Ryan Sproul was not much different from most boys growing up in Mississauga, west of Toronto.

He played a lot of sports, trying his luck at soccer, baseball, basketball, golf, volleyball and, naturally, hockey.

His dream, of course, was to someday play in the National Hockey League.

Sproul was a bit unusual in one respect. His favorite NHL team was not the nearby Maple Leafs but the Tampa Bay Lightning, a result of his having a grandfather in Florida and the fact that his favorite player, Martin St. Louis, was a star on the team.

He watched the Leafs – they were always on TV – but, in his words, the hometown team wasn’t a big deal for him. He’d rather be playing hockey himself.

His parents, Phil and Paulette, were supportive of his athletic endeavors. His dad, an executive in the travel and tourism industry, was his coach for several years, and his brother Kyle, a year younger, served as his practice partner.

“My brother is a goalie so I had the opportunity to shoot on him whenever I could,” Sproul said. “A lot of parents want their kids to do stuff like that, but I just went along and did my thing, nothing special.”

Sproul was a forward growing up. He liked being on the offensive side of the puck. Scoring goals was fun – there was no way around that fact – and he was able to use his skating ability and his shot to put up his share of points.

“I played forward until I was 13-14 years old, when I switched to defense,” Sproul said. “There were too many forwards, so they put me on defense and I have stuck with it ever since.”

With his impressive shot and willingness to jump into the play, Sproul discovered that he could score goals almost as easily from the blueline as he could as a forward. But he still had room to grow.

He played an extra midget season at age 16 after being cut by the Junior A Bramalea Blues in 2009, then got into a handful of Junior A games with the Vaughan Vipers as a 17-year-old.

Then something happened: he grew four inches over the course of a summer. It threw him for a loop. “I was sleeping every day,” he recalled, noting that he was always hungry or tired.

When barely 6-foot, Sproul had hardly merited a second look in the eyes of most scouts. At 6-foot-4, he was a legitimate prospect.

The added inches could have crushed his natural abilities and confounded his coordination but did not. “I didn’t feel all that gangly,” Sproul said. “I was pretty fortunate that my skills stayed with me. Actually, it might have helped me in terms of getting faster and a harder shot.”

Having a longer stride meant he was quicker. More leverage on a longer stick added power to what was already a cannon-like shot.

Colleges – most notably, the University of Michigan and Lake Superior State – came calling. He thought he wanted to play junior hockey instead. He wasn’t sure.

He started the 2010-11 season at the Ontario Junior A level to reserve his NCAA eligibility.

“It was a very big decision,” he recalled. “I didn’t know if I wanted to go the junior route or not. I was fine with going to school. It was more about the path I wanted to take to make it to the NHL, which is my dream, obviously.

“My agent did a really good job. We sat down and talked about it with my parents. They were supportive of whatever I wanted to do. I missed the first couple of weeks of my junior career to make the decision.

“At the end of the day, I felt it would be quicker to go through junior (than college). My choice was to go the OHL route. I really thought I could do it.”

Ending his courtship with colleges, Sproul reported to the OHL’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in late September. The team had drafted Sproul in the sixth round of the OHL Priority Selection the previous year.

“When I first got drafted, I didn’t even know what or where the Soo was,” he said. “Being seven hours away from your family when you’re 17 years old can be tough.”

Sproul would have opportunities to second-guess his decision. “As the team’s seventh defenseman, I was sitting a lot or barely getting into games,” he said. “As one of the younger guys, I knew there would be some question of ice time.”

It took 17 games before Sproul registered his first point. “The beginning of that year was definitely tough for me,” he said. “A lot of games I sat there wondering if I had made the right decision. It was definitely playing with my head. Finally, the coach gave me the opportunity and I did the best I could with it.”

Once Sproul got started, he really got rolling. He tallied 32 points in his last 42 games of the 2010-11 season, a pace that would have put him in the top 10 scorers among OHL defensemen, prorated for a full season.

Sproul was rewarded by being selected in the second round (55th overall) of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. He was surprised but honored to be selected by the Red Wings. “I think I talked to them for maybe 10 minutes at the NHL Combine,” he said. “It never crossed my mind that I was going to get picked by them.”

But there were some serious challenges ahead. He suffered a broken jaw in his post-draft season. He had a plate surgically inserted a day after he was hit by a deflected puck during a game. The following season, he broke his wrist, losing several weeks of action in the process.

“When you break bones or you’re out for any reason, the adversity is tough,” he said. “For me, the wrist was a longer process because it took longer for the bone to heal, but the jaw was by far the worst pain I’ve ever had.”

He persevered. "I don't know if I have ever seen a player...push so hard to come back early from injuries," Greyhounds general manager Kyle Dubas said at the time.

Sproul returned to action with a singular mindset. He wanted to improve, focusing specifically on his ability to shut down the opposition. He worked closely with Joe Cirella, an assistant coach who had a 14-year NHL career.

“I worked on my defense a lot,” Sproul said. “Joe Cirella was there my last two years and he helped me out defensively. He did a good job of teaching me things that I can do in the ‘D’ zone.”

Sproul also got advice from Jiri Fischer, the Red Wings director of player development who had been a promising young defenseman himself before a heart condition cut his career short.

Switching from offense to defense was a challenge. “It was a big adjustment. It’s still an adjustment for me today,” Sproul said. “I want to play offense. I grew up playing offense, and it’s been part of my game my whole life, so I don’t want to lose it. But a big part of my game is just working on my ‘D’ and adding into my versatile game.”

He capped his junior career by being named the OHL’s most outstanding defenseman. He was a landslide winner in the voting among the OHL's GMs, taking 80 of 95 possible points after a 2012-13 season in which he led the league's blueliners with 20 goals and 66 points in only 50 games.

“We didn’t have the results we wanted as a team, but it was a great honor,” Sproul said. “Personally, it was a big deal. I honestly did not see it coming at all. I had stiff competition from Ryan Murphy and Cody Ceci, who are NHL players now.”

Sproul also became the first player in Greyhounds franchise history to be honored as the Canadian Hockey League’s Defenseman of the Year, an award which was first presented following the 1987-88 season. Sproul accepted the award during Memorial Cup festivities in Saskatoon, Sask., where he and his parents were flown. “It was nice to receive the award and I’m very grateful for it,” he said.

He saw his first action as a pro in two late-season games with the Griffins, then served as a “black ace” with Grand Rapids during the first two rounds of the team’s 2013 Calder Cup Playoffs.

His pro career began in earnest in rather dramatic fashion when he scored a pair of goals in the Griffins’ season-opening 8-1 win in Rockford a year ago. He went on to record 11 goals and 21 assists in 72 games.

“I thought last year went pretty well,” Sproul said. “It was a huge transition, coming from junior and especially being an offensive defenseman. To turn pro and learn a lot of the defensive stuff, to learn how to play a full-rounded game, I think I did okay.”

Sproul gives a lot of credit to Griffins head coach Jeff Blashill and his former assistant, Jim Paek, for keeping him headed in the right direction. “I had a lot of help,” he said. “I think I probably could have done a little bit better, but it was a good learning experience.”

Blashill sees nothing but good things ahead for his young defenseman.

“Ryan is an extremely talented player with an unreal skill set,” Blashill said. “Over the last year, he’s taken that skill set and really learned how to be effective in pro hockey.

“When you’re younger, you can get away with a lot of things, and your habits might not be where they need to be in order to be successful in pro hockey. He’s changed a lot of his habits away from the puck, defensive habits like gapping, how to defend properly, how to move his feet, how to break out pucks, how to think about what he’s going to do with the puck before he gets it. Those are habits that improve over time, and I thought they improved greatly last year.”

Sproul saw his confidence grow the more he played. “For me, confidence is huge. If I’m not playing confident, I’m not playing my best. I felt more confident as the year went on.”

He even got his feet wet in the NHL.

Sproul was first called up Feb. 25 to practice with the Red Wings as players were still slowly trickling back from the Olympic break, but he returned to Grand Rapids the following day. He finally made his NHL debut when he suited up for Detroit in the team’s regular-season finale on April 13 in St. Louis.

“Whether it was the last game of the season or midseason, it was nice to get that game under my belt,” Sproul said. “I had a lot of nerves, but I tried to turn the nerves into energy. Your mind goes blank for a little bit, but eventually you settle in and it’s just another game.”

The 21-year-old registered three shots on goal, two hits, two blocked shots and logged 18:25 of ice time while making a favorable impression. “He’s 6-foot-4, he can skate, he shoots BBs, he’s smart and he moves the puck,” said Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock.

Sproul, who was named to the 2013-14 American Hockey League All-Rookie Team, knows he needs to get bigger and stronger. Former Red Wings director of scouting Joe McDonnell once described him as being “weak as a noodle.”

“It’s really tough for me to put on weight. I’ve tried for years now,” Sproul said. “I work out all summer to put on weight and as soon as I start skating, I sweat and lose all of it. I try not to worry about it because it’s really tough for me to do.”

Ultimately, he knows his size can work to his advantage. “A lot of guys have the size, but they don’t know how to use it,” he said. “I know I’ve got to learn to use my size. For me, it’s using quick feet to my advantage. To be a big body is obviously a plus, especially in the game today.”

Sproul entered training camp with only one goal: to make the Red Wings’ roster. “It’s no longer enough to get called up and just get in a couple of games,” he said. “I want to make the Wings and earn a steady spot on the roster.”

And if he finds that he still has to wait for his chance, he will make the most of his time in Grand Rapids. “If it doesn’t work out, I’ll take it with a grain of salt,” he said. “I’ll go back down and do whatever I can to become a leader. I want to have the coach’s trust that I can play the whole game. I’ll do whatever he wants me to do out there.”