![\"\"](\"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Thomas.jpg\")
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are many different pathways to the same goal, and it’s perfectly okay to be a late bloomer.<\/p>\n
The game of hockey is physical, which means that growth spurts for kids and teenagers can dictate when they’re going to start to reach their potential as a hockey player – some kids may have the hockey IQ and the hands, but go through their growth spurt much later than everyone else.<\/p>\n
Even if size is ignored in the equation, it’s entirely possible to reach the height of your potential much later than everyone else. It could be a new coach, better players around you, an increase in support from family and friends, or just a new way of approaching the game that helps you learn more efficiently.<\/p>\n
With all that being said, don’t be discouraged if you or your kids\u00a0are peaking later on than your teammates. Stick with it and you’ll get your chance, as long as you never give up on yourself.<\/p>\n
The National Hockey League (NHL) provides us with many great examples of late bloomers.<\/p>\n
Tim Thomas of the Boston Bruins didn’t break into the league and make an impact until the age of 30, at which point he won a Stanley Cup and became a regular top goalie in the NHL.<\/p>\n
Dan Girardi was snubbed in the NHL draft, but caught his groove in Junior and found his way to the league. Even with that, he didn’t truly excel until years later when he became a top-pairing defenceman on the New York Rangers, even finding his way to an All-Star Game.<\/p>\n
Yes these are NHL calibre players and they were always talented, but it’s the concepts that apply.<\/p>\n
They could have given up and stepped away from the game when things weren’t going their way, but they persevered and got rewarded BIG time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are many different pathways to the same goal, and it’s perfectly okay to be a late bloomer. The game of hockey is physical, which means that growth spurts for kids and teenagers can dictate when they’re going to start to reach their potential as a hockey player – some kids may have the hockey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"segment":[],"class_list":["post-5493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5494,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493\/revisions\/5494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5493"},{"taxonomy":"segment","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/segment?post=5493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}