Other than the players who also were on the ice, no one had a better view of Owen Tippett’s dazzling goal-of-the-year candidate than Dallas Stars assistant coach Steve Spott. It was in front of the visitors’ bench at Wells Fargo Center on Jan. 18 that Tippett charged over the blue line with the puck and cut to the slot before wheeling around and sniping a backhand over goalie Jake Oettinger’s far shoulder in the third period of a 5-1 Flyers win.
Advertisement
Spott has known Tippett for some time, as his son, Tyler, has trained with the Philadelphia Flyers forward for the past several years in Toronto. He has believed in Tippett’s potential for a while. And now, so does his fellow assistant coach on Dallas’ bench, Alain Nasreddine, who also got a prime view of Tippet’s impressive marker that night.
“He knows the name Owen Tippett but really doesn’t know him as a player as well,” Spott said of Nasreddine. “Now he’s like, ‘Oh, my God, Spotter. He’s everything that you guys were talking about with regard to his skill set.’ It’s nice to see that his name now is starting to become synonymous with those types of world-class plays, because very few guys can make those.”
Make those, Tippett can. It was only three days prior to that Stars game that Tippett scored another breathtaking goal in St. Louis. In a 2-2 game, he undressed defenseman Justin Faulk in the high slot and held off Brayden Schenn before beating Joel Hofer to the short side with less than six minutes to go in regulation, breaking a 2-2 tie in an eventual 4-2 Flyers win.
And now, Tippett, whose mop of fiery orange hair nearly matches the color of his NHL sweater, is locked up. He signed an eight-year, $49.6 million contract extension with the Flyers on Jan. 27, taking him through the 2031-32 season.
Flyers general manager Danny Briere joked that the pair of highlight-reel scores, amid a run of strong play in January, didn’t hasten the organization’s desire to get Tippett signed, but “he probably got himself a few extra dollars there.”
Regardless, one of the building blocks of the Flyers’ so-called rebuild is now in place. Tippett, who has 21 goals and 35 points in 53 games this season, is signed longer than anyone else on the current roster.
“He’s always had that skill level,” said Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim, who has been Tippett’s teammate since the club acquired him from Florida on March 19, 2022, as part of the Claude Giroux trade. “I think it’s just a matter of understanding how to use it at this level, and realizing how good he can be.
“I think he’s just scratching the surface.”
Matt Nichol has watched Tippett, 25, develop as a client of his for the past decade. Currently the director of player health and development for the Ottawa Senators, Nichol was a founding partner of BioSteel Sports before it was sold in 2019, and he continues to work with elite hockey players in both the NHL and amateur ranks in the offseason.
Advertisement
He’s gotten to know Tippett well over those 10 years, both as a hockey player and a young man. Tippett’s soft-spoken, reserved personality can conceal his deep desire to succeed, in Nichol’s view.
“I think a lot of people had or maybe some still have the wrong read on him,” Nichol said. “He’s a quiet guy, a little bit more of an introverted person. Some people can read that as disinterest, or lack of motivation or lack of passion or enthusiasm. … But this kid has never not been early in 10 years for a workout. He’s never not done exactly what he’s asked to do. He’s never given less than 100 percent, ever.”
Tippet’s nature is part of the reason why Nichol was a bit concerned when John Tortorella was named as the Flyers’ head coach in the 2022 offseason. A personality clash between the brash, in-your-face Tortorella and the tranquil Tippett was probably inevitable.
So Nichol, who has a long list of NHL clients from over the years, asked a few players he knew who played for Tortorella to reach out to Tippett to advise him on what to expect.
“I really didn’t know how it was going to go,” Nichol said. “I was a little worried for Owen.”
The message to Tippett about how to thrive under Tortorella’s watchful eye was simple.
“He’s going to tell you exactly what to do. Exactly how he wants you to play. If you do it, you’re fine. If you don’t, he’ll hold you accountable,” Nichol said. “Owen is a huge Tortorella fan. And I was worried that it wouldn’t go well. It’s gone better than I ever could have hoped for.”
Tippett recalls meeting Tortorella for the first time quickly in the hallway of the Flyers’ training facility. Shortly after that came a video session, and Tortorella “challenging me to play that power forward game,” Tippett said. “He’s been on me about that, and keeps reminding me about using the body and not letting that part of my game slip. I think that’s helped me a lot, too, with him just being on me, and challenging me.”
Advertisement
In order to succeed, though, Tippett had to evolve. A player who could routinely skate through fellow teenagers in juniors while unleashing his elite-level shot on overmatched goalies wasn’t necessarily going to be able to do that in the NHL. Tippett struggled early in his NHL career to make an impact. Shortly before his trade to the Flyers, less than two years ago, he was skating for AHL Charlotte, reassigned by the Panthers just one month before the deal.
What helped his cause is that he’s 6-foot-1 and a solid 210 pounds. The foundation was, and is, in place for him to become that power forward that Tortorella desires. There were still some changes that had to occur, though — particularly with Tippett’s mindset.
“When I was younger and growing up playing junior, I think I was more of a puck-possession guy, where I was able to hold onto the puck for a lot of the time,” Tippett said. “Building that power game, I was never really one to hit or use my size as much as I can. Over the last couple of years, especially with Torts, I think that part of my game has really grown, using my size and my legs. … Now to round out my game, it’s just adding that in and having that mindset of being more physically involved.”
Said Tortorella: “I didn’t know Tipp when I got here. He was still pretty young, he was with another organization. When you start coaching him, you see what they are. You see what you feel as a coaching staff what you think they can be, and you get about it. Then it kind of falls in their court as far as how they go about it. He’s one of the most coachable guys I’ve coached. So, I’m really looking forward to seeing where he goes.”
Spott believes he has an idea. Prior to joining Dallas, he was also on head coach Peter DeBoer’s staff in Vegas.
“I’ve coached Mark Stone, and there’s a lot of similar attributes between them,” Spott said of the Golden Knights captain, who has 567 points in 640 career games over 12 NHL seasons.
“They’re both big guys, they’re both competitive guys, they play the right way. Stoney will stand up for himself, he’ll stand up for a teammate, he’s competitive. But he’s not out there to run anybody over. (Tippett) has such a great stick, he has great instincts. I think there are some similarities there with their competitiveness, and ability to create offense.”
Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour is not only a friend of Tippett’s from their time together in Florida, but Montour is also one of Nichol’s clients, so they’ve been training together in the summer for several years.
He, too, caught that fancy goal against the Stars, but not until the next morning.
Advertisement
“When I’m eating breakfast and I see him buzzing up the ice doing spin-o-ramas and scoring on those … it’s nice to see when your buddies are doing well,” Montour said.
An eight-year contract extension, of course, is a huge commitment from an organization. The NHL is littered with contracts for players that look like wise investments at the time, but quickly become albatrosses in a hard-cap league.
Tippett’s character, which Briere mentioned more than once when he announced the deal, is a big reason why he was comfortable going so long-term. That success didn’t come as quickly to Tippett like it did for some others selected around where he was in the 2017 draft, such as Miro Heiskanen, Elias Pettersson, Martin Necas and Nick Suzuki. Perhaps that reinforces how strong-willed Tippett is. He had to keep plugging away.
“The stuff you’re seeing him do now, these dynamic plays, the power forward that he’s become — that’s no surprise to myself or any of the coaches at our facility,” Nichol said. “We’ve seen that forever. I just don’t know that he believed it. I don’t think he saw what other people saw in himself.”
Those who know Tippett well don’t expect that his being financially secure will change the way he approaches his training or his dedication.
“I know ‘O’ really well,” Montour said. “Regardless of if it was an eight-year deal or a three-year bridge deal, he’s going to approach each year and each summer the same way. I’m with him a lot in the summer and see how well he works, and he’s on the ice all the time. He works extremely hard and he’s just going to keep getting better. This is just the start of showing who he really is and who he can be as a player. I’m excited to see what he can do.”
“His character has always been there,” Spott said. “He just needed to get the chance. To his credit, he’s taken advantage of it.”
(Top photo of Owen Tippett: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)