Jake Dotchin enters camp knowing last year means little for this year

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
September 16, 2017

TAMPA – Jake Dotchin proved a second-half sensation.

In some ways, he was sort of a semi-savior as Dotchin’s presence on the blue line, paired with Victor Hedman, helped solidify the Tampa Bay Lightning blue line that fueled the team’s late-season surge.

It was one hell of a debut.

But that was sooooooo last year.

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As the Lightning begin training camp, Dotchin is just one of a handful of defenseman trying to earn a spot on the opening night roster.

”We need him and expect him to play as well as he did last year, but it still has to be earned,’’ said associate coach Rick Bowness, who runs the defense. “Jake is in a position where he has to come in and earn a position, just like last year. It’s no different.’’

Dotchin barely showed up on the radar entering training camp last season and was among the final cuts at the end camp, heading back for his third season with Syracuse. By January, with injuries to the Lightning blue line starting to take a toll, Dotchin received his first call up on Jan. 16 with the team on the West Coast before making his NHL debut in Arizona five days later.

The former sixth-round draft pick looked comfortable dressing as the seventh defenseman, logging just under 12 minutes while registering four hits. As the final three months began to unfold, Dotchin found himself logging top-pairing minutes to help Tampa Bay’s late-season charge up the standings that eventually fell one point short of a postseason birth.

In total, Dotchin appeared in 35 games with the Lightning averaging 18:26 of ice time while finishing with 11 assists, a plus-10 and 85 hits (he registered at least one hit in 34 consecutive games) before heading back to Syracuse, helping the Crunch advance to the Calder Cup Final.

In the span of a season, Dotchin climb up from the middle of the organizational depth chart to near the top.

”It was a long, tough season. But in saying that, it was a great season as well,’’ Dotchin said. “I would have loved to start up here, but I went back and got a lot of help from my coaches in Syracuse. I think the time going back down there to start the year helped me build as a player and got me ready for when I got up here and helped me get confident enough in my abilities that I knew I could take them on the ice and do what I needed to do for the Tampa Bay Lightning. I put my head down, I worked hard and good things happened for me.’’

That landed Dotchin a two-year, one-way deal this summer worth $1.625 million, signifying he’s arrived as an NHL player.

But that could prove to be a precarious position.

”This league is a humbling league and many a player have come in and been a flash, then all of a sudden the grind of an actual full season catches up to them and they slow down,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “The one thing you can’t be is overconfident in this league, humility is big and it’s consistency and work ethic. Because he had success last year, as an organization, we want for him to continue to have that success, but you can’t just expect it to be easy and he has to keep working at it.’’

So after decompressing from the length of the season, that went all the way to June before the Crunch lost to Grand Rapids, Dotchin went right back to work. The last thing Dotchin wanted to set in was complacency, so he looked at areas he could improve before returning for training camp.

”I think a big focus of mine was speed, I wanted to be lighter, I wanted to be quicker on the ice,’’ he said.

Dotchin switched around his diet while instituting more running and sprinting in to his offseason training, doing more work on the track. But he also added in something new to the repertoire.

”There’s a good hill near my house that my trainer and I will go to that I run up and down hills, just anything to build up leg strength,’’ he said. “You are running up the hill and the hill wants to push you back downhill, so it burns the legs and helps with the explosiveness, too. I’m just excited to put it out on the ice and see how I did.’’

By the early looks, the training paid off as Dotchin arrived at camp with less body fat than last season and shed a few pounds from last season. The payoff won’t be known until deep in to camp and the final roster battles are decided to see how everything shakes out.

”I’ve never been a guy that stood out skill-wise or stood out because of my play-making ability or things like that, it’s always been hard work for me,’’ Dotchin said. “Just hard work and being there for my teammates kind of guy, I like that stuff. So just keep working hard, learn what I can from the older guys like (Dan) Girardi and the coaching staff, just put that in to my game and see where it takes me.’’

Dotchin has already arrived at camp with the right attitude.

”You have to keep working hard and you can’t get too comfortable,’’ he said. “It comes back to me just working hard, putting my head down and letting the chips fall where they fall.’’

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