ST. PAUL, Minn. -- He might seem mild-mannered during his first few hours in Minnesota, but before forming a first impression of new forward Chris Stewart, consider he phoned Jordan Leopold shortly after the Wild traded for both former Sabres on Monday and sang the defenseman a song.
"Reunited and it feels so good," the imposing, physical power forward belted out in an impression of Peaches and Herb's "Reunited."
Stewart grew up in Toronto with six siblings and a father of Jamaican and Irish heritage. The family was poor, but through the generosity of some North York Jr. Canadiens stakeholders, he and his NHL-playing brother Anthony's hockey was paid for entirely. He became friends with Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds during those days and lives with him during the offseason. When he was 16, Stewart briefly stepped away from hockey to focus on football and track until his brother, who bounced around the old Southeast Division from 2005-12, roped him back onto the ice.
So there's more to Chris Stewart than meets the eye -- even if his role in Minnesota's latest playoff push is relatively straightforward, which makes this transition a little less stressful on the 6-foot-2, 230-pound bruiser.
"This way the team is set up and knowing the players in the room, I think my job's pretty simple," Stewart said Tuesday after his first morning skate with the Wild, "When you're only worried about one or two or three things a game, it's really easier to play."
Even before sending a 2017 second-round pick to Buffalo for Stewart a mere three minutes before Monday's trade deadline, Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher had worked the phones enough to transform Minnesota from a disappointment to a postseason contender. Most notably, he scored February's first star of the month Devan Dubnyk to mind the nets and last week traded for Sean Bergenheim to forge some forward depth.
But if Minnesota -- 33-22-7 and in the Western Conference's final playoff spot heading into Tuesday night's home game against Ottawa -- was missing anything before Monday, it was an imposing physical presence, someone to push back when the Wild get roughed up like they did Saturday at Colorado, for example.
Enter Stewart, whose 63 penalty minutes this year leads the team before he plays a single minute with Minnesota.
"I've seen it many times where teams think they've got an edge on us physically and they try to impose that in the game," head coach Mike Yeo said. "Our team is tough in a much different sense than most people think. We respond well in those games, our guys continue to go to the hard areas, we win a lot of battles, but we're not necessarily a physically imposing team in a lot of ways.
"I think Stewy changes a lot of that identity."
In nine seasons with the Avalanche, Blues and Sabres, Stewart's developed a reputation as a big body who isn't afraid to dust it up but can put the puck in the net when called upon. He's got 126 goals, 127 assists and 510 penalty minutes to his name since Colorado drafted him 18th overall in 2006.
The 27-year-old joins a team with postseason aspirations after spending two years with rebuilding Buffalo -- the antithesis of the last trade involving him, which saw him shipped from playoff-bound St. Louis to the Sabres at last season's deadline.
"Last year, I was on the exact reverse situation," said Stewart, a loaner who will become an unrestricted free agent after earning $4.2 million this year. "I went from St. Louis to Buffalo, who was dead last at the time. I wasn't too happy about that."
Stewart is happy, he said, to be teaming up with Thomas Vanek and Mikko Koivu on Minnesota's second line. His presence has displaced speedster Jordan Schroeder from the lineup, but Yeo now has a strong, bullish addition that makes the Wild just a little more intimidating.
"He's just that power forward that I don't want to say we were missing, because we've been playing well, but we're going to be playing some pretty big, heavy teams coming into the playoffs if all goes well," winger Zach Parise said. "I think we've got ourselves a player that's going to help us a lot."
Follow Phil Ervin on Twitter
