“It was a long journey. Twenty-odd years, Spence [his brother] and I were kids following my Dad around to junior hockey rinks or minor hockey rinks and cheering on guys who played for him. My family was always around the OHL. That was always the next logical step for us, and it never happened for whatever reason. Things picked up again this past year, and we were able to make things work here in Brantford.”

“It’s probably the [mid-season] break that I’ll remember the most out of all the breaks that I take.”

 “It’s tough to complain about the stick budget, because I use a new stick every game, so if I start complaining, then the Oilers are going to see that and they’re going to look at me like ‘hey, you use a stick every game.’ Okay, you’ve got my hands tied,” he said laughing.

“I’m very fortunate, obviously. Being in the NHL, a lot of things have to go your way, and you need opportunities to go your way. You also need to be able to seize the opportunity and understand how to play with great players and what they’re looking for, because when you’re playing with the best players in the world, they’re pretty demanding. They have a high standard, and it takes a whole line to be successful

When you get to the NHL level, it’s not just one guy that can go through a whole team, albeit sometimes he can do it. You need a full line, and you need everybody pulling together. I’m fortunate that coaches have always found that I played well with those players.”

“I remember sitting in Red’s office and he said – ‘You know, Zach, you just need to keep working, and if you’re not scoring you have to learn how to do something else to be effective for our lineup.’ – and I just remember that stuck with m. I remember going into college and just thought I was going to score goals, but also how can I help the team win in other ways.

And I learned how to penalty kill, I learned how to block shots, and my dad always said to me – ‘It’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint, it’s a journey, and the two things you can control are your work ethic and your attitude.’ – So you can’t control where the coach is going to put you every day, you can’t control where you are in the lineup, all you can control is how hard you work and what your mindset is, and are you going to be a good teammate every day or are you going to go in there and sulk, and be a sore.’

Those two things stuck with me because those are things I could control every day, and those are things that have allowed me to get better every day because nobody wants to be around somebody who’s upset all the time or is sulking about themselves. Everyone has their problems. If you come into the rink with a positive attitude, you go to the gym, and you work as hard as you can, and stay on the ice, you’re going to get better.

Like my Dad said to me: You may not be an NHL player but give yourself the best opportunity to do so and work as hard as you can so that at the end of your journey, you know that you gave everything you possibly could and you can be satisfied and happy. That was the best piece of advice I got.”

“Not to get too graphic, but as soon as it hit me, I knew something was off. I thought I lost my nose, to be honest. As soon as it hit me, I instantly put my hands up, I didn’t want my mum or my wife to see my face.

When it happened, you’re kind of just in shock. That game, I just grinded it out, I was breathing through my mouth. The bleeding was the hardest part. The breathing I would say, the next couple games after that, the breathing was really tough because that’s when you get swollen, once everything settles in.”