J.T. Compher began his freshman year at Michigan in 2013 when former Wolverine Jack Johnson had already logged 408 NHL regular-season games. On Tuesday night against the New York Islanders at Ball Arena, Johnson will play in his 1,000th NHL game and Compher, his Avalanche teammate, will be among the proudest to see Johnson become the 363rd member of the 1K club.
“At Michigan, we were lucky to have a lot of guys in NHL that came before us,” Compher, 26, said after Monday’s practice at Ball Arena. “As a program, they take pride in that. So I knew about Jack and I’m pretty excited to be part of 1,000 for him tomorrow.