The chances are pretty good that, when his duties are fulfilled, Scheifele will retire to his Osborne Village condo and eventually watch an assortment of NHL action with Copp. Even if the equipment stays in the bag, there really is no such thing as a day without the game for the stud centre.

That was certainly the case in major junior, where Scheifele played for the Hawerchuk-coached Barrie Colts. Leaning forward with one hand in the other and his elbows resting on his thighs, Scheifele fondly recalls billeting with the Fraser family on Ladywood Way. The residence featured a backyard rink with chillers under the ice and a resurfacing machine that’s immortalized by the background on Scheifele’s Twitter profile. As far as living arrangements go, it was like an aspiring comedian crashing on the set of Seinfeld.

Barrie teams stocked with future NHLers like Aaron Ekblad and Tanner Pearson often held makeshift morning skates on game days at the Fraser rink. When there was no contest on the schedule, as many as 12 Colts would melt their evenings and a significant portion of their nights away on that ice — some of them skating to the Frasers’ neighbourhood atop a frozen Lake Simcoe. “We were literally playing hockey from after dinner to 11, 12 o’clock at night,” says Scheifele. “[They were] some of the best nights of my life.”