Drew O'Connor remembers what it was like lining up against bruising defenseman Billy Sweezey when the former was playing for Dartmouth and the latter for Yale.
And it's safe to say that he's much happier being teammates with Sweezey now that the two are both in their rookie season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
"Yeah, he was always a guy who guys always talked about in the locker room a little bit," O'Connor recalled with a laugh. "He kind of has that fear factor about him. He's a big body, he likes to throw his weight around. It's nice being on the same side as him now."
Sweezey, a 6-foot-2 and 205-pound right-handed shot, was signed to an AHL contract with Wilkes-Barre in April after his senior season at Yale was cut short due to COVID-19.
When he signed, Yale head coach Keith Allain called Sweezey "a tough, gritty competitor, a great teammate, intelligent about the game and his role in it," and added that "those qualities will serve him well in pro hockey."
That grittiness has been on display through these first 11 games of the season.
Sweezey has spent much of the season on Wilkes-Barre's top defense pairing alongside Jon Lizotte, until he was shifted down to a pairing with Cam Lee when P.O Joseph was sent down. And from the first game, the physical element that Sweezey brings to the lineup was evident.
"That's in his DNA," head coach J.D. Forrest said of Sweezey's physicality. "That's what he does so well. He's really hard to play against. Him and (Lizotte) out there as a defense pair, they're heavy. They're hard to go around, they're hard at the net-front, they make solid plays, it's a nice complement with those two out there together. They've been given a tough task on a night-to-night basis with teams' top lines, and Billy's handled it well."
"I think it's a huge tool that I have," Sweezey said of his physical play. "I like to do it as much as I can, and I think it helps. It helps to set the tone. It's always in the back of the minds of other teams if they know I'm on the ice. And I enjoy doing it, honestly. Playing hard, I really take pride in. I think guys respond to it on the team."
Sweezey got into his first pro fight last week, challenging Devils forward Ben Thomson after Thomson attempted an open-ice hit on Lee, that Lee evaded:
Sweezey, sporting a big black eye from the bout, spoke about the decision to drop the gloves earlier this week.
"It's something that's been in my mind," he said. "I saw that guy take a run there at Cam, and I figured we were up two goals, it was a good time to be able to do that. I pride myself on playing hard and being able to protect my teammates. If I have to do it, I'll answer the bell. That's kind of how it happens."
It was a move that impressed Forrest
"He's been a really tough player to play against," Forrest said of Sweezey. "He has a knack for finding the right opportunity to put a big hit on somebody, he does it with without taking himself out of position. He does it in a clean way. He's so strong and he knows how to put the body on guys. It's been a nice asset for us. Him dropping the gloves, he felt he needed to do that and the whole team appreciates when someone steps up like that."
Several teams were interested in Sweezey when he was coming out of Yale. One person who drew Sweezey to the Penguins was Kevin Stevens, who now works as a special assignment scout for the team. Stevens' son Luke was Sweezey's teammate at Yale, and also signed an AHL deal with the Penguins.
"It was a crazy process honestly," Sweezey said of signing. "I knew the Penguins were a team that were interested in me. One of my good friends in school was Luke Stevens, whose father is very close to the organization, obviously. Having him tell me how great this organization is, which has proved itself since I've been here, certainly drew me toward it. They liked the way I played. Everything about this organization from what I've heard is first class. I've been having an absolute blast since I've been here. I'm just grateful that they gave me the opportunity."
Sweezey was teammates with John Marino as a 16-year-old on the South Shore Kings, and they were opponents often during Marino's time at Harvard and Sweezey's at Yale. Marino was quick to welcome Sweezey to the organization as well after the Penguins signed him.
"I talked to him right after (signing) and asked him a little bit about the organization," he said. "He again said unbelievable things. He gave me a congrats. I've known him for a long time, we're from the same area back home. Being able to play against him in such a heated rivalry of Yale-Harvard was big. We'd always talk when we played those games, catch up a little bit. But he's still a Harvard guy, so I'd have to give it to him a little bit."
Sweezey plays a shutdown role, and was never much of a point-producer in college. His career high in points in college was 10, when he scored a goal and nine assists in 30 games in his sophomore season. As a senior, he put up eight assists in 32 games.
Sweezey has one assist through 11 games, a primary assist after Nick Schilkey redirected his shot against the Phantoms:
Chipping in offensively is something Sweezey is hoping to continue doing at the pro level.
"Just be as solid as I can in the D-zone, and as soon as I get the puck, just move it up north," he said of his focuses this season. "We want to play fast, we have guys that can move and make plays. I think the quicker I can just get the puck and get it in the forwards' hands and let them go to work down low, and help out offensively as much as I can."
Sweezey said that one of the biggest differences for him transitioning to the professional game was just being able to devote all of his time to the game.
"It was definitely a bit of a shock when I first got here," he laughed. "I assumed that when I got home I'd have to do some homework or something. It's a lot of time to kill. But it's nice to just focus on the game and take care of your body, make sure you're ready to go every day."
It's fair to say that he had a good amount of homework at Yale, too. In his senior season, he was Yale's ECAC Hockey Student-Athlete of the Year candidate. A biomedical engineering major, Sweezey was the vice president of the Biomedical Engineering Society at Yale and worked as a consultant to a biotech venture capitalist in the summers.
I had to ask Sweezey what biomedical engineering even is.
"It's actually a really growing field now," he explained. "There's a lot you can do. You can end up just doing research in a lab. One thing I was really interested in was biomaterials, like implants, prosthetics, stuff like that. You look at different diseases, different ways you can attack, try to cure them. So it was a lot of classes geared toward that, which is really interesting."
It's a lot of work, and that same work-ethic needed to get through a biomedical engineering degree at Yale helps Sweezey in hockey just a much.
"I was drawn to that, I've always enjoyed pushing myself whether it's on the ice or in the classroom," Sweezey said. "I was really drawn to that major, and I loved it. But it was tough, some long nights. So just having to stay regimented and make sure I get my stuff done when I had it done, that definitely helps now. Just being able to put all of my energy into hockey now is great."
