Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond spoke with Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman as part of the NHL’s European Media tour, granting a ten-minute interview…
And the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton took note of some of the more interesting parts of the interview:
When Marek asked him what goes through a player’s mind when his team brings in the likes of Alex DeBrincat, J.T. Compher, and Jeff Petry over the summer, Raymond said, “You’re excited. I feel like we’re building something really good. If you look at my first year, which is only two years ago, compared to now coming into this season, I feel like it’s a huge difference. I think every player and also the city is very excited for the season.”
At this point, Friedman jumped in, rewinding to Steve Yzerman’s end-of-season press conference. Friedman recalled Yzerman’s admiration for the way Raymond handled the arrival of David Perron, a player whose profile and arrival represented a direct challenge to Raymond’s role and ice time.
“You can look at it from a lot of different perspectives,” said Raymond, with a maturity well beyond that which you might expect of a 21-year-old. “For me, I feel like we took a step last year in a lot of areas, and I want to develop as a player, but mostly I want our team to move in a direction that is fun.
“It created a lot of competition in our team in a lot of different spots, which was good for us. It made everyone want to take a further step, want to play better and develop, and I think that benefits everyone. I think competition is good; I think it drives you forward. That was kind of my mindset.”
