Kyle Okposo: Winning the Stanley Cup ‘Changed My Life’

Until joining the Florida Panthers, Kyle Okposo had not been part of the Stanley Cup playoffs in eight years.

It sounds like that weighed on him quite a bit.

Okposo said that he had thought about retiring last summer, but wanted to chase down the Stanley Cup one more time.

On June 24, Okposo’s dream of winning the Cup was realized with the Panthers.

Okposo sat down for a wide-ranging interview with Dan Rosen of NHL.com to talk about life after hockey, what it meant to finally win the Stanley Cup, and what these past few weeks have been like.

When it comes to winning the Stanley Cup, Okposo said it has not changed him as a person — “I think I’m pretty solid in who I am,’’ — but it certainly has changed the perception of his NHL career.

After spending nine seasons with the New York Islanders, Okposo played eight seasons in Buffalo and served as captain of the Sabres.

Winning the Stanley Cup always drove him — only his teams never got close to it.

Until this year.

“Has it changed my life? Honestly, probably a little bit,’’ Okposo told Rosen. “I talked about it during the playoffs. So many people are looked at by what they accomplish in the game and you get labeled as somebody who can’t win or is not a winner.

“I didn’t play in the playoffs for a long time, and then all of a sudden you get labeled as a winner and people start treating you differently because you’ve won. They’re more interested in you and your process and how you think. I’m not changing and I haven’t really changed that much. I’ve evolved as a person and my emotions I’ve gotten more in check, but I haven’t changed as a person because I’ve won. It’s just that now people are paying attention a little bit more to things I am doing and the things that I am saying.

“It’s been an awesome ride and I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying the time that I’ve got to spend with my family over the last month as well.”

Last week, Okposo had a big public celebration planned with the Stanley Cup but the global IT outage which stranded flights forced the cancellation of him bringing it to an arena outside Minneapolis.

The Stanley Cup was stuck in St. Louis after spending time with Matthew Tkachuk and his family, but reached Okposo on Friday as originally scheduled and he was able to have his day with it.