[mile]

https://www.espn.com/nhl/insider/sto...y-cup-playoffs

"Why did he slip to the third round?" current Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois asked rhetorically. "Because his skating wasn't at the level that you'd want it to be at that time for a player of his size. That's why he wasn't drafted in the first round or the second round. That's why we got him in the third round, and we really hit the jackpot."

Point had heard the criticism of his skating ability but didn't take it seriously until the 2014 draft. "I thought I was doing all right," he said with a chuckle. "I didn't know how to fix it or what was wrong with it."

Point wouldn't be the player he is today without the tutelage of Barb Underhill, a former Olympic pairs skater for Canada and a member of the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. After her competitive career ended and following two decades as a TV commentator on figure skating, Underhill became the NHL's most in-demand skating skills coach. She taught power skating to the Anaheim Ducks, New York Rangers, Maple Leafs and the Lightning, who made Point one of her star pupils.

"He would come out of his turns on his heels. His crossovers were on his heels, so his acceleration wasn't there," she told the Lightning's team website. "So we made several adjustments to get him -- and some of them were mobility issues, some of them were skate issues -- to get him to the right part of the blade. And with him, as soon as he got there, he just took off. It just all clicked."