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Role Model If you're a young hockey play- er out there, Bjugstad's some- body to look up to. First of all, he's as nice a person as you'll ever meet. During his NHL offseasons, Bjugstad has long played in the Da Beauty League in Edina, the 4-on-4 summer tournaments started by his agent, former Gopher Ben Hankinson. If you're a child that's been lucky enough to run into Bjugstad, you know how nice he is. He'll endlessly sign auto- graphs … even on your face if you insist. He's willing to pose for countless pictures, even willing to grab your phone and snap the selfie himself. But he's also somebody to admire because perhaps like you, things came easy to him as a youngster. But as a professional hockey player, Bjugstad has had to overcome a lot that has made him stronger as a person. When you're a kid who just loves to play and perhaps has never experienced an injury, life is gold. But Bjugstad has had to learn to overcome a lot of adversity in the NHL. "I've had to learn a lot about my body," Bjugstad said. "I think back to my high school days, my college days, you're just finding ways to get as strong and as fast as possible. You learn a little bit about how your body operates, but it's more, 'What are the guys in the NHL doing?' And you don't really question it. You just kind of say, 'All right, this is what it takes.' "But when I had my first injury down in Florida, it was kind of a shock for me just being out, missing some games and having to rehab. I'd never really been serious- ly injured. I was fortunate through my entire youth career and even high school and college. When you've never been hurt, ignorance is bliss sometimes. And then my second year I had a surgery and it was, it was tough. So it's adversity and everyone talks about it, but until you actually go through it and go through the dog days of, 'Am I ever going to heal? Am I going to be back to what I was,' there's definitely a lot of psychology that goes along with that. Every athlete is going to ques- tion themselves at different points in their career. "Some guys handle it differ- ently than others. I'm kind of a nerd with the body now and the psychology part of things. I dive deep into that stuff now and I kind of have to with the way my career has gone with my body. I have confidence that I can play many more years with the knowledge I've gained and the people I have around me helping me out." Back to Business A lot of athletes go through what Bjugstad is going through, but not to the extent he has. He has played one full season and wants to get back to the 20-goal scorer he proved to be in 2014-15 when he still missed 10 games to injury. "I don't want my career to be looked on as injury prone, but I guess at this point in time, I think the general thought is that that's kind of how it's gone," Bjugstad said. "But I definitely really believe that I can continue to play and be effective and be healthier than I've ever been. I look at a guy like Keith Yandle who's played 900 games almost straight. When we were team- mates in Florida, I asked him some advice on how to be so efficient and he takes good care of his body. And I think the biggest thing I took away from him, he said, 'You need N O V. / D E C . 2 0 2 0 | M H J ON L I N E . C O M 29 Left: Bjugstad always takes time to meet young fans. Center: Nick's mom still has a cardboard cutout of her son when he was a kid. Below: The Florida Panthers selected Bjugstad with the 19th overall pick in 2010. P R E S E N T E D B Y