It was a whirlwind first full NHL season for Winnipeg’s Cody Glass.
The campaign started with Glass being told he had made the Nashville Predators out of training camp and he ended it as a world champion.
Glass recently returned from the World Championship in Finland with a gold medal to cap off a dream season.
It took four different international tournaments, but after coming home empty-handed from the World Under-17s, the Under-18s, and the World Juniors, Glass finally has a medal to show for his accomplishments.
“It was unreal,” Glass said. “That whole experience was just great. We worked hard for it and it’s a short tournament, so, I mean, we won and three hours later we’re on a flight back home.”
Glass didn’t net a goal in the tourney but he did have four assists in 10 games. But the 24-year-old did score a shootout goal in getting two shootout opportunities in the same game.
“The only thing that was popping in my head was the Jonathan Toews clips from when he scored three times,” said Glass, referring to Toews’ three shootout goals at the 2007 World Juniors. “I was like oh, this is my chance to be Jonathan Toews, and I missed the second one. So, it kind of sucked, but at the same time, it was pretty cool.”
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Just getting the invite to represent Canada was a little unexpected and there was some hesitation on Glass’s part to immediately head overseas after the long grind of an NHL season.
“I’m a restricted free agent this year, so I didn’t want to really get injured playing at this tournament or what not,” he said. “You go back 10 years, the younger version of me would have been mad at saying no to a Team Canada invite, so I had to take full advantage of it.”
And Glass took some giant strides with the Predators this past season after splitting time between the NHL and the AHL the previous three campaigns. After being a healthy scratch early in the season, his role only grew as time wore on as he moved up in the Preds lineup.
He finished with 14 goals and 21 assists while playing a career-high 72 games.
“It’s a roller coaster,” Glass said. “Beginning of the year I wasn’t playing very many minutes and I was out of the lineup, and then Christmas hits, and I’m playing a top-six role and then injuries start to come, people start to get traded. So, a lot of opportunity just kind of came to me.
“It was a great year and obviously our goal is to win a Stanley Cup, so that’s my goal now.”
But first, the soon-to-be restricted free agent will need a new contract.
“I want to be back in Nashville,” Glass said. “I love playing there and so it was a really fun group.”
Glass will always be the Vegas Golden Knights’ first-ever draft pick, and while he takes a few weeks off the skates before starting his summer training, he’s keeping a close eye on his former teammates in the Stanley Cup Final.
“I’m still cheering on those guys,” he said. “I have really close friends on the team. Everybody on that team that I played with was really good to me. I’m very happy for them and obviously, I want them to win it.”
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