By his mid-teens, Faulk\u2019s drive was turning heads. After starring at South St. Paul High School, he joined the U.S. National Team Development Program, where he began sharpening the offensive instincts that would later define his game. Two seasons in Ann Arbor led him to the University of Minnesota-Duluth, where he set a school record for goals by a freshman defenseman and helped deliver the 2011 national championship. Months later, he was signing his first NHL contract with the Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n
Faulk arrived in the NHL at 19 \u2014 wide-eyed, eager, and, by his own admission, not quite ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first three games I was horrible,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cI got sent down after that\u2026but honestly, I wouldn\u2019t change a thing. It taught me to relax. When I came back up, Paul Maurice told me \u2018Just relax and play. Don\u2019t worry about that stuff.\u2019 It taught me a lot for the future \u2014 when things go wrong, it\u2019s okay. You can get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, he carved out what would become his trademark style: unassuming success. He made the NHL All-Rookie Team, became an All-Star at 20, an Olympian at 21, and a steadying presence for Team USA multiple times.<\/p>\n
Ask anyone who\u2019s shared a locker room with him, and they\u2019ll tell you it\u2019s not just the stat line \u2014 though 1,000 games and 468 career points, nearly a half-point-per-game pace for a defenseman, is no small feat. It\u2019s the calm, the humor, the way he never seems rattled.<\/p>\n
When he was traded to St. Louis in 2019, the Blues weren\u2019t just getting a right-shot defenseman \u2014 they were getting a leader. One who could balance the room, eat big minutes and never make a fuss about it. A seven-year contract extension followed almost immediately, cementing him as part of the team\u2019s core. Since then, he\u2019s become one of the Blues\u2019 most consistent players \u2014 now an alternate captain \u2014 and a quiet force whose presence anchors the group.<\/p>\n
Yet behind the quiet confidence is a player who knows how much work it takes to get here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe physical part takes a toll,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI\u2019m not the most physical guy in the world, but I like to play that way. It\u2019s hard, but it\u2019s rewarding. You show up, put in the work and the rewards happen later.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also seen what longevity looks like \u2014 and what it costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By his mid-teens, Faulk\u2019s drive was turning heads. After starring at South St. Paul High School, he joined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-289895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}