INTERVIEW: JT Brown Reflects On A Career Built On Grinding It Out
An exclusive chat with former NHL'er
EDITOR NOTE - This is an interview I conducted with JT Brown - who racked up 365 career regular season NHL games for the Tampa Bay Lightning Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild - back in March 2022 as part of an assignment I was doing for an online journalism course.
I published this interview on an old Substack account I was using exclusively as a portfolio builder, so this chat didn’t get many eyes on it at the time. Given that I’ve got many hockey fans who visit Blogs Of Steele, I have decided to re-share this interview for you all to enjoy on this platform.
Please note - this interview appears exactly as it did in March 2022 and, for clarity, I haven’t added to, taken away from or changed the article in any way shape or form. This is the original feature in full.
Enjoy!
‘Play hard. Play smart. Play together.’
That mantra was hammered into JT Brown from a young age, so intricately woven into his very DNA that it guides him in everything he’s done and everything he continues to do to this day. Given this life-altering pearl of wisdom by his dad, Ted Brown, who was an accomplished NFL running back for the Minnesota Vikings for eight seasons, JT has clung to that important life lesson throughout a fascinating career. He has used it as motivation to scratch and claw his way from being undrafted to finishing with over 300 games in the NHL. And it is a mantra that has stayed with Brown as he now settles into his new career, bringing his insight and knowledge to the broadcast as color analyst for the Seattle Kraken.
Brown’s career is very much a true underdog story, a gritty case study into how to grind your way to the very top of your profession, no matter the odds, all while playing with a huge, infectious smile on your face. He wasn’t the fastest, he wasn’t the most skilled and he certainly wasn’t a player who was going to stand out on the box score, but Brown played the game the right way.
He had a hell of a lot of fun doing it too.
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Born and raised in Minnesota - the State of Hockey - you could argue that Brown was destined to put on a pair of skates as soon as he could walk. With hockey a way of life in that part of the world, Brown’s parents wasted little time introducing their son to life on frozen ponds.
That introduction set into motion a passion that would morph into a lifelong devotion.
“As far as wanting to play hockey, my parents would throw me on skates around 2 ½, maybe three years old, and you are just out there,” Brown said. “Neither of my parents played hockey growing up, so I didn’t have a background in it, but everyone played it whether that was going to the pond, playing organized hockey once you were old enough and that was the big part for me - wanting to be with my friends. It was easy for me to pick up because everyone was doing it.”
It quickly became apparent that Brown excelled with a stick in his hand and skates on his feet, just as he did in pretty much every other sport he tried.
Clearly, his superior athletic genes played a role in that early dominance.
However, while there is no doubt that the young Brown would have thrived as an athlete in any other sport given his considerable talents, a career in ice hockey was always Brown’s one true calling.
“I played football, baseball, basketball, pretty much every sport as a child, and then once I got into high school I decided that hockey was the sport I wanted to play,” Brown said. “That was the decision point for me, but I always loved hockey. I loved the other sports I played as well, but hockey stood out for me and that’s when I made the decision that was the route I wanted to go.”
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Never considered a high-end prospect or a slam-dunk No. 1 overall Draft pick, Brown had to pick a different mountain to scale in order to reach the peak of any aspiring hockey player’s ultimate dream.
The NHL.
While others around him in the junior and college ranks may have been faster, more skilled and, frankly, just outright more naturally gifted, Brown had a secret and unrivaled edge over his competition.
That edge came in the form of Brown’s own personal playbook from Ted, who drew on his own experiences of being a professional athlete to help shape his son’s approach to playing the game. And that insight hammered home the importance of putting the team first over individual glory, a quality Brown took pride in throughout his career.
“There were things he could pick up on and mainly on how hard you worked, so just that in itself drove the way I tailored my game when I did play,” Brown said. “A lot of the things I did didn’t necessarily show up on a stat sheet but, for those watching, you couldn’t say I didn’t give it my all when I went out there. You couldn’t say I wasn’t going 100 mph or doing whatever was needed to help the team win.”
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After winning the 2011 Frozen Four National Championship with the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs and being crowned the Most Outstanding Player in the process, Brown went undrafted but signed a two-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 28, 2012.
Brown proved to be a perfect fit on a Tampa team that was a juggernaut even as far back as 2012, making regular trips to the postseason. Regarded as an energetic spark plug, Brown became a staple in the bottom six thanks to his blend of physical play and being able to chip in with offense. With 363 career hits for the Lightning, to go along with a reputation for dropping the gloves, Brown stayed true to his approach to the game throughout his career.
“One thing I took a lot of pride in was sticking up for my teammates,” Brown said. “It is not just one instance, but a lot of the fights I got into were because of a hit or something they did to my teammate, so I always wanted to step up in that regard.”
After 286 career regular season games for the Lightning and a short cup of coffee in Anaheim with the Ducks, Brown’s playing career came full circle when he returned home to Minnesota in July 2018. The veteran signed a two-year, $1.375 million contract with his hometown club, fulfilling a lifelong dream in the process.
It proved to be a symbolic end to a career built on perseverance and sheer hard work, with Brown taking on a veteran role with a Wild team seeking an identity. He posted eight points (three goals, five assists) and 99 hits in 56 games with Minnesota, ticking off a bucket list item by playing at the Excel Energy Center with his family in regular attendance.
“It was really cool to come full circle and go back and play for a team that’s your home,” Brown said. “I’m kind of glad it happened when it did because there’s a lot that goes into playing in your hometown, whether its fans, friends, everyone is at the game, everyone is watching the game and being a little bit older, being a little bit more experienced, having NHL games under my belt helped ease that stress of being home.”
It was fitting that, after spending a year abroad with IF Bjorkloven in Finland, Brown opted to exit on a high, hanging up his skates after leaving every ounce of sweat, blood and tears he had out on the ice.
While retiring at the age of 31 - relatively young when you consider that Zdeno Chára played until the age of 44 to name just one example - may have raised a few eyebrows, Brown was at peace with his decision knowing he had accomplished what he set out to achieve. After all, his main goal was to always give his beloved sport of hockey everything his body and mind had, all while playing with the spirit of a carefree kid back out on the pond in Minnesota - just as Ted had instilled into him all those years earlier.
Throughout his career, Brown tried to, you guessed it, play hard, play smart and play together with his teammates.
“I was just playing for fun and that was a good part for me that my Dad didn’t play hockey and I could just go out there and play,” Brown said. “What I was judged on was how hard I was playing, and if I gave it my all and my effort.”
You can also listen to a podcast interview I did with JT Brown earlier this year on his new career as a Color Analyst for the Seattle Kraken below.
