The first one always is the most memorable.
The adjustment in jumping from minor league hockey to the NHL is steep, but those veterans that first take the ice with a young player can help navigate some of those growing pains.
Sharks defenseman Brent Burns began his NHL career as a forward with the Minnesota Wild, and benefited from that very situation.
"It changed a lot in my first year, because the lineup changed quite a bit,” Burns told ESPN. “But I played with Alexandre Daigle. I was a right wing, he was a left wing.