1-On-1: with Sammy Walker

Roadrunners forward Sammy Walker joined Jonathon Schaffer and Kim Cota-Robles on this week’s Happy Hour Show. For the complete conversation and to hear about Sammy’s trade experience, download the episode below.

Listen to “Walking The Line” on Spreaker.

How does the trade process go? Are you settling in finally?

It’s kind of a shock when you first get traded. You just have to get up and leave. Luckily, it was All Star break, so I had a couple days to kind of regroup and pack my things up and come into a new team. I don’t really know anyone, so it can be kind of weird since they have been with each other for the whole year. It can be a little awkward and weird at first, but the guys have been great and I have been settling in good.

You’ve spent almost all of your professional career in Minnesota and Iowa. Was there any culture shock coming to Tucson?

Yeah, it is kind of crazy. Hockey takes you a lot of places, but with teams that I’ve played for, I’ve only been in the Midwest. So, kind of being here now is kind of crazy just with not going outside and being freezing and it’s kind of weird, like sitting inside, I feel like I should be outside with this weather. When you go back home from the rink, you don’t really leave much after that because it’s so cold outside in Minnesota or Iowa. So that’s been kind of cool.

Austin Poganski and Jaxson Stauber are both from Minnesota too. Did you know them at all when you came to Tucson? You played against Jaxson when he was in Rockford as well.

Yeah, and I actually played against Jaxson in high school too, so I’ve known him for a while now. But not very close, just kind of playing against each other so it’s been fun getting to know both of them. I used to work out with Austin a little bit in the summer. So, I knew him a little bit. Knowing those guys made it definitely a lot easier with the transition.

How has it been joining a locker room in the middle of a playoff push?

Yeah, I mean that’s definitely the goal is to get in, and then anything can happen. That’s obviously what we’re working for, and it’s exciting. This is the kind of where the fun starts to end and it gets intense, but I’m just trying to contribute as much as I can and help get some wins so we can get in and then see what happens.

Do you have a game day routine at all?

Well, we usually go to the rink in the morning and skate and then have a pregame meal. Then I like to nap. Usually, I just come back and throw something on the TV until I fall asleep and then I get up and get ready and go to the rink. There’s not really much to it.

Sammy, if you could have a door to anywhere in the world, where would you want that door to go right now?

Your questions are making me think on the spot here. I don’t know, I think somewhere cool like if I open it up and I’m on a safari in Africa and I get to see some cool elephants or something. I don’t know, that’s what’s coming out of the top of my head right now. I only said that because I was just scrolling on my phone the other day and I saw someone was on like one of those rides, and it looked kind of cool to see all the animals.