every team has leaders, and sometimes the guy that's not wearing the C is the actual C, right?
The captaincy in hockey in general is a huge honor, but especially in Toronto.
I loved my time in Zurich.
I always try to set goals and just try to be the best that I can be.
I think it's a tremendous honor to wear the blue and white and represent the city of Toronto and wear the Maple Leaf every night.
Having a good regular season isn't really cutting it anymore.
I want to score, I want to produce and do those things.
I take a lot of pride in preparing for the season and representing the Toronto Maple Leafs as well as I can.
The key when it comes to media is just always being responsible.
I just kind of do my thing and let my actions speak for my words.
They are really growing hockey in the Southwest. That's pretty evident with the team in Arizona and the three teams in California.
My uncle actually had season tickets to Coyote's games, me and my dad would just kind of tag along with him when I was probably two or three years old. That's kind of where I first saw the game of hockey and I guess I just kind of immediately wanted to play.
I've always kind of been into jewelry.
So, my off season, when I'm not playing a lot of hockey, I play quite a bit of golf.