Gary Roberts warns young NHLers: "It doesn’t take long to tarnish your image"

Gary Roberts was on Toronto’s Sportsnet 590 on Tuesday morning.

On Tyler Seguin’s perceived issues in Boston, and if Roberts felt there was more time to develop as a young player in his day with less ‘instant pressure’ on you:

“Yeah, I would say so. I think we always felt the pressure. I mean, I felt great pressure in Calgary to improve my fitness and to make the team. Obviously the media attention wasn’t as great, but as far as the pressure of playing in the NHL – there’s always been pressure to play in the NHL.

“Yes, the difference is today players are getting paid way more money at a younger age. We waited until we were 30 to become free agents. Nowadays, players haven’t played playoff games and they’re making $6-7 million dollars.

“So to handle that for a younger player, they need to hopefully be surrounded by a good group of people – whether it’s the organization, their families, advisors – to try to help these players understand that they’re not going to make that money for long if they don’t pay attention to their lifestyle and their attitude. It gets tarnished pretty quickly.

“Tyler Seguin, absolutely. He’s gone there. He’s gone in with a good attitude, and who knows what happened in Boston? I don’t know what happened in Boston. Obviously I’m hearing the rumors like you guys hear them.

“Sometimes it takes younger players – we all mature and we all learn. Unfortunately now with the media and the information, the way that it’s out there today, it doesn’t take long to tarnish your image if you’re not on your toes.”

Source: Sportsnet 590/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey