It doesn’t even take 10 fingers to count the number of centers in NHL history with greater careers than Bryan Trottier, who came to the Island as a 19-year-old man in 1975 and left the league 18 seasons later with Stanley Cup rings for six of his digits.
But even with uncommon maturity for a teenager, unquestioned character recognized immediately in the room, and surrounded with talent, it took Trottier five years to become a playoff force after getting 27 points and five goals over 42 games in his first four postseasons before recording 107 points and 37 goals in the 75 games it took the Islanders to win their four straight Cups.
Yes, general manager Bill Torrey’s acquisition of Butch Goring that is the best deadline deal in NHL history freed up Trottier, but it took some time for a player even that special to come to terms with the playoffs and figure it all out. You never quite know when it’s going to click in.
No one is comparing Derek Stepan with Trottier, but from the first moment of Stepan’s first day of his first training camp in September 2010, there was an inescapable sense of security, maturity and poise beyond his years within the 20-year-old out of the University of Wisconsin that was similar to Trottier’s right from the start.
For two seasons, Stepan handled pretty much everything thrown at him. Except for the playoffs. A year ago, scoreless in five games against Washington, moved out of the middle onto the wing for the final three matches after getting a fair share of time during his rookie season as a first-line pivot. This year, scoreless in his first five games against Ottawa, demoted to the fourth line for Game 3 after spending his entire sophomore season as a top-six forward.
But then, toward the end of the Game 5 defeat, it started to click. And then in Game 6, it clicked in. It clicked in with a goal — the first goal; the tying goal; the goal that was essential for his team — and two assists. And then in Game 7, it clicked again, Stepan threading a right wing pass between defenseman Sergei Gonchar’s skates to set up Marc Staal in front for the first goal; Stepan on the ice for 8:37 of the third and 3:14 of the final 7:09 with the Rangers protecting a one-goal lead amidst bedlam at the Garden.
“He willed himself,” is what coach John Tortorella said about the growth spurt that took place within a week. “It was weighing on him, but he found a way.”
Stepan spent most of the year centering Artem Anisimov and Marian Gaborik on a line that created off the rush and found open spaces. Now he’s the pivot between Ryan Callahan and Chris Kreider on a line with an entirely different dynamic, one that does so much of its work below the hash marks and more of its work in straight lines.
Callahan from Rochester, N.Y.; Stepan from Hastings, Minn.; and Kreider from Boxboro, Mass: The Yanks Are Coming.
“I approach every game with the same mindset and the same principle no matter who I’m playing with,” Stepan said yesterday on the one day between Game 7 against Ottawa and today’s Game 1 against Washington. “Artie and Gabby might have different abilities than Cally and Kreids, but the mindset is to skate and work on every shift and do what I can to get my wingers the puck.
“That doesn’t ever change.”
What has changed, though, is Stepan’s presence on the postseason ice. What has changed is the swagger with which he plays, a swagger that took Trottier five postseasons to develop.
Again. Nobody is comparing Stepan with Trottier, except after covering each so early in their careers, I guess I just did.
larry.brooks@nypost.com