Five years ago, Tristan Mullin spent one of his junior hockey years with the Dauphin Kings. He put up 11 points in 40 games, before having great success with Swan Valley as he put up 55 points in 62 games.
Two great seasons in the BCHL led Mullin to where he is now, Cornell University. Production wise in his rookie season, Mullin struggled with six points. Much of that can be attributed to his lack of playing time. After working his way into a bigger role, Tristan enjoyed plenty of success offensively this year.
He played eight more games than last year, and he recorded 15 more points. Despite the success, Tristan knows things could have been better.
"It was an up and down season for me personally. I started off pretty good, but then I sort of fell off a little bit," said Mullin. "Towards the end, I got my mojo back and finished off strong. The coaches put trust in me, and I did my best to show what I can do."
Mullin and the rest of the team ended up making a solid push, but it came up just short. They were one game away from playing in the Frozen Four.
"We had a really good senior class that we obviously lost now. With anything, we have a capable freshmen class coming in and we have good returnees," said Mullin. "I think we're going to be even better next year, I think we'll take a step. We've learned what we need to do over the past couple of years, and I think we're ready to make the next step."
The successful season at Cornell garnered attention from the Winnipeg Jets. For the past week, the 22-year-old has been taking part in the Jets Development Camp in Winnipeg. It's not the first NHL Development Camp he's taken part in. Mullin's also took part in San Jose's.
"When our season wrapped up, I got a phone call from their regional scout and got the invite to camp and I was ecstatic," continued Mullin. "After that, I just prepared as much as I could to make sure I was ready come camp time."
"The biggest thing about these camps is teaching. It's pretty intimidating at times like there are players that have played in the NHL already," he added. "It's pretty cool to see how I stack up against all of them."
Tristan will head back to Cornell in the fall for his third season. He's eligible for two more seasons with the Big Red. Down the road, Mullin doesn't know where he'll end up, but he hopes it's somewhere.
"I'm hoping to play pro hockey for a few years and see how it goes," concluded Mullin. "I've worked all of my life to be a hockey player, so I'm excited to see where things go."