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Salming · 09-14-2023, 06:22 AM

It has been almost nine months since we chatted last time with a Seattle Argonauts'

two-way Finnish Finland

winger, William Salming. The last time was after season 68 when Seattle won back-to-back Challenge Cup and Team Finland lost heartbreakingly World Championships Final at the home ice against a rival Team Sweden. So, what has happened since then in the life of William Salming and what is the current state of Seattle Argonauts? Let's find out in this article.

Reporter: Thank you for taking your time with us, William. As always, our great readers love your fun, nice, exciting, wonderful, amazing, unbelievable, awesome, marvelous, fascinating, fantastic, incredible, stunning, surprising, brilliant, cool, enjoyable, pleasant, superb, sensational, terrific, outstanding, phenomenal, tremendous, chilly, unreal and exotic personality. It has been a while since we have last talked because our latest interview session was after season 68 which had two sides for you; paradise and pain.

Salming: No problem, my pleasure. As always, I like to give these print media interviews for your fantastic readers. But yeah, it has been a while since we last talked to each other. Things have changed quite a lot during past four seasons and I am sure we have a lot of topics to cover in this interview session. Hopefully readers will like it.

Reporter: Let's talk about first your club team, Seattle Argonauts. You are not anymore one of the top teams in the SHL. How does it feel?

Salming: Well, you can't be on the top of the mountain forever. Every team will in the end face a rebuilding period and we are now in that period. We just have to accept it like for example Hamilton did in the end. We are not young anymore (most of the core) and there is new talent coming up slowly but surely. And somehow I am also fine with it because especially seasons 66-68 were really busy for me because we were in the SHL finals three years in a row and also played in medal games with Team Finland in all those seasons. I played probably more professional hockey games than anyone else during those three seasons. In the national team my amount of games was 45 and in the SHL 264 when you add also all playoff games. That was a total of 309 games. Luckily I exercised a lot as a child and had a good endurance but still then my body felt pretty ripped and needed more rest.

Reporter: However, after season 68 you still had a couple of decent playoffs runs, right?

Salming: Yes. Season 69 was still good. We were second best team in the regular season with 50 wins in 66 games. Only Winnipeg had two more. We were still able to keep our championship core together pretty well. We lost only Luukas Lilja who retired and had scored a game-winning goal in game seven of the SHL finals in season 68. So replacing him wasn't easy but we did it pretty well and Max Manning had again 100+ point season. Ty Murphy also came in to the team very well and had 93 points. And we were very close to advance to the finals in the 4th year in a row but unfortunately Winnipeg won game seven in the overtime thanks to a home-ice advantage. It was a coin flip series and our last real chance to compete for a cup. There were also some changes in the management when mr. Tig made room for Adam who almost carried us to the finals in his first season as a GM. It wasn't an easy moment to jump in because Tig had traded all of our picks but acquiring Ty Murphy was a good thing and gave us a one more chance to push for the Challenge Cup. I think if we would have beat Winnipeg, we would have had a good chance to beat Philadelphia in the finals.

Reporter: And then from season 70 onwards you have been slowly dropped in the power rankings and standings towards bottom of the league.

Salming: Yeah, We were still third best team in the league somehow in season 70 even though most of the guys were already aging a lot. Of course, we still had Max and Ty who played pretty similar seasons than a year before and gave us chance to win every night but you could saw already then that our balance wasn't optimal and we relied too much for those guys. There wasn't enough depth anymore like in season 67 and 68. It was also last season when another Seattle legend Anton Mihailov played before his retirement. In the playoffs we made it again to the conference finals (5th season in a row!) but Winnipeg beat us pretty easily 4-1. Series wasn't nearly as tight than it was a season before due to reasons I just mentioned above.

Reporter: And especially last two seasons have been tough for you. You have lost some core members and people have just aged even more, am I right?

Salming: That is true. We lost Mihailov, Ty Murphy, Jimmy Wagner and Sato. Replacements weren't just as good hockey players even though they did their best with a low ice-time in the third line or third defensive pair. But we needed to "hide" those people when they were on the ice to use some basketball terms. Unfortunately there were too many guys in that moment that we needed to hide and opponents used our weaknesses in theirs advantage. And then before last season 72 we traded away Manning and Kermit Murphy so it weakened us even more but was the best solution for the franchise because we got back some valuable draft picks and those guys didn't waste their careers in the bad team.

Reporter: But Seattle has still been able to sneak in to the playoffs despite player losses?

Salming: Sure. We will never give up. Our ethic is to play always for the win and not to tank. Because tanking purposely can damage the culture in the organization. Okay, if we are last in the standings after trying our best we can accept it but tanking only to get a better draft pick is not the right choice in my opinion. It is vital to keep a good atmosphere in the organization also during "bad" and tough years. It will help in the future when is time to try to push towards Challenge Cups again. We don't want to destroy the magical and mythical winning culture that has been created to this organization during seasons 66-70. We want to keep some aspects from it and one of them is to always try your best in the rink. And I am happy that we have been able to sneak in the playoffs because it has given us meaningful games every season still even though realistically we don't fight for the trophy anymore. But to keep playoffs tradition alive and teaching future Argonauts how to handle those situations is crucial. Of course, personally I have never missed playoffs in my career when playing in the SMJHL or SHL so to keep that magic alive has been very nice too and I hope we can fight against the odds also next season. To win even one playoff game per year is a feeling you want to feel season after season. That's why we still grind so hard. I am so happy we were able to give our amazing home fans one win last season even though Edmonton was better in first round series in the end 4-1.

Reporter: So, how does the future look now for the Seattle Argonauts? Is there any new talent coming up?

Salming: I believe that future will be bright. Because former GM Tig traded so many picks away, our rebuild is still in the beginning but from the last SHL draft we already got some promising players that I hope will have an impact in this franchise in the future. Sith Happens will maybe one day replace legendary Willie Miller in the net. Dylan Jacob-Smith and Ana Parast are on the other hand two good forward prospects to have. They are all growing nicely and I hope it continues. But patience is the key. You can't rush player development. Vegas Golden Knights and Detroit Red Wings are great examples about that. Let prospects cook in the lower levels and when the time is right, you can call them up.

Reporter: And what about your own future? You have played already over 900 regular season games in the Seattle. Do you have still energy to continue playing?

Salming: Yes I do have energy. For the first time in years my TPE dropped under 1000 after recent test results in the laboratory but now I am already at 1003 TPE. Of course, when I am getting older I will lose some speed, acceleration, balance, strength and defensive skills (checking, stick-checking, positioning, defensive read) but so far I have been able to keep my offensive production pretty steady. And actually last season I scored for the first time 70 points in a season! Of course, that was mainly because I got to play a lot in the first PP unit which didn't happened when our team was more talented. Back then my role was to be a main penalty kill guy and then play in the second PP unit maybe 30 seconds if first PP unit didn't score a goal. So my role has changed a little bit during past two seasons but it has given some new motivation to train maybe harder than ever before so I can keep my head above water still couple of seasons against best players in the world in the best league in the world which is called Simulation Hockey League.

Reporter: At the moment you sit at 924 regular season games. But if we add also playoff games, you have played already over thousands games in a Seattle uniform. The exact number is 1090. Thoughts about that, please?

Salming: It has been an unbelievable ride. I remember someone told me before one of our games against Winnipeg that it will 1000th game for me and Vaseline Podcalzone when counting together RS and playoffs. Unfortunately we lost that ceremony game but more important milestone will be 1000 regular season games. It won't happen this season yet but I am already looking forward beginning of the season 74. It would be nice to play that 1000th game in front of the sick home crowd because it helped us twice during seasons 67 and 68 to beat Manhattan Rage in game seven's in the Challenge Cup finals. But we will see what schedule makers think about that wish. Hopefully they hear it.

But yeah, I plan to play at least two more seasons (even though my contract ends after this season) and after that we will see what happens. Of course, if Adam and co-Gm Fischermann still value my experience and mentor role for the youngsters I am willing to stay in the franchise. I enjoy passing the torch to the younger generation because I have already achieved everything what I could have hoped. Being a 23rd member of the Quad Gold Club is a huge privilege and memories from all victories will be forever in my heart and mind. Maybe I also need to discuss with captain Podcalzone because we are from the same draft class (first-ever of Seattle) so I respect also his opinions a lot. If he has energy to play still many more seasons, maybe I will do it too, haha. But at the moment I enjoy playing hockey a lot so I believe I will continue playing also after season 74.

Reporter: There was still one thing to achieve for you before a retirement. We got some news yesterday from the management group of Team Finland when they announced a roster for the upcoming IIHF tournament in Ireland. You have been previously an assistant captain in Seattle and national team but now you have been named captain of Team Finland. Tell me about that process.

Salming: It is the greatest honour a player can get in the national team. Our long-time captain Walton Stromberg retired after last season so there was a need for a new captain. Myself and Lemo Pihl were previous alternate captains and after discussions management gave the letter C for me which was also fine for Lemo. I am very thankful for those people because like I said, it is a huge honour to continue a work that many captains have done before me. I try to represent same values than guys before me. Stromberg was a great leader and I am not going to be exactly like him but there are still some things I want to keep same.

Reporter: What does captaincy means for you? How you are going to lead the group?

Salming: Well, I am not maybe as loud in the locker room as Stromberg was. I will try to lead by an example in the ice and be a responsible two-way winger. I will do small details correct and hopefully others will do too. That way we have a chance to return medal games after a short drought. Of course, I have always led by my example on the ice when playing in Quebec City or Seattle. You don't have to wear a letter in your jersey to be a leader. That is something Zach Whitecloud from Vegas Golden Knights has taught to me. If things don't go well, I also try cheer guys up in the locker room and give hope that tomorrow is a better day. And what does captaincy means for me? Well, it means a lot at least in this age. Lion jersey has always been a huge target for me since I was a child so to get letter C to my jersey is an unforgettable bonus. It is a privilege to lead our strong Finnish group. I don't know what else I could say or describe my feelings better. When I will step on the ice in our first round robin match, it will be for sure a moment I won't forget.

Reporter: Do you have any powerful leadership quotes which inspire you as a leader? And if so, would you like to share them?

Salming: Sure, there is a couple good ones in my opinion. Here they are:

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
"The single biggest way to impact a national team is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of a national team that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them."
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."
"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others."
"Champions keep playing until they get it right."
"Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing."

Reporter: And your role on the ice, what will it be?

Salming: Well, we have some great wingers who are in their primes so I will probably play as a middle-six winger in the second or third line. Everything depends how our coaches will role our team. Alongside that I will for sure get some PK time and try block as many shots as I can and help us to win that way. There are other guys who are more talented than me at the moment in the offense so I doubt that I will play PP minutes like in Seattle. But one thing is certain. I played 12 round robin games without a goal last season so my target is to get at least one goal this time!

Reporter: I think we covered a lot of topics now. Do you have any things you still want to talk about?

Salming: I think we are close to the finish line. This has been a fun interview after a while. And I have to admit that I also needed some money because Adam hadn't yet paid for me this season's salary and I have a personal coaching session in the next week which I have to pay soon. So getting some cash from this was a nice bonus and hopefully readers liked the insight I gave them about Seattle and Team Finland. Once again, thanks for your support. We appreciate your dedication also during these harder years when we are not at the top of the table fighting for a Challenge Cup.

Reporter: Tack så mycket William. Kiitos paljon, William.

Salming: Thank you, it was my pleasure. All the best for everyone.

Words: 2822

E: 2x IIHF MEDIA, please (I talk about upcoming tournament from Finland's perspective)?

*Carpy48* · 09-14-2023, 07:32 AM

Great article (or actually interview)! Also: go Winland!

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