The Red Wings’ summer development camp has been a whirlwind of activity thus far, but the media got a little lucky in that Team Howe (see: Zadina and Rasmussen’s team) had a long day of fitness testing, and so their post-practice video session didn’t go on as planned. As a result, the locker room was opened up, and:
I got two great interviews with University of Maine defenseman and Maine captain Chase Pearson, with both players discussing their past collegiate seasons, addressing what they need to improve as they continue their journey toward professional athletes, and in Pearson’s case, we talked about his status as the co-captain of the team. The gents addressed the fact that they’re investing in themselves as NCAA players who pay their own way as well. Both gents gave great interviews:
Malte Setkov is usually a fairly good interview as well, but Malte had just talked to the main press corps, so I got the leftovers. Setkov briefly spoke about his focus for development camp, what he’s working on and the fact that the Malmo Redhawks signed him to a 2-year contract extension this past spring:
Finally, after the main media corps got done with him, I spoke with Filip Zadina, first about his new stick (he’s using a Bauer model after a couple days with a CCM stick), the fact that he’s wearing Dylan Larkin’s gloves and pants, and from there we talked about what he’s learned during development camp thus far, what he thought of the fitness testing on the ice today, and I couldn’t help but ask him about the reception he’s gotten from the fan base. Zadina is genuinely touched by the fan support, and I’ve only spoken to him twice thus far, but his maturity and candor have really impressed me. Great kid, really grounded in himself. I think that he’s going to make the team this fall, and he’ll be mentally ready to deal with the expectations involved.
